A Script to Display InDesign Documents at Actual Size

Working in InDesign on a high-resolution monitor, 4K or higher? If you’ve set User Interface Scaling in InDesign on Mac to, say, 150%, or System > Display > Scale on Windows to, say, 200%, to suit your viewing needs, try this: draw a 3″ × 2″ box, hit Cmd+1(Mac) / Ctrl+1(Win) to view at 100% zoom, and hold a Physical Ruler against your screen. The measurements won’t match.

The script Display Print Size at 100% Zoom fixes that. Drop this lightweight startup script into your startup scripts folder and tell it about your setup once. From then on, Actual (Print) Size really means actual size: 3 inches on screen equals 3 inches on the physical ruler, for every object.

On Mac: if you have set Preferences > User Interface Scaling to, say, 150% (it starts at 100% for Small and increments in 0.25 steps, so 150% means 1.5), skip InDesign’s restart prompt (click Later). Choose View > Set Print Size Scaling…, enter the same UI Scaling factor (1.5), and click Relaunch Now. One restart covers both.

On Windows: choose View > Set Print Size Scaling…, enter your screen’s diagonal size and its Display resolution from Windows Settings (for example 27″ and 3840 × 2160), and click Relaunch Now. Note: Windows Display Scale and InDesign’s UI Scaling factor do not matter here.

Your settings are saved for future launches.

Downloading the Script

Be sure you are logged in, then click the green Download Now button at the top of this page.

Installation

Where to put the script (example):
Mac: /Applications/Adobe InDesign 2026/Scripts/startup scripts
Win: C:\Program Files\Adobe InDesign 2026\Scripts\startup scripts

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