My document is not centered on page

[mckinney3]

I am running Acrobat 10.0.0, MAC OSX 10.7.2 (Lion), and Indesign CS5.5

I can not get my document to center on the printed page.

When I open my PDF document, it appears normally and shows in portrait mode. The document was created as 6.88 in wide x 10.25 in tall.  The Properties of the PDF file for the document correctly show the page size as 6.88 x 10.25.

When I click on PRINT, the default dialog shows the document correctly but indicates a 8.5 x 11 page size.  I click on the Page set up and select a custom paper size of 6.88 x 10.25 inches and return to main print dialog.

The print dialog now shows my document and the page dimensions show my newly created page size.  I click auto rotate and center.  The page orientation and size match the document and PDF orientation regardless of auto rotate on or off.  I still select auto rotate and center as I want the centering.

The print comes out not centered and clipped.  No combination of selections yields a correct print out.  I just can't get my image to center on the output page.

I can print the same PDF file from Preview with same selections and have no problem with getting the document to center on the page.  I would use Preview as the work flow except preview does not print the document faithfully for color compared to Acrobat.

Thanks in advance for all help and advice!

dan mckinney

[Larry G. Schneider]

Why are you changing the default page size? You are going to print it on an 8.5x11 page, right. Then try just using the auto center and rotate. What happens then?

[mckinney3]

I do nort want to print to 8.5 X 11. I wish to print my document (6.88 x 10.25) to paper size of 6.88 x 10.25.  I load my custom paper into tray one of my printer. 

If I use tray two loaded with 8.5 X 11 and print the document centered I get what you would expect - a centered document on a larger page.  I do not print crop markes, etc and then cut the stack after printing to a larger sheet.  I print to the sheet pre-cut.  I have reasons for doing it that way.

Adobe Acrobat doesn't let me create custom page sizes without "jumping out" of the main Acrobat doialog and "jumping into" the print setting dialog which I get the warning about I should really set up everything in the main dialog, etc. But , as stated, on return to main dialog the page dimensions change to reflect the custom size but I can not get the document to center in the page.

I

[mckinney3]

Additional note:

If I leave page size at 8.5 X 11 in the intial print dialog my custom size document, rthe document will print to the 8.5 x 11 page correctly. (centered)

If I convert to a custom page size , using print settings, I will 1.) see a preview for the new custom page size in the dialog, 2.) the document will be outputted to the custom paper tray holding my 6.875  10.25 paper but 3.) the page is not centered.  In fact, the page is located exatly as if it was printing on an 8.5 x 11 physical page but just clipped.  For exmple, if I hold the output of the custom page up to the letter page, the print shows up in exatly the same alignment.  Just like I had cropped it.  DOES NOT CENTER.

[mckinney3]

OK,  Mystery solved.  There is no great problem with OSX, CS5.5, etc.  I was the problem.

I went back and created a document from scratch that was very simple in order to convence myself that a document could print correctly as a simple page.  (basically removed all other variables that might have crept into the file that was frustrating me.)  I created a PDF by exporting as well as printing to the postscript creating "printer" and then distilling the PSD file into a PDF as well as letting Preview convert the file into a PDF.  Point is that I created a PDF various ways.

I then loaded Adobe Acrobat Pro (10.0) to generate the output.  I found that the Page Set Up button would allow me to overide the default successfully despite the warning.

The "trick" was to be sure that I had the paper size AND orientation selected correctly in the Print Set Up that matched exatly how I used Print Set Up in InDesign.

Voila, output as expected.

The take-a-way for those also frustrated is that there is no great devious problem with the OSX 10.7 or CS5.5 software packages.  The output CAN be obtained just keep playing until you ask the system to do what you want it to do. 😃