PDF XChange Viewer 2.5 (205.0), environment Windows 7 64bit.
I have a big map, and I want to print it on an A3 sheet. I don't care what is the "size" defined in the pdf file, all I want is to stretch the document to fit in a A3 piece of paper.
I have tried various combinations of options in the File/Print page, and I believe that in the Scaling I should choose "Fit to printer margins" and check Auto-rotate and Auto-centre, leaving Choose paper source unchecked.
When I click on the Properties of my printer, and choose there the A3 format, the Print page still shows on top of the preview the line "Paper: A4 (210 x 297 mm)", and if I try to print the page I got an A4 page printed on an A3 sheet, with lots of blank space around...
I even tried to change the default size of the paper for my printer using the system menu "Devices and Printers", so my printer has a default page size A3, but when I run the viewer, the paper size shown on the preview page is always A4.
How can I force PDF XChange Viewer to print my map stretched to a full A3 paper?
Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Moderators: PDF-XChange Support, Daniel - PDF-XChange, Chris - PDF-XChange, Sean - PDF-XChange, Paul - PDF-XChange, Vasyl - PDF-XChange, Ivan - Tracker Software, Stefan - PDF-XChange
-
Stefan - PDF-XChange
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19885
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Hello ptoniolo,
Could you please let us know the make and model of your printer and whether it's using PCL or PS drivers?
Otherwise the settings you are describing are the correct ones, and should work.
Please see the attached screenshot. I have an A4 page, and have selected A3 sheet size in the printer settings - and the page is properly scaled to fill in the entire A3 sheet (see the zoom level quoted at the lower right).
Best,
Stefan
Could you please let us know the make and model of your printer and whether it's using PCL or PS drivers?
Otherwise the settings you are describing are the correct ones, and should work.
Please see the attached screenshot. I have an A4 page, and have selected A3 sheet size in the printer settings - and the page is properly scaled to fill in the entire A3 sheet (see the zoom level quoted at the lower right).
Best,
Stefan
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
-
ptoniolo
- User
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:55 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
It's a Xerox ColorQube 9202 PS.
But I do not believe it is a printer issue. The fact that in your screenshot I can see that the viewer is aware of the output page size: at the top of the preview you have a "A3". BTW, I am using the free xchange viewer, and I just updated it to the new version 2.5.207
In my case, even after changing the size of the paper with the Properties button, the viewer still sees an A4 size! I'm afreaid this means that the viewer is not getting back the page size correctly from the Xerox driver. I have the same printer mapped twice on my pc. One thru the network of my company (identified as Type: Xerox ColorQube 9202 PS) and the other one linking directly to the printer using the printer port of the server where the printer is attached (Type: Xerox GPD PS V2.2)... in both cases I see the same behavior: even if I change the page size and the File/Print page, the viewer does not realize that the page is now A3, and no more A4. I can tell it from the line on top of the page preview: in my case it always say:
Paper: 'A4 (210 x 297 mm)', landscape (90° CCW)
Is there a way to "force" the page size in the File/Print page?
But I do not believe it is a printer issue. The fact that in your screenshot I can see that the viewer is aware of the output page size: at the top of the preview you have a "A3". BTW, I am using the free xchange viewer, and I just updated it to the new version 2.5.207
In my case, even after changing the size of the paper with the Properties button, the viewer still sees an A4 size! I'm afreaid this means that the viewer is not getting back the page size correctly from the Xerox driver. I have the same printer mapped twice on my pc. One thru the network of my company (identified as Type: Xerox ColorQube 9202 PS) and the other one linking directly to the printer using the printer port of the server where the printer is attached (Type: Xerox GPD PS V2.2)... in both cases I see the same behavior: even if I change the page size and the File/Print page, the viewer does not realize that the page is now A3, and no more A4. I can tell it from the line on top of the page preview: in my case it always say:
Paper: 'A4 (210 x 297 mm)', landscape (90° CCW)
Is there a way to "force" the page size in the File/Print page?
