Participant

Answered

Printing actual size

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
January 27, 2025
6 replies
786 views

Hi Folks. I often need to design stickers and I'm finding that when I print them they are smaller than what I've actually created in photoshop.

I will design the actual sticker/image and then drag it onto a blank A4 page where I size it (in cm's) and duplicate it if needed. However when I print it, even though A4 is selected in print options they always come out smaller.

I usually get a prompt saying something along the lines of "image too large, resize to fit" or words to that affect.

Is there something I need to be doing in print settings to ensure they print true to the size I've created.

Any help in this matter greatly appreciated.

Correct answer sandunga1899

Your printer driver is auto-scaling because a full size design on A4 can't fit inside the printer's margins. Printers can't print edge to edge, so there's usually a 5mm unprintable border on each side and the driver shrinks everything to make it fit.

Two things that fix it:

1. In the print dialog, open the actual driver settings and turn off "Scale to Fit Media" or "Fit to Page", then set the scale to 100%. When it warns "image too large", let it clip the margins instead of resizing.

2. Leave a few mm of margin between your design and the A4 edge so the driver doesn't try to shrink it.

Since you're duplicating stickers on a sheet and sizing in cm, there might be an easier path. I got tired of this exact problem so I built a free tool: you set the size in cm, it packs multiple copies onto the sheet automatically respecting the printer margins, and gives you a PDF you just print at 100 percent. It's at www.printreal.app, runs in your browser and nothing gets uploaded. But honestly the scale to fit fix above should sort your current setup too.

sandunga1899Correct answer

Participant

Your printer driver is auto-scaling because a full size design on A4 can't fit inside the printer's margins. Printers can't print edge to edge, so there's usually a 5mm unprintable border on each side and the driver shrinks everything to make it fit.

Two things that fix it:

1. In the print dialog, open the actual driver settings and turn off "Scale to Fit Media" or "Fit to Page", then set the scale to 100%. When it warns "image too large", let it clip the margins instead of resizing.

2. Leave a few mm of margin between your design and the A4 edge so the driver doesn't try to shrink it.

Since you're duplicating stickers on a sheet and sizing in cm, there might be an easier path. I got tired of this exact problem so I built a free tool: you set the size in cm, it packs multiple copies onto the sheet automatically respecting the printer margins, and gives you a PDF you just print at 100 percent. It's at www.printreal.app, runs in your browser and nothing gets uploaded. But honestly the scale to fit fix above should sort your current setup too.

NB, colourmanagement

Community Expert

@GearTech In "Print settings" be sure to disable 'scale to fit' and make sure print is set to '100%' in the print settings dialogue (accessed via the Photoshop Print dialogue) .

As others have asked, please post screenshots of all the dialog boxes (just the dialog boxes, not the entire screen) that you see when printing - set them inline in the text using the image tool above the reply text window. Maybe we'll be able to see where you're going wrong.

It's true that an entire A4 cannot fit on an A4 sheet of paper because the printer imposes margins

- unless you select edge to edge and sadly that opens a whole can of worms of auto-upscaling.

Plus most printers need a trailing edge to grip so cannot print end to end whatever the settings chosen

I hope this helps

neil barstow - adobe forum volunteer,

colourmanagement consultant & co-author of 'getting colour right'

See my free articles on colour management online

Help others by clicking "Correct Answer" if the question is answered.

Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts

Chuck Uebele

Community Expert

I believe you need to either make your file overall size slightly smaller to account for the non printing margin, which PS seems to be resizing to, or make sure your sizing is set to 100% and not to fit.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@GearTech – Screenshots of your relevant print dialog settings would be helpful.

G

GearTechAuthor

Participant

I'll have a go. Posted my question from my mobile so didn't have photoshop open at the time.

kglad

Community Expert

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community">

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.