Why do my PDFās print out smaller than the original copy?
Iām going to assume you mean slightly smaller, since thatāsĀ a very, very common scenario. I see it myself all the time.
The answer, in a word, is margins. And depending on the PDF documentĀ and the capabilities of your printer, you may, or may not, be able toĀ work around it.
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Most PDF documents are intended to be a representation of anĀ equivalent paper document. That means that theyāre typically sized asĀ if they were paper. That means they usually represent a paper size 8.5Ā by 11 inches (or perhaps A4 sized paper in Europe).
When you view the document in a PDF reader, it provides a view onĀ those series of pages, but theyāre still conceptually pages.
Now, when you print your document, it would seem logical that anĀ 8-1/2 x 11 page would print just fine on an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper.Ā Sadly, thatās typically not the case.
The problem is that most printers cannot actually print on theĀ entire sheet of paper. Thereās a āmarginā around the outer edge thatĀ will vary depending on the printer. Itās usually around 1/4 inch (but IĀ must emphasize that this varies greatly depending on the printer). TheĀ upshot is that a printer will only be able to print on an area somewhatĀ smaller than the full 8-1/2 x 11.
Now, when printing there are two choices:
- You can print your 8-1/2 x 11 document directly on to the 8-1/2 x 11Ā paper, and risk cutting off from view the edges of whatever isĀ presented in the PDF.
- You can resize the 8-1/2 x 11 document down to a size that willĀ actually fit entirely in the printable area of the paper.
The later is the most common default, and itās likely exactly whatĀ youāre seeing.
Before and after ā ever so slightly smaller to fit in printableĀ area.
The thing to look for in your PDF viewer is āZoomā or āPageĀ Scalingā:
As you can see the default is āFit to Printable Areaā, exactly asĀ Iāve described. (And you can see a āZoomā of 97% has been applied justĀ under the preview.)
Now, the example page Iām using would actually print just fineĀ without being resized smaller (since it actually has margins of itsĀ own).
Simply change the āFit to Printable Areaā to āNoneā, youāll see theĀ āZoomā disappear or reset to 100%, and the PDF reader will attempt noĀ scaling ā itāll just print the 8 1/2 x 11 document onto 8 1/2 x 11Ā paper. If thereās clipping because of the printer margins, so beĀ it.
Nice explanation, Leo. I print a lot of ebooks and sometimes I need to āputā more on the page. I mean make it more readable. This article helps me with this issue. Iāll work with this and I always can print just one page and see the results.
thanks Leo
joseph
Thanks for the answer to,āWhy Donāt PDFās Print At Same Size As Original?ā Itās a real aggravation to print from A PDF and the print comes out so small you can barely read it. I just rescaled my page to ānoneā and it worked beautifully.We struggle with these little things and it doesnāt occur to us sometimes to just āAsk Leo!ā Mary Ann
I am sending a .pdf document by email for a company to print. They just called and told me the first two letters in each row are cut. Since I have no access to their printers, how can I change my document from my end?
Thanks!
13-Jan-2009
Thanks for the article. Unfortunately, even with the page scaling set to ānoneā Iām still having documents print out smaller than the originals (converted from Word 2000 with PrimoPDF). I know that my printer can handle the necessary area (I can print the document from Word with no problems at all) so Iām totally baffled as to why printing the pdf version causes it to shrink.
Itās really very odd.
Very good to understand. My problem: how can I print without margins from a batch-job (DOS-Box) ? There is no option for ānot scalingā ā¦
My problem is similar to one above (Bert Coules, Nov 2009). I can print PDF without scaling down (Page scaling: None), but my page nbr and other folio material are cut off at page bottom. Again, I know it is not the printer because the PDF creator (InDesign) prints fine. Why the difference? Seems Acrobat introduces a fatter NO-PRINT zone at page bottom . . . and we need prints at 100%, so again, scaling will not work. Help.
We create forms as PDFās that we publish on our WEB site. We also have vendors that produce the same documents with 2D barcodes as PDFās. We scan/image the returned doucuments and run OCR, ICR and 2D interpretation of data. When the public prints the documents in Adobe Reader with scaling set to none (or actual size in Reader X), everything is fine. The issue is when the the users leave the size option set to something other than none or actual. We have margins over 1/2 inch on all sides and the pages will always scale. This moves the exact positioning of the fixed print documents and shrinks the 2D barcodes to where they are unreadable. We have the page scaling set to none in the document itself but of course the user can always override.
I have been told that if you change the size of the page to something less than 8 1/2 by 11, you can prevent the scaling. I have played with this and found that what works best for a laser printer is different than what works with an inkjet. Does anyone know a size that will prevent scaling on the most printers?
Is there any other way to prevent a PDF document from scaling? I have even created a PDF with one word in the middle of am 8 1/2 by 11 page and it will still scale.
To fix this issue, go to PAPER SIZE and click BORDERLESS 8.5 x 11 and it will remove the border and print actual size
Mac user here, trying to print booklets (folded Letter size).
I used to not have a problem with this as long as I was careful to make sure the size was set to 100% but I had to get a new printer at some point (cheapie HP inkjet) and now I canāt get PDFs to print right.
Like many inkjets printable area is as much as 3/8ā³ above the bottom of the page so not only does it rescale the PDF, it comes out off-center. This is a disaster for the page margins; the fold is not centered and left-right margins are all uneven.
