InDesign CS Wants to Scale Document to Fit to Print

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

I'm converting a shop from Pagemaker 6 to InDesign CS under Windows 2000.

The Pagemaker document and InDesign document use the same Printer with the same Driver (a Lexmark color inkjet just for the record). These applications live on two different computers but the printer is installed exactly the same way and the printers use the same driver down in the OS and are set up the same way.

Pagemaker prints the document at 100%. Indesign thinks the document is too big and wants to scale it to fit (about 94%). Documents are set up with same margins (.25 in)....

[Bob_Levine]

Do you have it set to scale it in the print dialog box?

Bob

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

I was first trying to print it at 100% but it kept cutting off part of the document. I checked everything else first and then decided to check the 'Scale to fit' button to see what would happen and lo and behold - it changed to about 94% which explained why it was cutting things off.

But why does it think the document is too big to print at 100%?

[Bob_Levine]

If the printer can't print to the end of the paper, it will have to
scale the output to fit.

Bob

[JohnO@adobeforums.com]

Bob, would the baseline conversion from PM to ID cause Julie's ID doc to get
bigger somehow? I'm thinking maybe some reflowed text made frames larger,
and in ID they're now beyond the safe printable margins. Just a guess,
though.

-John O

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

The conversion that the PM import filter does from PageMaker's Ascent default for First Baseline Offset to InDesign's Leading Offset (or whatever it's called) can have the effect of pushing converted text overset because the ID frames each can lose a line of text.

It's also possible that the last line of text on a page would be pushed into the printer's non-printing area by the Proportional to Baseline change in leading. If the text is now sitting exactly on the bottom of the frame rather than 3 or 4 points above it (depends on the size of the type, the larger the type, the bigger the difference), that could be enough.

Dave

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've made sure that all frames are within the .25 inch margins. Nothing is overflowing or spilling over.

Can we upload files somehow to the forum so others can see?

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

Sounds like a printer driver issue to me. InDesign never wants to scale anything. It might advise you to do so if the printer driver says that the page is such-and-such a size, all InDesign is telling you is that if you want everything to print inside the printer's margins, then you must scale it.

But InDesign doesn't know that you've not put anything into the printer's margin area (sure, it could work that out, but would you really want it to do that much work every time?).

When you click Page Setup in the print dialog, what page size are you choosing? Could be it's defaulting to Letter-small.

Dave

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

Update -

I printed to another printer (Lexmark Laser 610) and it printed fine. Unfortunately, this is a B/W printer and the doc is color.

I also printed to Acrobat 6 and then printed the document to the Color Lexmark from there and it's fine. So I have a work around for this shop but making PDFs of everything just to print seems unnecessary....

Does this mean that the problem is between ID and just this particular Lexmark color PPD?

[Kenneth_Lasley@adobeforums.com]

It means that Lexmark needs to update their Printer Driver.

Ken

[Dave_Saunders@adobeforums.com]

Or, you need to click the Printer button and make sure you're choosing a page size that is appropriate for the task. Could be that the PPD (it's a PostScript printer, is it?) defaults to Letter-small (a lot of them do) and that's the cause of the problem. Choose Letter as your page size and then save a PrinterPreset and that should do it.

Dave

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

It's actually a legal size doc and I am selecting legal both in the PPD and in InDesign....

[JulieASmith@adobeforums.com]

I just downloaded a different driver from the Lexmark website than the one that is loaded on the printserver, installed it locally to test

AND IT WORKS!!!!

Still says it wants to have to scale the document to fit but it will actually print it at 100% and fit it all on the paper like it does from Pagemaker and from Acrobat 6.

So definitely some sort of communication problems between ID and the other PPD file that's installed on the printserver....

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions....

[Unregistered]

Hi,

I have the same problem. I have downloaded the drivers for two printers I could try to see if the size of the doc would fit 1:1.

And it doesn´t work. I´ve been looking all over the internet and I am driving crazy, can anybody help me out there.

thx, xtina