Print preview dotted line does not cover the whole document

[Laith86]

Is this normal? The document and media sizes are the same. Thanks

[Jacob Bugge]

laith,

Just to rule out one usual suspect: what happens if you Ctrl/Cmd+E (toggling between GPU and CPU, you may apply it again if it gives no change)?

[Laith86]

The dotted line covers almost the whole document (like 98%), but not all of it. This might be just how Illustrator works, I do not know.

I tried clicking Ctrl + E, I do not think it changed the print preview.

I could not upload a screenshot in this discussion, because I get the message "Image type is forbidden". I tried uploading pdf, jpeg, png, bmp, and AI.

Thanks

[Jacob Bugge]

laith,

I believe Ton had a keener understanding of your description than I.

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

laith86  wrote

This might be just how Illustrator works

No, it has nothing to do with Illustrator. The dotted line is the printable area, imposed by the printer driver.

Do you know how I can find a driver that prints the whole document?

Your printer will print "the whole document" if it fits within the printable area. It cannot apply ink/toner outside of that area unless the printer features "borderless" printing, in which case you'd have to activate that in the printer driver (and the dotted line in the preview would surround the whole page).

Otherwise, if the printer does not offer borderless printing, and your design includes matter outside the printable area, and you print with no scaling (actual size), the parts of the design outside of the printable area will be excluded. If you want to print bleed (print to/beyond the edge of the paper), you have to print to a larger sheet size, then physically trim it down to the artboard size.

[Ton Frederiks]

This is probably your printer driver showing the printable area of your paper size. Most printers cannot print on the entire area of the paper.

[Laith86]

Also, in print preview, I chose do not scale.

Do you know how I can find a driver that prints the whole document? Thanks

[Ton Frederiks]

It is a limitation of the printer and the driver is just showing what's possible.

Your printer needs some space to grab and move the paper. That space is not printable.

[Laith86]

OK, thanks a lot for the answers.