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I have been designing my own calendar and other things like this. They are minimalistic and don't contain any images.

I want to print them without any margins, so that my design fills the entire A4 page. But the program I'm using doesn't allow this (don't judge me, I use excel).

What program should I be using for this?

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    Are you printing this yourself or are you sending it to a professional printer? The thing is that printers can't really print on the entire page. The trick is to print on a larger piece of paper and then cut off the excess paper. – Wolff Sep 11 '19 at 16:04
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    "The thing is that printers can't really print on the entire page". Is this true for all printers? I recall I have seen printers able to do this, but not sure. – user56834 Sep 11 '19 at 16:23
  • Some office/home printers claims to be able to do it, but I've never seen it actually working. No professionals do it that way. The problem is that the ink must spray outside the paper to cover it entirely, so excess ink is accumulating. Also the printer needs to grab the paper. if it grabs inside the printed area some smearing could occur. Lastly, most printers prints a tiny bit rotated so it's better to cut out the page using trim marks. – Wolff Sep 11 '19 at 16:25
  • @user56834 Yes, you can overprint but you usually only do that for hard surfaces like foam board, wood, metal, etc. With thin materials like paper, you would print on a larger piece of paper and cut down. – AndrewH Sep 11 '19 at 16:38
  • I'm just commenting to help you. If I only had access to an A4 printer I would make my design smaller so it fits the printer margins and then cut it down. Excell can't really make bleed (see links in @Joshurg's answer), so you would have to account for that in your design. – Wolff Sep 11 '19 at 17:03
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What methods have you already tried?

I haven't used a consumer-level printer that satisfactorily met my borderless printing needs. I eventually outsourced that aspect of work to professionals because it wasn't profitable with the tools I had.

For reliable, true borderless printing I think you'll have to follow the same process print shops do - print on oversized paper (with crop marks) and cut the paper to your final specifications.

A cursory web search yields helpful links like this:

https://www.redrivercatalog.com/infocenter/tips/inkjet-borderless-size-printing.html

Similar questions have been asked on GDSE:

How can I determine how much bleed to use?

What's the best full-bleed color printer for frequent graphic design/office use?

Regarding what program you should use for content creation:

My immediate instinct is to build this in the industry standard Adobe InDesign or Illustrator depending on knowledge of the programs and your desired look & feel - I particularly recommend InDesign for granular control of print options.

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As I understand it, inkjet printer ink can't go all the way to the edge of the paper because in nearly all printer designs, there must be a small, un-inked border all the way around, so the ink won't gum up the parts of the printer that transport the paper through the machine.

Unless you're thinking of the kind of borderless prints you get from an automated photo-printing service?

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  • "Unless you're thinking of the kind of borderless prints you get from an automated photo-printing service?" Yeah this might be what I was thinking about – user56834 Sep 12 '19 at 5:27
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It would depend on your printer model. Check your printer user manual to see if it has a borderless printing option. Not all printers have this functionality.

There are some consumer inkjet printers that can do this. I have a Canon inkjet printer which can do it, and there is no gripper edge issue either - bleed on all four edges is possible. There is a borderless printing option which can be selected in the print properties. Results are generally good, and I've never really had a problem using it. The printer itself has a method of collecting the ink that's sprayed over the edge of the sheet - so there is no build up of ink inside the machine.

To use it (in the example below I'm using LibreOffice Calc, because I don't use MS Excel), you need to click on the "Properties" button in the main print dialog, and this opens up the full print properties. With my particular printer it works best on glossy photo paper, and is "not recommended" for regular uncoated paper - so this might be an issue for you.

enter image description here

Note however that you will lose a little of the image as there has to be a slight overlap, so it might not be entirely practical for your particular usage.

By the way, this is not a recommendation for a particular print model or manufacturer. I have no links with Canon, although I have used their printers for many years, in particular for large format printing (not the model shown).

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