Printing 1:1 In Designer Pro+ 21.9.1

[gwpriester]

I created an ad for a customer and printed it on my HP printer.

The ad printed smaller than actual size.

I exported the ad as PDF/X and printed from the PDF/X document and it was spot on.

What setting should I be using in Pro+ to print actual size?

[handrawn]

if xara is scaling the print, then first thing you should look at is print options

the default is 'best fit' which will scale to fit the page - in my screenshot that is scaled to 97.18%

automatic fit may fix this to 100% scale; if not you can try custom fit



this is xdpx19 - but as I recall pro+ is the same

[gwpriester]

I just tried Automatic Fit and it printed perfectly. Why would the default be 97 something percent? That does not make sense.

[handrawn]

xara as you know can be a nanny _ I am not a print expert, so I imagine when they say 'best fit' they are making allowances for something, but I don't really know what that is.. forcing printer margins maybe, pure guess

[gwpriester]

I got a response from Xara who said that best fit automatically centers the image on the page, which is cool but I don't get the reducing the size part. This ad was way under the normal page size.

[handrawn]

I checked the manual:

Best fit
Your design will be moved to the center of the page and it will be expanded or shrunk to
suit the paper size.
This option is best if you have a large or small design and want it to fit on one page.

so it is not just centering, it is also making the best use of the page.. does not answer the question though...

[ToddS]

I just tried Automatic Fit and it printed perfectly. Why would the default be 97 something percent? That does not make sense.

I agree. It makes no sense. When designing for print I set my Xara page size to match the paper and I need to print at 100%. I never use Best Fit. I would love to be able to set Automatic Fit as the default. I have to choose it for every new document.

[handrawn]

whether it makes sense or not depends on what you want

I'm pretty sure xara is by default forcing print margins; if your drawing is smaller than page/paper size that might be academic, but xara does not 'know' that and there can only be one default; and not all printers print to the edge of the paper

it also does not know if you have already allowed for margins in your drawing, so it is 'playing safe' for a 'document' which usually does need margins

all that said it would be nice to be able to choose your default; this is true of a lot of things in the program...

[Acorn]

I agree. It makes no sense. When designing for print I set my Xara page size to match the paper and I need to print at 100%. I never use Best Fit. I would love to be able to set Automatic Fit as the default. I have to choose it for every new document.

Todd, in the Help:

The printing area is determined by the margins on the currently selected printer. Some printers let you adjust the margins, but few let you print right up to the edge of the page.

So the solution might be in your own hands by changing your actual printer default to no margins (borderless).

You could check within MS Word: open MS Word > Fil > Print > Normal margins > Custom Margins > Set all margins to 0.0 > OK > Warning Dialog > Fix. The printer's minimum margin's are now displayed in the MS word GUI for editing margins.

Have you tried this?

Acorn

[handrawn]

my brother printer has both boarderless and scale to fit options

it can get complicated though

if it is that important I would do as Gary did and print from PDF