I use OpenOffice Draw to create various graphic elements for my projects. Eventually I always need to export the finished item into a Bitmap format, usually PNG.

Unfortunately OpenOffice doesn't let you specify the resolution of the exported image (unlike CorelDraw). I was always puzzled as to the resolution of the resulting bitmap image as I wanted to specify the size myself.

Then I discovered the solution ...

Here is the calculation to determine the physical dimensions of your page in order to get an exported image with the correct resolution

w - Desired width in pixels

h - Desired height in pixels



d - DPI of your display



pwi - Page height in inches

phi - Page width in inches



pw - Page height in cm

ph - Page width in cm

To calculate the widths in inches :

pwi = (w/d)

phi = (h/d)

and to convert to centimetres :

pw = pwi*2.54

ph = phi*2.54

Example :

I want to create some elements for a Widescreen PAL video.

w = 1024 pixels
h = 576 pixels

My screen DPI is 96.

pw = (1024/96)*2.54 = 27.09 cm
ph = (576/96)*2.54 = 15.24 cm

Set the page size to these values (Format > Page) and the exported image is 1024x576. Job done!

I have included a link to a basic spreadsheet that can do this calculation, you just enter the width, height and screen DPI.