The Paperkind field guide

How to print at actual size

A precise PDF is the starting point. Your printer settings finish the job.

Match the paper first

Choose A4 or US Letter in the generator and load that same paper into your printer. A4 is 210 × 297 mm; US Letter is 215.9 × 279.4 mm. Choosing a different size can cause the printer to scale the page.

Use 100% or Actual size

1. Download your PDF and open it in a PDF viewer.
2. Choose Print and confirm the paper size and orientation.
3. Select Actual size or a custom scale of 100%. Turn off Fit, Shrink oversized pages and similar scaling options.
4. Turn off browser headers and footers if you use the direct print view.
5. Print one test sheet before making a larger batch.

Measure your test sheet

For a 5 mm grid, measure ten cells: they should span 50 mm. Measuring a larger group makes a small scaling error easier to notice. If the distance is wrong, recheck paper size and scaling. Some printer drivers have additional scaling settings.

Leave room for your printer

Many home printers cannot print to the edge of a sheet. The default 15 mm margin leaves space around the pattern. If an edge is missing, increase the margin instead of shrinking the whole page.