Designing a document for A4 paper size printing issues

Question

I am designing a document in Fireworks using a canvas size of 1000 pixels by 1294 pixels, which is in perfect proportion of the standard A4 paper size.

I have finished all the designs, the way I want it to look when I print out on A4 paper, but when I print out, I notice that the "footer" has move up by quite a lot of pixels, thereby leaving a huge white space behind it.

This is nothing like what I have designed in fireworks.

I have tried to export the .psd to .pdf directly, it looks good and in proportion, but when I print out the same problem persists.

Are there settings I can adjust or a standard design approach I must ensure to solve this problem?

P.S. Please fell free to give solutions in Photoshop also.

Answer 1

You should be aware that pixels do not equal print centimetres at all.

There are many factors in play in this specific problem, but mainly you should start by setting your canvas to a print size, and specify it in the final medium you want to print on. If you're aiming towards a DIN A4 document, the size es 210mm wide by 297mm tall.

Resolution also plays a big part in this, you should be aware that print PPI (pixel per inch) should be 300ppi, while screen resolution is 72ppi (and is measured in pixels).

Finally, there are physical limitations to printing when you print in a home printer, as normal printers can't reach the edges of the paper. If you want your designs to occupy the full width of the page, you should also consider adding bleed to the document.

Answer 2

I suspect it's your print settings. Check your print settings, make sure to select no scaling, or 100%.

Also some printers do not allow borderless printing, so that may be an issue too. If you have one of these printers, it might be shrinking the content to fit within the printable area.

Check your printer's user manual, and see if there is a borderless printing feature.