-
Stefan - PDF-XChange
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19885
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Hi ptoniolo,
I didn't say it's a printer issue. It's our Viewer that has some issues with specific PCL/PS drivers.
Please try in Scaling type to select Custom scale and then use 141.3% scale, and check the "Choose paper source by PDF page size" and see if that will work.
Best,
Stefan
I didn't say it's a printer issue. It's our Viewer that has some issues with specific PCL/PS drivers.
Please try in Scaling type to select Custom scale and then use 141.3% scale, and check the "Choose paper source by PDF page size" and see if that will work.
Best,
Stefan
-
ptoniolo
- User
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:55 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
It does not work. The original document size is SRA3 (new to me, it's an ISO 217:1995 format: 320x450mm) and when I checked "Choose paper source..." the printer expects me to insert a sheet of paper SRA4 in the bypass... I believe that with that checkbox the viewer sends the paper size requested to the printer, that tries to honor the request. So, if the original pdf was in A3, this should have fixed my issue!
Anyway, as you suggested, it is a problem of communication from the printer driver. I tried to print the page on another printer (the PDFCreator virtual printer) and whenever I change the page size in the Properties of the PDFCreator printer, your File/Print page senses the difference and adapts itself automatically to the new paper size selected.
This gave me an idea: first of all I printed to PDFCreator to an A3 target page size, with
- Fit to printer margins
- Auto-rotate...: yes
- Auto-centre...: yes
- Choose paper source...: no
The pdf just created was now in A3 size, and so I printed it on my "real" printer with the "Choose paper source" set to yes (I think that the other options were ininfluent in this case), and Hooray! This gimmck did the trick! Now the printer receives a request to print an A3 sheet, and she "knows" how to do it!
I had a similar problem before, and I was wondering... my first "print" is just a way to trick the pdf file, saying that its actual print-size is different from the original one. I don't know much about the PS/PDF format, but I can imagine that this is simply an attribute in the pdf file itself. My question is: is there a way to leave a pdf file exactly the same, but only change the size of the file "when printed"?
Thank you for your support.
Anyway, as you suggested, it is a problem of communication from the printer driver. I tried to print the page on another printer (the PDFCreator virtual printer) and whenever I change the page size in the Properties of the PDFCreator printer, your File/Print page senses the difference and adapts itself automatically to the new paper size selected.
This gave me an idea: first of all I printed to PDFCreator to an A3 target page size, with
- Fit to printer margins
- Auto-rotate...: yes
- Auto-centre...: yes
- Choose paper source...: no
The pdf just created was now in A3 size, and so I printed it on my "real" printer with the "Choose paper source" set to yes (I think that the other options were ininfluent in this case), and Hooray! This gimmck did the trick! Now the printer receives a request to print an A3 sheet, and she "knows" how to do it!
I had a similar problem before, and I was wondering... my first "print" is just a way to trick the pdf file, saying that its actual print-size is different from the original one. I don't know much about the PS/PDF format, but I can imagine that this is simply an attribute in the pdf file itself. My question is: is there a way to leave a pdf file exactly the same, but only change the size of the file "when printed"?
Thank you for your support.
-
Stefan - PDF-XChange
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19885
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Hi ptoniolo,
Yes "printing" to a virtual printer first is a solution, but it requires two steps and I was trying to avoid that in my suggestions (and was keeping it as a final solution to offer you to try).
I myself have also very recently encountered the SRA3 paper size, and it's slightly bigger than A3 - so please try to set a custom zoom of 92%, and with "Choose paper source..." enabled the Viewer should try to print on an A3 sheet now.
This will require no modification to the document, and you will only need to change the scale when printing.
If the original file is in SRA4 (225x320 mm) then you will need a custom scale of about 131% to get it to fit on an A3 page.
Best,
Stefan
Yes "printing" to a virtual printer first is a solution, but it requires two steps and I was trying to avoid that in my suggestions (and was keeping it as a final solution to offer you to try).
I myself have also very recently encountered the SRA3 paper size, and it's slightly bigger than A3 - so please try to set a custom zoom of 92%, and with "Choose paper source..." enabled the Viewer should try to print on an A3 sheet now.
