Side of Page gets Cut Off when Printing

Previous topic - Next topic

M_W

I have my page set to Letter size and exported it to a PDF. When I open it in the viewer, everything looks fine, but when I print it out it adds a white border around the edges and part of the right side edge gets cut off by an even bigger margin. I've tried setting my margins to 0, printing directly from Scribus, changing Adobe versions, etc., but nothing has worked. I'm not sure if it's something with my HP Deskjet 2540 printer, or if I have something configured incorrectly.

As long as it prints out correctly when I take it to the print shop, it doesn't matter, but I don't understand why it doesn't work correctly for me on my printer.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Nermander

If the PDF looks ok on screen but becomes wrong when printed, it has nothing to do with Scribus but with the PDF viewer you print from.

If you are trying to print directly from Scribus, stop that. Scribus printing function does not work well. Export to PDF and print from a good PDF viewer.

M_W

I've tried printing with a couple different versions of Adobe, but the same thing happens. The print preview in Adobe looks just fine, but when it comes out of the printer, it has the white border and cut off side.

I'm thinking that it might be a setting related to my printer, but I'm not sure.

M_W

I found out that my printer does not support borderless printing, so I'm also assuming that the side of the page getting cut off is a printer issue as well. Will try it with another printer.

a.l.e

When printing PDFs (from Scribus) you have to make sure that the pages are printed as is.

PDF viewers tend to automatically resize the document so that it always completely fits on the page.
And this is not what you want in this (and most DTP related) case(s) and have to uncheck the option / switch the setting.

M_W

I've tried it with the "Actual Size" setting in Adobe reader, but it still had a white border around it. I had my "Margin Guide" setting set to .25in in Scribus, so I will try again with it set to 0in, but the strange thing is that the print preview in Adobe looks perfect, but it comes out with a border.

mnawij

If you do not mind posting the pdf, I would be more than willing to try and print it on my digital press in the next day or three to see how it prints on a professional machine...

mnawij

a.l.e

well, the question is: does the pdf get printed as is?

if yes *and* you get a white margin, it means that the printer cannot print as thin margins as you have set.

if you're targetting consumer printers (or generally speaking, if you are printing on paper that has the same size as your document; no imposition involved) you have to respect the minimal margin for the specific printer. everything outside of that margin will just be discarded.

if you want anybody to be able to print your document, a margin of 1 cm is a safe value for your margins (for modern printers).
everything below is at risk, even if many printers can print down to 4 mm margins.

M_W

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you! I will just have to shrink my content to respect the margins. I didn't realize that most printers would have a margin no matter what.