Printing woes ver. 2

[NovaKaine]

Okay I'm dying here no matter how hard I try I can't get the pcb image to print to scale.
What am doing wrong the printing is always a few millimeters off.
Any suggestions please help a brother out.

[gastric]

I used Word. Imported the GIF. Then manually scaled it, printed, used IC and IDE headers to see how successful the printing was, re-scaled, re-printed, re-tested, rinse, repeat, 20 prints later you've hopefully finally figured out the correct scaling for your printer.

I also noticed my printer affected the images different depending on if they were printed at the top, middle, or bottom of the paper. I noticed this by putting three copies of the board on one page, then printed it, then compared the spacing/size of the IDE header pins of each print. They were not identical. This indicates a problem with the print driver or printer rasterizer (hardware).

Even with all of that said my V2.5 main board was STILL a very tight fit for my IDE header. I had to ever so slightly bend some pins to get it to fit. But that could have just as easily been my drilling job than the print or transfer.

If I had to do it all over again I'd just buy the V2.7 board, programmed ICs, and the pre-wired header connectors (which I cannot find even at Mouser) from Synthex, and the rest of the components from Mouser. I'd probably have a successful board built weeks ago instead of ongoing issues.

Good luck.

[NovaKaine]

Kool you given me a lot to think about.
And I think you are right.
I would gladly buy a board that was preassembled and ready to install.
Being the lazy sort That I am.
But I am learning lot in the process.
Thanks gastric.