Printing at the right size: 100%, Letter or A4, and using a tablet
Two settings decide whether a printable comes out the way it was drawn. Which file to print, which scale to choose, and how to use the same PDF on a tablet.
Updated , 2 min read
Two settings decide whether a printable comes out the way it was drawn: which file you print, and the scale you print it at. Get both right and the page fits the paper, with its margins where they were meant to be.
Pick the file that matches your paper
The printables come as two PDFs:
- US Letter, 8.5 × 11 inches (216 × 279 mm), the standard sheet in the United States and Canada.
- A4, 210 × 297 mm, the standard in most other countries.
Each is drawn at its own real size. Neither is the other scaled up or down, so print the one that matches the paper in your printer. If you are not sure which you have, the size is printed on the paper's packaging.
Print at 100%
In the print dialog, set the scale to 100% or Actual size. Do not use Fit to page or Shrink oversized pages. Those options resize the page on its way to the printer, and that is what moves content into the edge the printer cannot reach. The setting usually sits under a heading such as Scale, Page Sizing or Size options.
Print one page first
Print a single page and look at it before printing the rest. Check that nothing at the edges is cut off and that the lines sit where you expect. It costs one sheet.
Paper, and printing on both sides
Plain paper is fine. Nothing needs card unless a page says so. For double-sided printing, choose flip on long edge, so the back of each page reads the same way up as the front.
On a tablet
The same PDFs work on a tablet. Open them in a PDF app that lets you write on a page, and write with a stylus or a finger. They are drawn pages rather than type-in forms, so there are no boxes to click into: you write on the page as you would on paper. Either paper size works on a screen.
Spreadsheets and their guides
A spreadsheet product comes with a PDF guide in both paper sizes; print the guide the same way. The spreadsheet itself does not need printing to be used.
The printables in the tools catalogue each carry a one-page version of this as the page after the cover.
Sources
VERIFIED: read at the source, on the date given. COUNCIL: from research we have not re-checked. NOT OBSERVABLE: a question the research could not answer.
- VERIFIEDThe Start here print sheet the factory puts in every printable, and the printing note in each README
- VERIFIEDPage sizes: US Letter 612 × 792 pt and A4 595.28 × 841.89 pt, each drawn separately by the factory
- VERIFIEDNo form fields: the engine that draws the PDFs creates none
- COUNCILScaling as the cause of clipped edges: third-party research on print complaints, not re-checked