Acrobat Poster printing with no margins

[tonyp17615964]

I am using Acrobat 20.006.20034 on a Windows machine. I have a PDF document that is very wide and that needs poster-printing (i.e. tiled) horizontally over several pages, but I am having difficulties with margins.

I scale the image so that it fits within the height of one page, and so that I only print a horizontal series. On the basis of my setting, it seems the Print dialog selects landscape/portait automatically, and ignores the associated buttons. Is that true?

When I print, with no labels or cut-marks, I get white margins of about 0.5cm on all pages, which makes it hard to join them together. This is going to be a frequent operation and so I don't want to resort to a guillotine. Is there a setting that I can change that will remove these margins?

I have also tried adjusting the Overlap field but I cannot see what it is doing. I expected it to print a certain amount of the document (default 0.005 in) on both adjoining pages to make alignment easier. Is this true?

[maxwithdax]

It is probably going to be more dependant on your printer capabilities than Acrobat.

[tonyp17615964]

It's a Canon MG3600 Inkjet multifunction printer, but I don't see how margins are related to the model. When printing other documents, I can produce "borderless" output quite easily.

There were a number of questions in the original post because I find the Print dialog a little confusing. For instance, I can get from there to my normal Print preferences, where I can request "borderless" printing, but is that ignored in a similar way to the other settings I mentioned (see above)?

Is it possible to define a particular page setup (or "form") for the printer that I can select as a special page type from Acrobat? (I am not an expert on this stuff).

[tonyp17615964]

OK, some experimentation has allowed me to answer some parts of my own question, but only to throw other parts into deeper murk.

1) Yes, any explicit landscape/portrait selections are ignored by the Poster-print option. It decides for itself.
2) Via the 'Preferences' button I can get to my normal printer settings. If I select 'Borderless printing' there then it does affect the operation of the Poster-print.

However, the effect of the 'Overlap' field is a complete mystery. Varying this setting, I either get a white margin on one or both of adjoining sheets in the series of printed pages. Whether it's one or two, and what the sizes of the margins are, seems to bear no correlation to the active Overlap setting. If I also select 'Borderless printing' then it just complicates things even further.

Given that there is no real documentation for the Poster-print then I can only hope that someone in the community has inside knowledge of the algorithms being used, or extensive experience of trying to make it work themselves.

[Sunny5EC7]

I have been looking for answers for borderless printing myself 😕

[MortyOsloYo]

Same here, still looking for answers for borderless poster printing on Win11 via Adobe Reader

[dennis_7179]

I really want to print tiled posters from pdf files, but with Adobe I get 3 to 4 inch margins on each page with no way to fix it.

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. Printing borderless (i.e., with no margins) for posters in Acrobat can be tricky, and you’re absolutely right — this outcome depends on several factors working together. I am not here to provide an exact solution, as it depends on a number of factors.

Here’s what to consider:

1. Printer Capability

• Not all printers support borderless printing, especially for large-format or poster sizes.

• Even if the file has no margins, most standard office printers impose minimum hardware margins.

• Check your printer’s specs and driver settings for a “borderless” or “edge-to-edge” option.

 

2. Acrobat Print Settings

• Acrobat itself doesn’t “force” a no-margin print — it respects what the printer driver allows.

• When printing, uncheck “Fit” or “Shrink oversized pages” and use “Actual Size” to avoid scaling that might introduce whitespace.

• Under “Poster” settings, set the tile scale to 100% and verify if Acrobat is adding any “Overlap” or “Cut Marks.” Reduce or remove these if not needed.

3. PDF Document Setup

• Ensure the original PDF has:

  • No white margins in the page content

  • Correct TrimBox/BleedBox settings (if exported from InDesign or Illustrator)

  • Flattened content (if layers or transparency might interfere with edge rendering)

General Troubleshooting Tips:

• Try printing to PDF first using the Poster settings and checking the tile layout. Are the margins added there or only when passed to the physical printer?

• Export the file from a layout tool with proper bleed settings (e.g., InDesign with bleed set to 0 and trim area matching the artwork).

• If your printer supports it, in the print dialog, select borderless paper sizes (such as A4 or A3 Borderless).

~Tariq