Iāve tried printing from preview.app and Photoshop, both swearing to print 100% 8 1/2 x 11 actual size.
Selecting boarderless at least gets the fold in the middle but actually enlarges the print too much, and forces it into photo paper mode.
Downloaded your actual Adobe Reader which actually prints 100% when it says it will.
Unfortunately the ābookletā mode which could be a nice feature resizes everything too small so the left and right pages are too close to the fold.
So I still have to use separate software to generate the booklets, but this at least prints them correctly.
I am using Acrobat IX. The āPage Scalingā item is not there.
None of the comments helped me. I asked question as requested on the top righthand corner. All of my copies are always cut off
too short and so small print I canāt read it, documents from internet especially or from friends.
Delma ā if you go on Acrobatās website, it states there is a known issue with printing ā it states:
ā¢Xerox printers shrink page content to 1/10 or 1/20 of the original size, and print the content in the upper left part of the paper. This behavior occurs when both of these options are selected in the Print dialog box: Choose Paper Source By PDF Page Size and Use Custom Paper Size When Needed. [2392553]
I am assuming it will be fixed with a patch at some point.
Hey leo iām printing an circuitās schematic diagram in which distance between two points is 8.2 cm in pdf as i can see it on eagle software but when i take a printout it gets reduced to 7.9 cm so whatās the problem here?
Have you tried changing the āFit to Printable Areaā to āNoneā as the article suggests?
Your printer is scaling to fit within the margins of the page, it would appear. Exactly how you deal with that will depend entirely on your specific printer.
Hi,
When I create a PDF document and save or try emailing it, the document is too small to read or view. Somehow itās saving all PDF documents too small . When I tried viewing the document I have to zoom in about 1200 to read at a normal size.
How can I undo this shrinking to all PDF documents?
Thank you,
Sandra
Check how are you saving the pdf. Look and see if there are settings. You may want to try printing the document to pdf instead of using your programs pdf function. More in this article: http://ask-leo.com/cutepdf_writer_create_pdfs_from_any_application_that_can_print_.html
And
I know how to change the printer to actual size however with windows 10 the pdf goes to internet explorer and it does not give you the option to print to actual size.
For Mac users ā this is what I have found:
Set the scaling to āActual Sizeā
Check āChoose paper source by PDF Page Size
Check ā Use custom paper size when neededā
My prints are now at 100% correct size
My solution is very similar but for me itās to
Uncheck āChoose paper source by PDF Page Size
Then go to Page Set-up and choose the right paper size. I needed it Legal Size.
FYI I was trying both Fit to Page and shrink oversized pages. Doing the above fixed it for me while doing Fit to Page.
Thanks for this, itās a problem that weāve been having for a while ā weāre UK based and receive a lot of pdfās from the US that are nearly always in Letter. This solved our problem straight away and Iāve let all of our users know.
How to reverse a shrink size PDF back to original size please?
Read the article. t explain how to do that.
My PDF files are printing smaller than the actual PDF size. I read above about selecting āNoneā in āFit to Printable Areaā. I do not have that option when I print a PDF. What can I do to prevent this smaller print? I keep using my old, very very old, computer and am not using my new computer because of this problem.
I made a graphic in MS Paint, that when printed, was much smaller than the screen scale. I ended up blowing it up 225% to get it to match what originally the screen showed. You would think the screen would show you to scale what it would print on the paper, but no! Then, when I copied what I had in MS Paint to MS Word docx and printed it, the scaling was out of wack, so I had to go back and edit it again. Now, in order to put it on a transparency, I have to change it to a pdf. So, I printed it after the pdf conversion and now it is about 135% larger that I started, pulling hair out. So now I am stuck because I canāt adjust that thing in pdf because they want to nickle and dime you for a prescription just so I can edit it and take it to FedX and print 4 copies. I just love wasting hours on a simple project trying to scale something from apples to oranges to bananas Iām frustrated! Why canāt a file transfer from one program to the next and stay the same?
What about when the person doing the printing is sloppy and prints on completely the wrong paper size? Iāve created several A5 size product information sheets but the people printing them off to include with the products keep on printing them off on A4. Is there a document setting that will tell the PDF viewer and the printer that not only is the document to be printed with in Actual Size mode, but it is to be printed on A5 paper only, not A4, not ever ever A4 (on pain of being clubbed over the head by the author!)
Ideally Iād want it so that the paper size and page scaling should be grayed out in the print dialog box, so even the most rushed and stressed out of manufacturing department staff canāt possibly print it wrong!
I donāt know whether or not this is possible. I tend to think not. There are several PDF readers and each one would handle it differently. And even if you did find a PDF reader which could grey out anything but print original size, it wouldnāt stop people from printing an A5 image on A4 paper. The only thing I can think of is to specify in the instructions that if the wrong size paper and settings are used, the job wonāt be paid for. After losing money, they might actually learn :-)
When I print in pdf format, it prints to about 300% from my Brother laser printer. You talk about small print outs. What about my problem?
when I print from computer it prints right size but when I copy a recipe it prints so small I cant read it
How do you ācopyā?
My problem is probably too specific to help many people, but I have several people in my life that that have macular degeneration so I would like to increase the size and then have it print in landscape (2 pieces of paper would equal 1 PDF page) Is ther any way I can do this?
Check ALL the options at print time. Itās often more flexible if you can print the original (.docx, or whatever) rather than the PDF. It also often depends on the print driver. Sorry itās so complicated, but Printingās never been great.