topic Re: Printing PDF files to scale in Modeling

Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:30:33 GMT

Having trouble printing A1 size PDFs to scale on a printer whose max page size is A3. Need to reduce the scale of the A1 PDF to 50% so it prints true to scale on A3, but Adobe reader and the printer driver do not seem to allow this.

Because the PDF is created at A1 it is a virtual piece of paper at A1 and if it is shrunk to fit the paper size it scales to 48% or 49% depending on the printer. This is to suit the printers minimum page margins.

No problem in printing an A3 PDF to A3, that works fine, or A1 to A1. Just scaling an A1 to A3 that does not seem to want to work.

Ian C

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:38:40 GMT

Can you manually set the scale at 50%, then turn off all other options to "Shrink oversize pages to paper size" or "Scale to fit paper size"? These might be Mac specific settings, but I seem to remember similar from Windows days. Check thru' all possible settings tabs.

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:33:12 GMT

The % shrinkage thing is a MAC specific option I think. Does not appear to be in Windows.

Ian C

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Thomas Holm — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:16:44 GMT

Ian wrote:
The % shrinkage thing is a MAC specific option I think. Does not appear to be in Windows.

On the contrary, the Page Scaling / Fit (or Shrink) to Printable Area option is there in Adobe Reader, and it is standard, and it always needs to be turned off for printing PDFs to scale to work correctly. Too many clients are unaware!

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

vistasp — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:37:04 GMT

The screenshot shows the print dialog for an A3 PDF on A5 paper with scaling at 50%. Works beautifully.

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Thomas Holm — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:55:36 GMT

Read more at Adobe's online help for Acrobat and Reader under Page Scaling

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:07:34 GMT

Thomas wrote:
Ian wrote:
The % shrinkage thing is a MAC specific option I think. Does not appear to be in Windows.
On the contrary, the Page Scaling / Fit (or Shrink) to Printable Area option is there in Adobe Reader, and it is standard, and it always needs to be turned off for printing PDFs to scale to work correctly. Too many clients are unaware!

Are you sure? I have Adobe Reader 9.0 and there is no way I can see to adjust the print size by percentage. The options are clearly there for shrinking to fit and fit to printable area.

Is Vistasp's screenshot from the full version of Acrobat perhaps?

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

vistasp — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:30:05 GMT

Peter wrote:
Is Vistasp's screenshot from the full version of Acrobat perhaps?

Nope. Foxit Reader.

I find Adobe Reader loads too slowly so unless the files requires one of Adobe's plugins (in which case I use "open with...") I much prefer the speed of Foxit.

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:30:34 GMT

Thanks everyone.

The image that Peter Clark shows is what i get. No way to adjust the A1 to A3 at 50%. The shrink to Fit etc takes it down to 49%.

A1 to A1 or A3 to A3 with scaling set to None works fine but not the A1 to A3 or A3 to A5 when you want exactly 50% reduction.

Will give Foxit a go and see what happens.

I did read somewhere that Adobe know about the problem but nothing has been done about it.

Ian C

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Thomas Holm — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:51:09 GMT

I'm sorry. The Windows machine I checked had Acrobat installed, not Reader only, which I thought first. (And I just couldn't imagine Adobe giving Mac users something not given to Windows users these days

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:48:46 GMT

I've been trying to work out this issue as well. In my case I want to print pdf 24x36 sheets on 12x18 or 11x17 at 50%.

As mentioned above, acrobat doesn't allow the option to set a specific percentage, but I found that if I go to my printer properties (to the right of the printer name on the top) I can set 50% in one of the tabs there.

Maybe that will help, depending on what printer you have.

Re: Printing PDF files to scale

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:32:22 GMT

Have changed over to Foxit for printing PDFs. Works much better, they can be scaled properly.

Ian C