You send the file, the wide-format printer starts humming, and a beautiful 24 × 36 drawing comes rolling out. You pick it up and immediately notice something isn’t right. Part of the border is missing, the title block is clipped, or a note on the right side has disappeared.

Naturally, the first reaction is, “There’s something wrong with the printer.”

Maybe. But after spending more than four decades around printers, I’ve learned that the printer is often the first one accused and the last one proven guilty. Before we schedule a service call, reinstall a driver, replace a printhead, sacrifice an ink cartridge to the printer gods, or start kicking the machine, there are a few things worth checking.

Start With the Printable Area

One of the most misunderstood specifications on a wide-format printer is its printable area. Just because you load a 24-inch-wide roll doesn’t necessarily mean the printer can place ink across every fraction of those 24 inches. Most printers require some margin around the image, and that margin can vary depending on the printer, media, driver settings, and application you’re printing from.

That’s why a drawing created at exactly 24 × 36 inches can sometimes lose information near the edge when printed at 100%. The printer isn’t necessarily malfunctioning. It may simply be telling you, “Sorry, I don’t print there.” Unfortunately, printers have never been very good conversationalists, so instead of explaining the problem, they hand you the wrong-looking drawing and let you figure it out.

Are You Sure That’s Really a 24 × 36 Drawing?

Here’s another situation I’ve encountered more times than I can count. Someone tells me they’re printing a 24 × 36 drawing. We open the file and discover that it isn’t actually 24 × 36. Maybe it’s 24.1 × 36.2. Maybe someone created a custom page size. Maybe the original was scanned and the resulting PDF is slightly larger than the paper.

To the person looking at the drawing on the monitor, everything appears perfectly normal. To the printer, however, those fractions of an inch matter. Printers are funny that way. They’ll happily ignore your deadline, but give them an extra two-tenths of an inch and suddenly they’re accountants.

Before changing anything on the printer, check the actual page dimensions of the PDF or drawing. You may discover that the printer is doing exactly what you told it to do. That’s not always the same thing as what you wanted it to do.

Be Careful With That “Fit to Page” Button

This is particularly important for architects, engineers, surveyors, and contractors. If the drawing needs to remain to scale, you generally don’t want the driver automatically shrinking the image just to make everything fit.

Selecting Fit to Page or Fit to Printable Area may solve your clipping problem in about three seconds. Congratulations, the entire border is back. Unfortunately, you may have created another problem because the drawing may no longer be exactly to scale.

For posters, presentation drawings, or general graphics, reducing an image slightly may be perfectly acceptable. For construction documents, however, you need to understand what that setting is doing before you click it. Fixing a missing border only to discover that someone can’t accurately scale the drawing is not what I would call progress.

Take a Tour Through the Printer Driver

Wide-format printer drivers contain more settings than most users realize. You’ll find page size, roll width, orientation, scaling, borderless printing, rotate, center image, oversize, actual size, fit to page, and probably three other settings nobody has touched since the installer left the building.

One incorrect setting can cause an otherwise perfectly good file to print incorrectly. One of the first things I check is whether the page size selected in the application matches the page size selected in the printer driver. If Adobe thinks you’re printing one size, the driver thinks you’re printing another, and the printer has its own opinion, you now have three pieces of technology negotiating with each other. We all know how meetings with three people and no agenda usually turn out.

Custom Page Sizes Have Long Memories

Custom sizes are another common culprit. Someone needed a special drawing six months ago, created a custom page size, and saved it. Six months later another user selects that setting without realizing what comes along for the ride. Now we’re standing around the printer wondering why the drawing is clipped.

Whenever something suddenly starts printing incorrectly, one of my first questions is: What changed? Was it a different application, PDF, user, roll of media, workstation, or driver setting? Printers don’t normally wake up on Monday morning and decide they’re going to remove the right side of your drawing just to make your week more interesting. Although anyone who has worked around printers long enough might argue with me on that one.

Usually, something changed. Finding that change is often faster than randomly changing ten other settings and creating eleven new problems.

Borderless Printing Isn’t a Magic Button

Another common reaction is, “I’ll just turn on borderless printing.” Sometimes that’s the answer, but not always. Borderless printing depends on the printer, media size, and media type. Some wide-format printers support borderless output on specific roll widths, while others have limitations.

Borderless printing can also involve printing slightly beyond the edge of the media. That’s great when you’re producing a poster or photograph. It may not be the answer when you’re producing technical drawings where dimensions and scale matter. As with most things in wide format, the correct answer usually starts with another question: What are you printing?

Who Is Rotating What?

Orientation is another setting that sounds too simple to cause trouble, which is exactly why it gets overlooked. The application may rotate the drawing, the printer driver may rotate it, and the printer itself may have an automatic rotation feature.

Suddenly three different pieces of software are trying to help you. That’s usually when I start getting nervous.

If you’re experiencing unexpected clipping, check portrait and landscape settings at every stage of the print process. Sometimes turning off one “helpful” automatic feature solves the entire problem.

Sometimes the PDF Is the Problem

Not every PDF is created equally. PDF files can contain different page boxes and cropping information, and depending on how the file was created or exported, what you see on your screen may not perfectly represent what the printer or RIP interprets as the actual page.

Here’s an easy test. If one particular PDF continually gives you trouble while every other file prints correctly, stop adjusting the printer and print a known-good PDF. If that file prints correctly, you’ve just learned something valuable without replacing a single part.

I always like troubleshooting that doesn’t require a purchase order.

Before You Call for Service

Before scheduling a service call because your wide-format printer is clipping drawings, check the actual dimensions of the file, confirm the roll width loaded in the printer, and make sure the application page size matches the driver page size. Look at whether you’re printing at Actual Size, 100%, Fit to Page, or another scaling percentage, and verify the portrait or landscape orientation. You should also check the printer’s required margins and printable area.

Then try printing a known-good PDF. If you’re working with architectural or engineering drawings, verify the finished output with a scale. That last step matters because a drawing that looks correct isn’t necessarily a drawing that is correct.

If you’ve checked all of those items and the problem is still there, now we can start looking harder at the printer, driver, firmware, or RIP. At least we’ve eliminated the usual suspects before sending a technician into the building.

One Missing Line Can Matter

In graphics, losing a tiny portion of an image might simply be annoying. In AEC, a clipped note, dimension, revision cloud, or part of a title block can affect the usefulness of the entire drawing.

That’s why I don’t like solving every clipping problem by simply telling someone to hit Fit to Page. We need to understand why it’s being clipped first. Sometimes the fix really is that simple. Sometimes it’s the wrong page size, a driver setting, the PDF, the printable margins, or something the user changed without realizing it.

And occasionally, yes, it really is the printer.

After more than four decades around this equipment, I’ve learned to give the printer a fair trial before finding it guilty. Before blaming the machine, find out exactly what we’re asking the machine to do. You might be surprised how often the printer is simply following instructions.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t still yell at it. Sometimes that just makes us feel better.

Still Having Wide-Format Printing Problems?

If your wide-format printer is clipping drawings, scaling incorrectly, producing questionable color, or simply doing something that has you scratching your head, feel free to reach out. After more than four decades in the office technology and wide-format business, chances are I’ve seen something similar before, or at least something equally strange.

Jersey Plotters | Stratix Systems

Have a wide-format question, need help selecting the right equipment, or just want a second opinion? Email me at [email protected]. Sometimes a ten-minute conversation can save a few hours of arguing with your printer.

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