How to print at actual size, and check it with a ruler
On September 27, 2026 we printed our own quarter inch graph paper to a PDF, the way a visitor's Print button does, and measured it. The squares came out 0.22 inch wide. Every full-page sheet on the site was printing at about 88% of the size it was drawn, the smaller puzzle grids were stretched to the width of the page instead, and nothing on screen looked wrong. Here is why that happens, how to stop it, and how to catch it with a ruler before you print thirty copies.
Why a printable shrinks
A sheet can only print at its true size if nothing between the drawing and the paper rescales it. There are three places where something usually does.
- The page around the sheet. A web page lays a sheet out to fit its own column, with the printer's margins taken off first. Our sheets were drawn 8.5 inches wide, the printable width was narrower, so the browser shrank them to fit. That was our bug, and it cost 12%.
- The print dialog. Settings called Fit to page, Fit to printable area or Shrink to fit scale the whole sheet down so its edges land inside the printer's margins. They exist for documents, where a few percent does not matter.
- The paper. A US Letter sheet printed on A4 paper is either scaled to fit or cropped. A4 is 8.27 inches wide against Letter's 8.5, so at 100% about an eighth of an inch goes missing at each side.
For a coloring page none of this matters. For graph paper, a crown that has to fit a head, stencil letters of a stated height or a calendar box you plan to write in, it does.
The settings that print at true size
In the print dialog, look for a scale or size setting and choose Actual size, 100% or Default. Avoid Fit to page, Fit to printable area and Shrink oversized pages. The names change between browsers, PDF readers and printer drivers, but those are the words to look for.
Pick the paper size the sheet was made for. Every sheet on Rainypad is drawn for US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches.
Leave the printer's own quality and paper type settings alone. They change the ink, not the size.
What we changed on Rainypad
Since September 27, 2026, the Print button under each sheet sends a full US Letter sheet as the whole page, with no page margin of its own, so the browser has nothing to shrink it into. A smaller sheet, a sudoku grid or a word search, prints at its own size with its title and word list around it. We checked by printing sheets to PDF and measuring: the quarter inch squares now measure 0.2500 inch.
Printing the whole page with your browser's own Print command prints every sheet on the page, one to a sheet of paper. The button under a sheet prints just that one.
The ruler test
Before printing a stack, print one copy and measure something whose size you know.
| Sheet | Measure | It should be |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter inch graph paper | 10 squares in a row | 2.5 inches |
| Half inch graph paper | 4 squares | 2 inches |
| 1 cm graph paper | 10 squares | 10 cm |
| Any US Letter sheet | The paper itself | 8.5 by 11 inches |
If 10 quarter inch squares measure 2.2 inches, you are at 88%, which is what we measured. If they measure 2.3 to 2.4, a Fit setting is shrinking the sheet by a few percent. Change the scale to 100% and print one more before printing the rest.
A checklist before printing a stack
- Paper: US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches.
- Scale: Actual size, 100% or Default. Not Fit to page, Fit to printable area or Shrink.
- One test copy first, then the ruler test above.
- Crafts: the crown states the head size it fits, and the stencils state their letter height. Check that number on the test copy before cutting.
- Printing from a saved PNG instead of the page? Our PNGs carry no size in inches, so the program printing them decides. Use the Print button on the page when size matters.
Why the edges may still be blank
Most home printers cannot print right up to the edge of the paper. They leave a thin border blank however the page is set up. On a full-page Rainypad sheet the small brand line sits about a tenth of an inch from the bottom edge, in that border, so if a printer trims it, nothing on the sheet itself is lost.
What this guide does not decide
- Which printer to buy, or whether yours supports borderless printing. Check its manual.
- How other websites' PDFs are set up. The dialog settings above apply to any PDF, but we only measured our own sheets.
Print them
Frequently asked questions
Why does my printable come out smaller than it should?
Something between the sheet and the paper is scaling it down: a web page fitting the sheet into its margins, or a Fit to page or Shrink to fit setting in the print dialog. Choose Actual size or 100% and print on the paper size the sheet was made for.
How do I check that I printed at actual size?
Measure something of known size. Ten squares of quarter inch graph paper should measure 2.5 inches. If they measure less, the page was scaled down.
Can I print a US Letter sheet on A4 paper?
Yes, but at 100% about an eighth of an inch is lost at each side, because A4 is 8.27 inches wide. If you let the printer fit it instead, everything prints about 3% smaller.
Check these numbers yourself
- Our own measurement: sheets printed to PDF in headless Chrome on US Letter, rendered at 200 dots per inch, grid spacing measured. 0.22 inch before the fix, 0.2500 inch after, September 27, 2026.
- Paper sizes: A4 is 210 by 297 mm (ISO 216), US Letter is 8.5 by 11 inches (ANSI/ASME Y14.1).