Drawing guide
How to print a drawing reference at actual size
Updated
Check the printed measurements before you rule the drawing surface or assemble a tiled reference.
Actual size means preserving the dimensions stored in the PDF. It does not mean printing a photograph at the size it appears on your screen, or automatically filling the paper. ArtGrid reserves space for margins and a printing guide, so the grid rectangle is smaller than the sheet.
1. Match the paper and turn off automatic scaling
Export the PDF from ArtGrid, then select the same paper size in your PDF viewer and printer settings: an A4 file needs A4 paper for this example. Choose one PDF page per sheet, portrait orientation, and Actual Size or a custom scale of 100%. Control names vary between viewers; check the preview before printing.
Turn off Fit, Shrink Oversized Pages and borderless expansion for this measurement check. A fit setting can shrink the grid while a borderless setting can enlarge it. Start with one ordinary draft print. If an edge is clipped, check the selected paper and printer margins instead of shrinking the entire page to hide the problem.
2. Measure the 50 mm calibration bar
Find the horizontal bar labelled 50 mm in the PDF printing guide. On the physical sheet, measure from one end tick to the other with a ruler. It should measure 50 mm. The label alone proves nothing: it stays the same even when the printer changes the scale.
For example, a bar measuring 48 mm indicates a 48 / 50 = 0.96 scale factor: the print is 4% smaller than intended. Recheck the print settings and make another draft. Then measure a grid square horizontally and vertically as well; the single horizontal bar does not check both directions.
3. Check an A4 grid with six columns
To reproduce this example, select A4, choose Columns and enter 6. The reference has eight rows of 31 mm squares. Across all six columns the grid measures 186 mm; down all eight rows it measures 248 mm. Three adjacent squares should span 93 mm. Measure between grid-line centres, especially if you selected thick lines.
Do not divide the entire 210 × 297 mm A4 sheet into six by eight cells: that produces rectangles and ignores the print margins. If Target surface is enabled, distinguish the reference spacing from the destination spacing in the guide. The single-page reference PDF still fits on its selected paper; it is not a full-size print of a larger canvas.
4. Test before printing a full tiled reference
For an available tiled PDF export, page 1 contains assembly instructions and a calibration bar; the image tiles start on the following pages. Print the instruction page first and measure its bar, then print a tile and check its horizontal and vertical grid spacing before printing the remaining tiles. Keep the paper and scale settings unchanged.
Tiled exports above four sheets currently show an unlock or coming-soon control. Check the page-count preview before planning a large print. Once the draft measurements agree, keep the approved crop and PDF together so a later reprint uses the same reference.