Expert: Amy - 12/22/2007

Question
If I enter a specific value for H or W, it changes to a close approximation, e.g., if
I enter 2 for the width of a rectangle, it might come out as 1.9986 or 2.0014.  
How do I get precise sized objects?

Answer
Hi David,

I've been searching for anyone else reporting a similar issue, and while I cannot find any reports, I *do* remember this happening to me from time to time.

But of course, I couldn't recreate the problem myself.
My best guess is that what's happening has something to do with your measurement of 2" not being able to be translated directly into pixels. One pixel is .014", I think. So if your rulers and other measurement prefs are set to pixels, the 2" would have to be converted to a whole number of pixels, in this case, 2" divided by .014 = approx 142 pixels... or 1.988"  How Illustrator does its math and comes up with its number, I cannot begin to guess.

But this shouldn't be happening if your environment is set up in inches for units. Are your units on your ruler and other doc prefs set to inches? DO you have SNAP TO GRID and SNAP to POINT turned off? If you've done all this, I guess you can try deleting the prefs file.

1 - QUIT AI
2 - Locate the AIprefs file and move it to the desktop.
3 - RESTART AI
If the problem remains, you can quit AI and move the AIprefs file back, overwriting the new copy that will have been created in its place. If the problem is fixed, just throw the desktop copy of AIprefs into the trash.

Happy Holidays!
Amy Pace