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Best way to print to PDF?

Started by Betty Gonzalez30 · · 👁 2 views · 16 replies

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Participants Betty Gonzalez30Carl Brown4John Palmer4amberorca192rustyrider40driftingdriver4
Betty Gonzalez30 Betty Gonzalez30 Active MemberOP
55 messages
joined Dec 2003
#1 ·
I’ve been messing around with a few different programs lately, but I keep hitting this massive wall: whenever I try to print the PDF, the image size just doesn't match up with the original file. It always ends up coming out a few millimeters too small, which makes the whole thing pretty much useless for me—I'm working with electronics and printed circuit boards here, so precision is everything. If anyone knows a solid program that actually handles scaling correctly for stuff like this, please, hit me up!

PS
So far, I've given Adobe Acrobat and Smallpdf a shot, but both of them keep giving me that same tiny, undersized printout...
Carl Brown4 Carl Brown4 Member
12 messages
joined May 2005
#2 ·
Try using www.smallpdf.com. It's straightforward. Works well enough for me.

Carl Brown4
John Palmer4 John Palmer4 Active Member
50 messages
joined Oct 2008
#3 ·
What about using Adobe Acrobat?
Carl Brown4 Carl Brown4 Member
12 messages
joined May 2005
#4 ·
John Palmer4 said:what about Adobe Acrobat?

It isn't free.
amberorca192 amberorca192 Active Member
118 messages
joined Oct 2005
#5 ·
Who isn't free?😕
Carl Brown4 Carl Brown4 Member
12 messages
joined May 2005
#6 ·
amberorca192 said:Who isn't free?😕

Only Reader is free. Adobe Acrobat writer costs money.
rustyrider40 rustyrider40 Member
29 messages
joined Apr 2004
#7 ·
Carl Brown4 said:The only thing that's actually free is the reader. You're gonna have to pay up if you want to use Adobe Acrobat.

Honestly, if all you need to do is print stuff out, then the standard Adobe Acrobat reader gets the job done just fine...
John Palmer4 John Palmer4 Active Member
50 messages
joined Oct 2008
#8 ·
Carl Brown4 said:It’s not free.

I mean, did anyone actually say it had to be free? 😁

By the way, let's just assume Roger Wood50 is running all legitimate software on his rig... 😁
Betty Gonzalez30 Betty Gonzalez30 Active MemberOP
55 messages
joined Dec 2003
#9 ·
John Palmer4 said:anyway, we can just assume Roger Wood50 is running strictly legitimate software on his rig... 😁

Keep making those assumptions if you want to 😁

On another note, I just realized my PDF scaling is acting totally bizarre—it only hits a 1:1 ratio if I force the paper size to something smaller, like a half-sheet or just manually typing in dimensions slightly under standard letter size. Everything looks fine then, but man... it’s absolute madness.
And God knows how much ink I wasted just trying to figure out what was going on. 🙂
Carl Brown4 Carl Brown4 Member
12 messages
joined May 2005
#10 ·
rustyrider40 said:Adobe Acrobat Reader works fine if you just need to print.

Wrong. The guy is asking how to convert other formats into a PDF, not how to send a file to a printer.
rustyrider40 rustyrider40 Member
29 messages
joined Apr 2004
#11 ·
Carl Brown4 said:Nah, man... The guy is asking how to convert another format *into* a PDF, not how to get a PDF to print.

Well, I guess I totally misread the situation then. To me, printing is just printing, nothing fancy. Honestly, if I were actually good at reading people's minds, I’d probably be richer than Bill Gates by now...
John Palmer4 John Palmer4 Active Member
50 messages
joined Oct 2008
#12 ·
So, basically, you just print to an Adobe virtual *****... 😁
Betty Gonzalez30 Betty Gonzalez30 Active MemberOP
55 messages
joined Dec 2003
#13 ·
rustyrider40 said:I guess I totally missed the point then. To me, printing is just printing—it’s not some magical transformation. If I were actually any good at reading people's minds, I’d probably be richer than Bill Gates by now.

Look, here's the deal: when you install software like that, it basically sets up a "virtual" printer. So you end up with two options instead of one—your regular physical printer and this new virtual one. When you're in Word and you select that second "virtual" option, instead of ink hitting paper, it just "prints" a .pdf file directly onto your hard drive. You get me?🙂
driftingdriver4 driftingdriver4 Member
28 messages
joined Apr 2007
#14 ·
Wouldn't it be way easier if you just printed it straight from a design program? You know, somewhere where you can actually play around with the contrast and get the sizing right before you hit print.

What I mean is... why does it absolutely have to be a PDF?
Betty Gonzalez30 Betty Gonzalez30 Active MemberOP
55 messages
joined Dec 2003
#15 ·
So, here’s the deal. I finish up all my work in one specific program at home, but now I need to get someone with a laser cutter to actually make it happen. I was thinking about dropping by a local machine shop or maybe a FedEx Office, but they probably won't let me install my own software—specifically P-CAD—on their workstations. It's just too much of a security headache for them.
That's why I'm looking for a universal file format that works everywhere.🙂
driftingdriver4 driftingdriver4 Member
28 messages
joined Apr 2007
#16 ·
This might sound like a bit of a silly question, but why aren't we using JPG, GIF, or even BMP? With those formats, you actually have some control over the dimensions and contrast of the print, which is huge when you're getting plates made for printing. Plus, they're universal. PDF just feels... I don't know, messy and blurry to me.
Betty Gonzalez30 Betty Gonzalez30 Active MemberOP
55 messages
joined Dec 2003
#17 ·
I mean, a JPEG or a GIF would totally do the trick, right? I’ve actually been trying to figure out how to get a decent DOC file out of CAD, but honestly, I can't seem to pull anything off besides just taking a basic screenshot.
If you happen to have any bright ideas on how to handle this, I'm all ears!

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