Word, virtual PDF printers, and paper size

Question

I've used many PDF printers, and with all of them I have this weird problem that A4-sized pages produce Letter-sized PDFs.

This has something to do with the default paper size selected from Printer Properties for the given printer. If it's Letter, then A4-sized docs produce Letter-sized PDFs, and if it's A4, then Letter-sized docs produce A4-sized PDFs. DOC files that have page sizes other than A4 or Letter produce correct PDFs. If the default paper size of the printer is something else, like Tabloid or A3, then both A4 and Letter-sized docs produce correctly sized PDFs, and all other sizes also produce correctly sized PDFs.

It happens with all sorts of PDF Printers produced by different software companies, so it's unlikely the error is with them (all of them have the same error?). I'm thinking may be Word treats Letter and A4 in a special way, but I'm not sure.

Any idea why this happens?

Answer 1

Indeed, there is a special handling of A4/Letter formats which can be disabled. The following may help your problem.

In Word 2007/2010,

• In the big Ribbon button, go in Word Options (File, Options in 2010)
• Advanced tab
• Printing section
• Uncheck "Scale content for A4 or 8.5 x 11" paper sizes"