Illustrator graphics printing 1/16" too small

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
April 22, 2021
2 replies
1793 views

I continue have a problem where vector graphics that I create in illustrator print and export to PDF at an incorrect scale. They are consistently 1/16" smaller than they need to be. When I check the file, the graphics are the correct size, it's just when I go to print that it comes out wrong. The size issue continues when printing from Indesign, but I'm thinking that since the parent file (in Illustrator) prints incorrectly from Illustrator that it is a problem there that gets carried over to InDesign.

I've tried checking every print and export setting so that it isn't scaled, but it continues to be a problem.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

This topic has been closed for replies.

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Carey319302004389

Participant

I am getting the same problem. We are printing calendars. My students set up a file to be 11 x 8.5 inches. I triple checked everything and all is correct. The only catch is that they put the artboards in one column. When they go to print, it is a thumbnail not the actual size. So weird!

John Mensinger

Community Expert

I've tried checking every print and export setting so that it isn't scaled, but it continues to be a problem.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

By @cfcfcf

Your explanation is pretty general. It would help to bring it down to more specific terms, and perhaps a simple and specific experiment:

In a new Illustrator file based on the built-in Document Preset: Print, draw out a rectangle while holding Shift to make it square; 1" x 1". Save As . . . PDF. With the PDF open in Acrobat, choose File > Print. In the Print dialog, under Page Sizing and Handling, tick the Actual Size radio button, then click the Properties button to launch your printer driver. In your printer driver, find the Scaling options and confirm you're output is at 100% scale, and nothing is selected that reads to the effect of "fit to printer margins" or "scale to fit printable area". Print and measure.

C

cfcfcfAuthor

Participant

Thank you! Yes, I tried this, and the sizing on my test file was correct. So I then added a 1" square to my file that I'm having issue with. The 1" square printed correctly, but the other items in my file didn't print correctly. The artwork in the file should be 8" square, and according to the properties it is, but it prints as 7.9375. Would the properties be incorrect for some reason?

John Mensinger

Community Expert

Hmmm...I can't really explain that without seeing the file first-hand.

In Illustrator, a measurement value could depend on how it's being measured. For instance, just to illustrate a possibility:

Go back to your 1" x 1" square and bump up the stroke weight to something high, like 10 or 20 points. Now check the Properties panel again. Depending on a particular setting in Preferences, the height and width of your square may still be 1" x 1", or, it may have increased with the Stroke weight. That setting is Preferences > General > Use Preview Bounds. If you change that setting, the dimensions in Properties will change. (Use Preview Bounds, when enabled, adds the Stroke 'matter' outside of an object's bounding box to the measurement.)

While this doesn't necessarily explain why your prints measure smaller than you expect, it does demonstrate how what's displayed in Properties (Transform) could be misleading, although the "preview bounds" are exactly what you'd be measuring manually with a ruler on your printed page. Just something to think about.

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