Guide
How to print at true scale
Set scaling to 100 percent and turn off Fit to page. That single setting decides whether a 5 mm grid prints as 5 mm. Everything else on this page is detail around it. Printers shrink pages to fit their own margins by default, silently, and once that happens no measurement on the sheet is the size you asked for.
The four settings, in order
- Set scaling to 100 percent. Find the scaling option in your print dialog and set it to 100 percent or Actual size. Turn off Fit to page, Shrink to fit and Shrink oversized pages.
- Match the paper size. Select the same paper size in the dialog as the size the PDF was generated in, A4 or Letter. A mismatch shifts the layout even at 100 percent.
- Leave the printer margins on default. Do not print borderless. The page already carries its own margin, and borderless mode moves the whole layout.
- Check the preview, then measure. The page should sit inside the paper with an even margin. If you switched on the 100 mm scale ruler before downloading, measure it after printing: it should read exactly 100 mm.
The one setting that matters most
In your print dialog, find the scaling option. It may be called Scale, Size, or Page Sizing. Set it to 100 percent, or choose Actual size. Make sure any option named Fit to page, Shrink to fit, or Shrink oversized pages is turned off. This single change fixes most scaling problems.
Match the paper size
Generate your PDF in the size your printer holds. In most of Europe and much of the world that is A4. In the United States and Canada it is Letter. If you print an A4 PDF onto Letter paper with Fit to page on, the printer rescales it and the grid drifts. Every generator on PrintNook lets you pick A4 or Letter before you download.
Check the preview
- Open the PDF and look at the print preview. The page should sit inside the paper with an even margin, not stretched edge to edge.
- If a ruler is handy, measure a few squares after printing. They should match the spacing you chose.
- Use black and white or grayscale mode to save color ink, since the guides are light grey anyway.
Quick checklist. Scale 100 percent, Fit to page off, correct paper size, normal margins. Get those four right and your printables come out true every time.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my graph paper print smaller than it should?
Your printer is scaling the page to fit its margins. Set scaling to 100 percent and turn off Fit to page or Shrink oversized pages.
Should I print borderless?
No. Borderless printing can shift the layout. Use normal margins and rely on the built in page margin in the generator.
What is the setting called in my print dialog?
It has a different name almost everywhere. Adobe Acrobat calls it Page Sizing and Handling, with Actual size as the option you want. Chrome and Edge call it Scale, under More settings, where you pick Default or 100. Firefox calls it Scale. Preview on macOS calls it Scale, at 100 percent. Choose the one that means no resizing.
How much does Fit to page actually change?
Fitting an A4 page onto Letter paper scales it to about 94 percent, so a 5 mm grid arrives as 4.70 mm. Fitting Letter onto A4 scales to about 97 percent, so 5 mm arrives as 4.86 mm.
My margins look wrong even at 100 percent. What now?
Check the paper size selected in the print dialog matches the size the PDF was generated in. A Letter PDF sent to an A4 tray, or the reverse, shifts the layout even when scaling is off.
Does draft or greyscale mode affect the measurements?
No. Those settings change how much ink is laid down, not where. The guides on these sheets are light grey by default, so draft and greyscale printing keeps them legible while saving ink.
Sources
- ISO 32000-1 (PDF 1.7), for the default user space unit of 1/72 inch, which is the unit a PDF page is measured in and the reason scaling changes every dimension at once.
- ISO 216, published by the International Organization for Standardization, for the A4 dimensions used in the scale factors above.
- PrintNook, how we measure, for the millimetre to point conversion these sheets are built on and the tolerance a correct print falls inside.
Keep reading
Not sure which paper size to choose? Read paper sizes explained, or jump straight to the paper generator. Printing dot grid pages for a notebook? See our bullet journal guide for how the scale matters there too. All three sit on the guides index.