Move-Copy seems to be off

Question

I am using the Move/Copy command in InDesign 5.5 and it seems to not be accurate. I am duplicating a line a set distance, 1 in, and once I get out to 12 inches, I am losing about  1/32 of an inch. I print it and then measure the distance from the first line to the last and it isn't the 12 inches that it should be, it is less. I have checked that there is no scaling going on when I print and have tried printing to a couple of different printers/presses and get the same results. I was wondering if anyone has had issues like this and what anyone has found to be the problem. . Thanks for any input.

Answer 1

Printing where? A desktop printer will never be completely accurate to 1/32 of an inch.
I'd call that unnecessarily pessimistic.
Yes, it is quite common for there to be unanticipated scaling factors in printing, so like everything in life, it's important to calibrate. So print some tests, perhaps in multiple applications if you are suspicious of InDesign.
But 1/32 of an inch precision is well within what you should expect (and demand) for your desktop printing, even if there are plenty of printers that fail. 1/32 is 0.031", and a single dot at 300dpi is 0.003". That's a factor of 10. Now, just because a printer claims it can resolve to 300dpi doesn't mean that there isn't some optical scaling factor that makes it off by 1% or 5% or even 10%. Anything that can go wrong will go on. But it's not common to be off by that much.
Nothing can be "completely accurate," so Bob's statement is of course true. But you should expect a lot better than 1/32" precision, by all means.
So test!