Trouble printing multiple A5 sheets on A4 from PDF.

[Ashleigh5E4A]

I created an indesign document in A5 and I would like to print pages double sided, two A5 pages per side and have it flip on the short side. I exported it as a PDF and I have all the obvious settings selected and it seems to work except it shrinks the A5 page down slightly and increases the margin (I've checked and it's not an issue with the margin being so small and the printer can't handle borderless printing). I've double checked the page size and that's correct. I can't select print actual size as when I select to print multiple copies per page that option is no longer available.

Any help would be really appreciated!

[chrisg11235813 · Accepted solution]

when you print multiple copies per page, it is automatically shrinking to fit the multiple copies on a single page. If you make the document page size smaller, it might allow the 2 pages to retain the 100% scaling.

The printer's RIP software might have options to print 2-up, instead of doing it through Acrobat.

[Ashleigh5E4A]

It should fit the multiple copies per page with no issue though, two A5 sheets fit on A4. So I'm not sure why it's scaling it in the first place. I was hoping to change over to indesign from Publisher (it prints perfectly from there). But if it's not able to do two A5 per A4 sheets without having a ridiculously large margin then it's unusable for me which is disappointing. There's no option to change it using the actual printer settings either. 

[Abambo]

I agree with @chrisg11235813 . The page is automatically shrunk to the printing borders (like a mandatory fit option) borders and there is no option to work around this. Either you do that with the printer's options, or you place the A5 PDF in InDesign on A4 sheets.

[Ashleigh5E4A]

Sorry, what do you mean by place the A5 pdf in indesign on A4 sheets? Everything is already in indesign and we sell digital downloads and have so many files and designs so need pdfs as they're quicker to work with. So far we've been putting it in Publisher and printing from there as that has always printed perfectly. I wanted to change over to indesign but didn't even consider it wouldn't be able to print properly.