This will require no modification to the document, and you will only need to change the scale when printing.
If the original file is in SRA4 (225x320 mm) then you will need a custom scale of about 131% to get it to fit on an A3 page.
Best,
Stefan
-
ptoniolo
- User
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:55 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Not exactly. With a custom scale of 92% the printer still receives a request to use a SRA3 paper size. Judjng from the preview frame in your form (if this can help you) I can see that the page size written on top is still SRA3, but the image itself is trimmed in the SRA3 borders. That's very strange, because apparently the picture has been enlarged, and not reduced by the scale change!
... no, wait... I did some more tests and even with a 100% custom scale the picture is incomplete in the viewport of the preview window... I can see the whole image if I choose "fit", but not "custom".
The image is always trimmed in a SRA3 frame going from 100% down to 70.9%. At this last custom size the image fits within the SRA3 borders. At 70.8% the size of the paper in the preview pane jumps to 12x18", a format still slightly larger than ISO A3. Going down with the scale, I finally reach A3 at 67.9%. At this scale, the printer directly prints the map on an A3 sheet. Comparing it with the double-pass I did yesterday, the new image printed is just slightly larger.
This is strange... it seems that the original "internal" size in the pdf file is even larger than SRA3. In fact, if choose scaling=none and choose=yes, in the preview pane I read SRA3, but the image is trimmed, incomplete! I did not realize it in the tests I did yesterday... and this is strange: with that option combination I was expecting to have all the picture in the "real/internal" size of the page...
... no, wait... I did some more tests and even with a 100% custom scale the picture is incomplete in the viewport of the preview window... I can see the whole image if I choose "fit", but not "custom".
The image is always trimmed in a SRA3 frame going from 100% down to 70.9%. At this last custom size the image fits within the SRA3 borders. At 70.8% the size of the paper in the preview pane jumps to 12x18", a format still slightly larger than ISO A3. Going down with the scale, I finally reach A3 at 67.9%. At this scale, the printer directly prints the map on an A3 sheet. Comparing it with the double-pass I did yesterday, the new image printed is just slightly larger.
This is strange... it seems that the original "internal" size in the pdf file is even larger than SRA3. In fact, if choose scaling=none and choose=yes, in the preview pane I read SRA3, but the image is trimmed, incomplete! I did not realize it in the tests I did yesterday... and this is strange: with that option combination I was expecting to have all the picture in the "real/internal" size of the page...
-
Stefan - PDF-XChange
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19885
- Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Re: Print a pdf file on an A3 sheet
Hi ptoniolo,
Judging by the scale ratios you've provided (1/Sqrt(2) ≈ 0.707 ) - it seems like your original PDF page size is SRA2.
When you select no scaling, the page will be properly unscaled, and then our Viewer will select the largest supported sheet size your printer reports - which I presume is SRA3 - that's why you see SRA3 as the selected sheet size, but the contents is actually trimmed. When you select Fit to printer margins - then the SRA2 page is fully fit on the SRA3 sheet with a scale of ≈0.707 or 70.7%.
And as your original page is larger than the SRA3 I made my calculations with - you will indeed need to scale that further down to make it fit on A3 paper. Seems like you found the correct scale ratio to achieve that (67.9%), and should now be able to quickly print on the paper you want.
Best,
Stefan
Judging by the scale ratios you've provided (1/Sqrt(2) ≈ 0.707 ) - it seems like your original PDF page size is SRA2.
When you select no scaling, the page will be properly unscaled, and then our Viewer will select the largest supported sheet size your printer reports - which I presume is SRA3 - that's why you see SRA3 as the selected sheet size, but the contents is actually trimmed. When you select Fit to printer margins - then the SRA2 page is fully fit on the SRA3 sheet with a scale of ≈0.707 or 70.7%.
And as your original page is larger than the SRA3 I made my calculations with - you will indeed need to scale that further down to make it fit on A3 paper. Seems like you found the correct scale ratio to achieve that (67.9%), and should now be able to quickly print on the paper you want.
Best,
Stefan