A simple pixel ruler for Visio
I've always been annoyed with Visio for not supporting pixel measurements. I like to know my wireframes are accurate--taking into account screen dimensions, fixed size content like ad blocks, image sizes and other things that are inevitably measured in pixels.
So tonight I put together a simple pixel ruler to solve this problem (download pixel_ruler.zip and customize as you like).
It was pretty easy--I created a ruler drawing, added a custom property called DPI for my screen resolution, multiplied the length of the ruler by my DPI, and inserted it as text. I wouldn't call it the most elegant solution (ultimately, I'd like Visio to have a native pixel ruler [*]), but it works well enough.
If you decide to use pixel ruler, keep these things in mind:
- This was created for Visio 2003, and seems to work on all three of the documents I've tested. Your mileage may vary.
- The first thing you'll need to do is change the ruler's DPI value to your monitor's DPI setting. DPI is a custom property--right click the ruler and select Shape > Custom Properties to see the Custom Properties dialogue box.
- Your document should use inches as the measurement unit. If it doesn't, adjust the DPI value in the ruler's custom properties to the number of dots per measurement unit of your document (feet, picas, whatever).
- I've rounded the pixel units so there are no decimals, and this might cause some the measurements to be out by one or two pixels. Also note that changing the line weight of a shape will alter its size visually, but not the measurement. If accurate measurements are important, try setting your grid to Fixed with minimum units of .0104 inches (roughly 1 pixel on a 96 DPI screen). You can change your grid size under Tools > Rulers & Grid...
- If you're not sure what your measurement units are, they can be found under File > Page Setup > Page Properties.
[*] It occurs to me that you could probably fake a pixel ruler by changing your drawing scale to 1:96 (or whatever your DPI is). Again, this seems to work, though I'd probably stick with my ruler widget because it makes the dimensions visible. Drawing scale is found under File > Page Setup > Drawing Scale.
