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kcjoplin1982
Participating Frequently
January 12, 2015
Answered

Illustrator print preview is not displaying the preview properly. Any clue as to why?

  • January 12, 2015
  • 11 replies
  • 27693 views

When I go to print a file, the print preview is not displaying the file properly. It is showing it smaller than it is actually printing out in relation to the size of the window. I left work one day and it was functioning properly. The next day it started printing weird.  How it is functioning now, I cannot leave the file as "do not scale" as I can't properly gauge who the printer will output. I've reinstalled the printer drivers as well as uninstalling and reinstalling Illustrator. Any ideas?

Casey

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer default22y4ws0usqgz

    I know this is another step, but it seems to work for me. Once you get to the print prview window after you have all your settings in place, click on setup again and then print again. You should see your preview window change to the actual size you are printing.

    11 replies

    S
    smith-eliyah
    Participant
    September 23, 2024

    For me I needed to Set "PPD" (thirs line from top in the dialog) to - Adobe PDF and it cam back to normal.

    D
    default22y4ws0usqgzCorrect answer
    Participant
    March 14, 2023

    I know this is another step, but it seems to work for me. Once you get to the print prview window after you have all your settings in place, click on setup again and then print again. You should see your preview window change to the actual size you are printing.

    M
    marc_thiele
    Participant
    October 26, 2015

    Same issue here. Also when I move it to the Macbook Pro Retina Screen, preview is shown correctly, but my issue is, that it still prints the small preview from the Cinema Display. Also can't choose the media size in the drop down, as I am using A3+ and this is not existing there. Wish I'd not upgraded.

    R
    rossoneris
    Participating Frequently
    January 6, 2016

    Anyone has some news on this ? - print preview is wrong on external screen, but when moving to internal mac it looks as it should ?. Has updated everything on my adobe CC to latest

    R
    rdstokes
    Participating Frequently
    March 27, 2015

    All of you seem to have a configuration in common.  A MacBook Pro and an external monitor.  This also applies to me except I have about 15 MacBook Pros and 15 monitors at my disposal all configured the same way with the same OS and application versions.  However, some computers were having the problem while other weren't.  Here is what I found out:

    The problem seems to occur with the MacBook monitor being active as well as the external monitor being active on extended desktops.  When your computer is in this configuration and you select Print, the Print Preview shows wrong when the Print dialog window is on the EXTERNAL MONITOR.  However, if you drag the Print dialog over to your MacBook monitor, the Print Preview will redraw CORRECTLY!

    The same applies if you mirror your MacBook and the 27-inch monitor.  While mirrored, the Print Preview will display correctly.  (Some of my computers were mirrored, some weren't.  This is what tripped me up for so long.)

    ANYWAY, the temporary solution is to move the Print dialog box with the Print Preview onto the MacBook screen.  This seems to be a bug in Illustrator.

    I do want to say Thank You to pipingpete as he initially noticed this situation over in the thread:

    Illustrator CC 18.1.1 print preview is not displaying preview properly. Any work around?!

    Rob

      Mike_Gondek10189183
      Community Expert
      Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
      Community Expert
      March 27, 2015

      Thanks Rob for sharing, you are definitely onto something. I believe only the windows config mentioned they had an external monitor, unless I am missing that or they did not mention. There does seem to be a pattern with Retina displays and higher resolutions.

      If you do not have an external monitor and are still having this problem try toggling your resolutions and settings in your display preferences.

      J
      jcarantibco
      Participant
      April 1, 2015

      I'm having the same issue as well.


      macbook pro retina 15" with an external display. Going to see if I can go back to CC

      bigben54
      bigben54
      Participant
      March 18, 2015

      Having the same issue here - MacBook Pro Retina, OS 10.9.5 fully updated, AI CC 2014.

      Same with any printer - the print preview is only like 1/4 the full size, and cuts off prints.

      Tried uninstalling/reinstalling, resetting prefs, resetting the printing system, running utilities like cocktail etc.. no change.

      Have another almost identical system and it works fine.

      S
      smith-eliyah
      Participant
      September 23, 2024

      change PPD to Adobe PDF, sometimes need to do couple of times

      B
      BrookBailey
      Participant
      March 18, 2015

      I'm having the same problem, as well. AI CC 2014 (2014.1.1) on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Late 2013) running OS X 10.10.2. 

      Most of the preview area is gray. The small white box in the preview area is what, in previous versions of AI, used to take up all of the space that is now gray. And only the top quarter of that white box is the actual printable area. The image below is an 8.5" x 11" document that prints properly at 100%:

      This next image is the print dialog for a similar document set up as 11" x 17":

      Notice that the proportions of the white box changed to match the 11" x 17" paper/artboard, while keeping the top quarter as the printable area.

      If anybody can shed some light on how to fix this, I would greatly appreciate it. I may have to revert back to a previous version of Illustrator until this is fixed.

      C
      cyanamide
      Participant
      March 11, 2015

      The same problem here.

      But on PC, Win7/64 SP1,AI CC 2014.1.1.

      The print-preview is oversized, no matter which printer, which size, orientation
      etc. is selected) - The print output is alright.

      I've tried to delete and reinstall AI, but this won't help.

      On my second system (also PC, Win7/64 SP1, AI CC 2014.1.1) everything works fine.

      So my first thought was the issue was caused by the screen-size/resolution (2 Monitors,
      1: 3440x1440 2: 1600x1200) but using only the small monitor won't help.

      My second thought was that there's an issue with the graphics-card or the driver,
      it's a GeForce GTX 750 Ti, newest driver. The graphic-card and the monitor-
      constellation is the only difference between my two Systems.

      J
      joemaxclub
      Participant
      March 3, 2015

      I am having the same problem with my Illustrator.  I am running Illustrator CC 2014.1.1 on a MacBook Pro Retina OSX 10.10.2.  Orientation doesn't work in the dialogue box either and when I manually adjust the scaling and position, it still prints incorrectly (way oversized).

      S
      smith-eliyah
      Participant
      September 23, 2024

      try change PPD to Adobe PDF

      K
      kcjoplin1982Author
      Participating Frequently
      January 15, 2015

      lol I guess I have been lucky as I haven't always selected the media. But, I do most of the time. I just went and adjusted that to tabloid, which we usually print on for these types of files. The % for "fit to page" seems correct, but again, the preview is way smaller than it should be.

      Mike_Gondek10189183
      Community Expert
      Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
      Community Expert
      January 15, 2015

      From what I am seeing this would print on tabloid paper, and your graphic takes up about half the width and height, so you could roughly fit 4 of these on tabloid paper after this prints.

      What size is your art board? Select your artboard tool (about 3rd form bottom of tools)and look up here.

      Look to the right you and tell us what size you see here

      K
      kcjoplin1982Author
      Participating Frequently
      January 15, 2015

      The artboard is 47 in x 33 in, so quite a bit larger than 11x17. The art should be filling the preview screen. And when I set it to "Do Not Scale" it fills the screen up, but is displaying as

      the fit to page should, not at 100% scale of the document.

      K
      kcjoplin1982Author
      Participating Frequently
      January 15, 2015

      Mike_Gondek10189183
      Community Expert
      Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
      Community Expert
      January 15, 2015

      You need to define your Media size to your actual paper size (e.g. USA: letter or tabloid, UK: A3, etc). Using Defined by driver may have worked in the past, consider yourself lucky.

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