How to set default scaling to "Actual size" in print dialog?

Report · Jun 24, 2020

How do I force Acrobat Reader to use "Actual size" by default in print dialog? Acrobat Reader sets the scaling to "Fit". I thought that it is smart enough to check whether the document contents goes beyond the print margins - but no. It's fixed. I even tested it with a document that contained a simple drawing with a bounding box 10cm x 10cm in the center of A4 page (file is in the attachment) - and yet Acrobat Reader offered to print it "Fit" with a 95% scale. I mean, really?

Is there a setting to make Acrobat Reader offer "Actual size" by default?

Acrobat Reader 2020.009.20067 on Windows 7

Report · Jun 24, 2020

Hi There,

Thanks for reporting the same here.

We tried the same workflow at our end and found page scaling working fine at our end.

Can you share us some more info regarding the issue :

Is the same happening to all the PDF or is specific to a single file?
Printer used while the issue was observed
Is page size kept as A4 manually? or its default i.e. Letter
Is this is issue have started to occur, after the recent update to 2020.009.20067 or was even reproducible from a long time.

Please let us know these details; they could help us to understand the root cause of your problem.

Regards,
Swapnil Srivastava

Report · Jun 24, 2020

What I observed, is that Acrobat Reader remembers the last scaling used (among other settings, that is) between sessions (ie. closing and reopening Acrobat Reader) and uses it as default for print dialog. When I print anything with scaling set to "Actual size" and then close Acrobat Reader, then the "Actual size" will be used as a default for next print. It means someone must have used "Fit" setting on my computer before, hence my problem - because I almost never change scaling, so I do not pay attention to it, and accidentally I printed something at 95% that needed to be printed at 100%.

I always thought that some settings are kept only while the application is running (printer selection is an example), and they are reset to some "default" when Acrobat Reader is closed and started again. Obviously, I was mistaken.

I think that the scaling settings should not be carried over between sessions. It's like if I print something as a brochure today, why does Acrobat Reader assume that the next document I print (maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week) is also going to be a brochure?

Anyway, since I figured out (kind of) how the settings work, I may consider the problem solved.

Sorry for inconvenience.