How could I print my own scales?

[jose angel]

I would like to design and print my own scales, using my PC and laser printer. I really doesn´t know which application could I use (excel?, photoshop? corel draw?), and how to do it. I´m not so relaxed about computers...

What I´m looking for is just the way to design and print by myself something like a metric tape on a sheet of paper via the accurate laser printing with a computer.

Then, I will print different scales, for example; one to control tilts and swings (degrees) (I have freehand drawns on my camera), bellows extension or other compensations, etc. There are some useful .jpg scales on the web, but I need to calculate&print it by myself to fit in different places and for different applications.

Any help will be great, thank you very much,

[Glenn Kroeger]

You need a drawing program, not an imaging program like Photoshop. I do technical illustration for my publication and teaching, and we use Canvas and Adobe Illustrator. Canvas has particularly "cad-like" tools for dimensioning that would make the job easier, but Illustrator, like Photoshop, is the "gold standard" of object based graphics. Corel Draw would work fine as well. You could even try the drawing tools in Microsoft Word. While crude, it is possible that by controlling the drawing grid you might get what you want.

[Geoffrey Swenson]

Buy a small plastic scale from stationery/art store and shave it to fit. That is what I had done.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

Jose

You can also easily make a xerox copy or a scan of a thin plastic protractor or any ruler, for a final print on thin cardboard ; eventually you´ll glue the piece of cardboard to any kind of support.

[JohnnyV]

There was a post a few months ago that had a link to many PDFs of scales in Standard and Metric but I can not find the url or the post.

Otherwise Illustrator is you best bet.

[Conrad Hoffman]

It may be overkill, but you want a true drawing program like the old Generic CADD or it's later and modern verison, Visual CADD. These programs will let you draw to exact scale using Truetype fonts, and print exact size output on your laserprinter. I use Visual CADD to make new faces for electrical meters, custom acetate templates, and even templates to locate holes for wood and metal projects. Can't be beat.

[jose angel]

I´m afraid that probably what Conrad says is what I´m looking for... and it must be too difficult to use. The problem with the "ordinary" programs is the final printing size. I will give a try to a CAD program. Thanks to all of you for your comments.

[David Karp]

I made the post that Johnny refers to:

http://largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/498997.html

I think that all of the downloads are for rulers. I don't think that they had anything that will work for swings or tilts. There are selections that worked fine to measure extension on my Crown Graphic.