Let's discuss about font size for printing

[hajime]

Hello, when printing manuals and university textbooks saved as pdf files, usually I just hit the print button. I found that the letter size to be too big for my liking. What font size is that?

Then, I tried printing two pages per paper. Although the font size is a bit small, overall it is better for reading. What font size is that? Is it possible to have it printed in two pages per paper with a bit larger front? Under Preview, I tried to scale it to 150% but the top and bottom portions of the text and figures box were cut off. Is there an option to allow printing in two pages/paper with the font size as big as possible but without having some of the stuffs in the page being cut off?

Under Preview, there is a feature called booklet. I cannot find a good source to explain what it is. The page arrangement also seems to be strange. For example, when I asked it to print from page 20-24, whatever printed do not matche the page 20-24 I saw under Preview. How does it work? What are the differences printing in booklet format vs. in two pages per page format?

 

[Dave Braine]

What font size is that?

Without seeing the original, who can say.

Although the font size is a bit small, overall it is better for reading. What font size is that?

See above.

 

[hajime]

Without seeing the original, who can say.


See above.

Is there any way that I can tell by myself what font size it is?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Hello, when printing manuals and university textbooks saved as pdf files, usually I just hit the print button. I found that the letter size to be too big for my liking. What font size is that?

Then, I tried printing two pages per paper. Although the font size is a bit small, overall it is better for reading. What font size is that? Is it possible to have it printed in two pages per paper with a bit larger front? Under Preview, I tried to scale it to 150% but the top and bottom portions of the text and figures box were cut off. Is there an option to allow printing in two pages/paper with the font size as big as possible but without having some of the stuffs in the page being cut off?

Under Preview, there is a feature called booklet. I cannot find a good source to explain what it is. The page arrangement also seems to be strange. For example, when I asked it to print from page 20-24, whatever printed do not matche the page 20-24 I saw under Preview. How does it work? What are the differences printing in booklet format vs. in two pages per page format?

PDF preserves the layout and proportions of the original page. That's what the PDF format was designed to do - so that a designed page will look identical no matter what computer/printer was used to reproduce it. You can't change fonts/font size, you can only change the size of the overall document - print on bigger paper, you'll have bigger print, print on smaller paper, you'll have smaller print.

There are no "booklet" or scaling features in Preview. Those are part of the printer driver (part of the OS), not part of Preview. You'll only see those options after you select Print, and the Print features available will vary from one printer to another. My printer does not have a booklet feature, so there's no booklet feature available when I try to print.

Simple test - "booklet" doesn't show up when you search Preview Help.

 

[hajime]

Thanks. If I want to print two pages on one paper and have the letters as big as it can without having part of the stuffs cut off, what suggestions do you have?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Is there any way that I can tell by myself what font size it is?

Get a typesetter's ruler. However, that will only tell you what the type size is on the size paper you've used. You have to print to the same size paper that the original was printed on in order to know what size was used by the designer.

Example - if the original was printed on a 5.5" x 8.5" page (typical for a trade paperback) and 12-pt type was used, it'll look like 24-pt type if you print at 100% scaling onto an 11" x 17" sheet.

Thanks. If I want to print two pages on one paper and have the letters as big as it can without having part of the stuffs cut off, what suggestions do you have?

You are missing the entire point (so to speak). PDF is not a word processing document, where you can go in and modify the type size (and then changing the type size re-flows the type to fill a different number of pages). PDF documents do not allow you to change the type size. All you can do is enlarge or shrink the entire document (change the paper size, change the scaling).

The only way to not have "stuffs cut off" is to stay within the printing area of your printer (most printers cannot print all the way to the edges of the sheet).

Your printer's print driver will determine how you can layout a document to be printed - if it allows you to print two pages to a sheet (as you described) you'll need to refer to the printer's instruction manual.

 

[DeltaMac]

You could try Acrobat Reader, where you may find other print options (such as customizing how multiple pages are displayed on one sheet)

 

[Altis]

Thanks. If I want to print two pages on one paper and have the letters as big as it can without having part of the stuffs cut off, what suggestions do you have?

If you're going to print two letter-sized documents onto the surface of one letter-sized paper, set up the printing to "landscape" and two-pages. This should maximize their size on the sheet and put them side-by-side with the least empty space (though they'll be sideways).

 

[hajime]

Get a typesetter's ruler. However, that will only tell you what the type size is on the size paper you've used. You have to print to the same size paper that the original was printed on in order to know what size was used by the designer.

Example - if the original was printed on a 5.5" x 8.5" page (typical for a trade paperback) and 12-pt type was used, it'll look like 24-pt type if you print at 100% scaling onto an 11" x 17" sheet.



You are missing the entire point (so to speak). PDF is not a word processing document, where you can go in and modify the type size (and then changing the type size re-flows the type to fill a different number of pages). PDF documents do not allow you to change the type size. All you can do is enlarge or shrink the entire document (change the paper size, change the scaling).

The only way to not have "stuffs cut off" is to stay within the printing area of your printer (most printers cannot print all the way to the edges of the sheet).

Your printer's print driver will determine how you can layout a document to be printed - if it allows you to print two pages to a sheet (as you described) you'll need to refer to the printer's instruction manual.

I know PDF documents do not allow me to change the type size. I am asking how to modify the print settings to achieve my goal. The strange thing is that there are quite some white margins around the page that the letters could still be scaled up without everything cut off. For example, there is a boxed paragraph. After increasing the scale, the two-page/page print out have the top horizontal line cut off. However, there are still a lot of white space above it.
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If you're going to print two letter-sized documents onto the surface of one letter-sized paper, set up the printing to "landscape" and two-pages. This should maximize their size on the sheet and put them side-by-side with the least empty space (though they'll be sideways).

Thanks. I tried under Preview but on the preview of the page, it shows the same contents on both the left and right of the page. How come?

 

[hajime]

Printing two pages on one paper is just too small. Decided to go for 1/page. Thanks