Re: Controling PDF print area
- From: anon k <nospam@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:05:24 -0400
furue@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hello all,
I produce a PDF file with dvipdf and I'm trying to prevent
Adobe Reader (a.k.a. Acrobat Reader) from shrinking the PDF
file when printing. I know that you can do that from the
print menu of Adobe Reader, but that's not what I'm trying
to achieve here. The problem is that I have to send my PDF
file to people unknown to me and they will complain that my
fonts are too small and my margins are too wide! I can't
send instructions to them on how to print my PDF file.
My PDF is correctly letter-size:
\special{papersize=8.5in,11in}
but Acrobat Reader tries to shrink it because it assumes
the printable area of letter paper is smaller than 8.5in x 11in,
even though my PDF document has ample margin around the
text.
I'm partially successful in preventing Adobe Reader from
shrinking my PDF file with
\special{papersize=8.0in,10.5in}
Now, my PDF file is smaller than letter-size and Adobe
Reader doesn't feel the need of shrinking it. But the
printed text is shifted rightward and downward in this
case. I don't know how to fix this other than using
negative margins in LaTeX and adjusting the amount of
negative margins by trial and error. And even if I fix
this this way, I'm not sure the resultant PDF file will
work correctly with other PDF viewers.
So, it seems to me that the fundamental problem is the
inability to specify the printable area and the location
of the text within the area in the LaTeX -> DVI -> PDF chain.
(By the way, I can't use pdflatex because I include a lot
of EPS figures.)
I'd appreciate it if somebody could help with this.
Thank you,
Ryo
I have what I think is the same problem, so here's some conjecturing, which I haven't tested.
When I print from Adobe Reader (and other pdf readers) the page is automatically scaled to fit, and the scaling factor depends on which printer I send it to. It looks to me like the readers are trying to be clever by allowing for the unprintable margins for every printer, but it's as if the programmers don't understand that white margins don't need ink.
The scaling factor is usually something like 98%, not enough for most people to notice consciously, but yes, it does make a difference, especially if you print multiple documents that are meant to fit consistently together, and then don't. And it happens with no warning whatsoever. It's insidious.
So I have been thinking about setting LaTeX to work with a slightly smaller page, either with the Memoir class or the Geometry package so that the margin area fits inside the printable area. Maybe then the automatic scaling will back off and just do what it's told.
I haven't yet tried it, though. It could be just as annoying if the pdf readers decide to expand the page to fit.
What we really want is to include something in the pdf file that tells the reader to default to 100% scaling, and to leave all of the cleverness to the user instead of presuming that the user wants something else. It's the same problem that we have with the paperclip that Microsoft sends to torment us, only more sneaky!
.
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