Print margins for 11x14 print with 0.25" border is incorrect

There is a lot of information missing there…the correct answer can depend on the specific printer brand and model being used, because both the minimum print margins and the borderless printing features differ across brands and models. Without knowing which specific model it is, it’s hard to give a specific answer.

The margins are supplied by the driver software for the printer, so changing printer driver options can alter tha margins. Note that at this point, we haven’t even talked about Lightroom Classic yet, because so far this is all printer driver related, regardless of whichever application is being used.

The next few comments are based on Epson printers, like the one I have, so again what you will need to do may be different if your brand and model is different.

If I want an 11 x 14 inch print with an 0.25 inch border, the first important choice is the paper size. I would choose 11 x 14, not 11 x 14 borderless. The reason is that borderless sets up the printer for overspray past the edges, and possible expansion (scaling) of the image to enlarge it past the paper edge. If you don’t want either of those to happen, you don’t want to enable any borderless paper sizes or options. For example, if you enable both borderless and expansion, you are telling the printer you want no margin (borderless = print all the way to the edge), and you want the print scaled up to eliminate all margins.

Now, within Lightroom Classic, if there is unexpected scaling or margins, there are some things to check (the demo below shows some examples of this):

• Make sure extras like Photo Info are not selected. If they are, space will be set aside for them. For example Photo Info will set aside space at the bottom, even if there is no metadata to add. 
• Understand whether you want Zoom to Fill selected. If you choose to not select it, the aspect ratio of the image crop must exactly match the space left over after you assign margins. For example, if you start with 11 x 14 inches and specify 0.25 inch margins on all sides, the remaining space inside the margins does not have an aspect ratio of 11 x 14; it can’t, because proportionally an 0.25 inch margin removes more available space from the width of a tall print area. The only time this does not apply is for square images.

If you want a print on an 11 x 14 inch sheet that has exactly 0.25 inch margins on all sides, assuming the paper size and printer software options are selected correctly, then in the photo software (not just Lightroom Classic) the best thing to do is crop it to 10.5 x 13.5 inches. Then the crop aspect ratio will be exactly the same as the available print area after subtracting 0.25 inch margins from 11 x 14 inch paper. That’s what I always do for any important prints where I want it to print exactly what I have cropped, no more and no less: Crop the image to the intended available print area, not to the paper sheet dimensions because that does not equal the printable area if there will be any margins. (And again, this does not apply to borderless printing, which requires a completely different combination of cropping, print software options, and application printing options.)

Yes, it’s a lot of hassle because lots of math is involved, and because there are a lot of options and settings that can affect the printable area. And you have to get it right for the specific printer hardware, its software, and the application print settings (in this case Lightroom Classic).

To save on expensive paper, I always do a test print on cheap paper of the same size just to spot and correct any settings I have set wrong somewhere.