Card Size When Printing

[majestic goat]

Ok. Kind of new to C3G but I have searched the threads and found nothing. When I'm printing single cards they always come across as bigger than normal HS cards. Is this intentional by design? I've been reducing them down on the print scree to about 97% and that gets me close to standard HS card size. Anyone have and guidance on printing C3G cards (with only pdf reader and MS office) in a comparable size to regular HS? Thanks!

[IAmBatman]

Have you just been viewing the cards and printing screen, or saving them to your computer first and printing from there? My understanding is that the latter is more successful.

I usually print at Staples (when I print) and they're always sized well from there.

[majestic goat]

Saving them first. Just open them with adobe and print from there.

[IAmBatman]

I don't know, then. Hopefully some other folks will see this thread and give you suggestions.

[lefton4ya]

Make sure when you print, do not select "fit to page" but rather "100%/actual size". Some other tips from my Combine any 3 cards 3/page with GIMP Script-Fu thread

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

...
TIPS for anyone taking to printer (Staples, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, or local independent printshops):

• Save all pages you want to print in a root folder of the drive.
• Buy your own paper in the office part of the store then take to print part of the store and pint on your "own" paper. Paper costs less than $1 a page and printing on your own paper costs 50-60 cents/page, verses printshop cardstock is $2 a page, so saves at least 50 cents/page. Plus they usually do not stock the bets paper that you can buy.
• Buy 70-80 lb (175-220 gsm) semi-gloss. Glossy is fine but will might look too shiny compared to official cards. 50-65 lb (140-170 gsm) paper works OK, but won't be as thick as official cards. Sometimes it is advertised as index/cover or poster/catalog paper, but just look closely for the paper weight.
• Make sure when they print they do not crop/resize by unchecking boxes like "fit picture to frame" or "fit to window" in print dialogs. If you don't actually show them by watching them on the computer when printing, in my experience they do it wrong and the cards are slightly smaller and lower resolution than normal.
• If double sided on cardstock, office max and staples both have had issues in the past, with printers jamming, paper shredding, and people working there too ignorant to know how to flip pages correctly. Some printers are incapable of doing double-sided on anything more than 54 lb weight, and each office store has different printers, so if you really want double sided you might need to shop around testing 1 page at a time.
• Always ask to print one page first, check how it looks, then if it is good print the rest. Every one of my time I have been it takes at least a couple pages to get right.

Enjoy!

[majestic goat]

I think I kind of figured it out. I have to print the C3G cards as an image (check box in advanced properties). Then I choose the % option on the print screen and take it to 97 or 98%. Gets me pretty close. Kind of strange because the C3V pdf I print "actual size" on the print menu and they're golden. Kind of strange. Thanks for the help btw.