I am trying to print some drill drawings and fab drawings to pdf but when i select print then page setup the only two options are A4 and letter but I am using a 11x17 page size within pcbnew. Not sure why so of course when I print half of the graphics are cut off.
I verified in eeschema all the page sizes are available when trying to print.
Any ideas?
Do not use the “print” dialog, but use “plot” instead. to make your pdf.
“Print” rasterises to some fixed grid, while “plot” preserves the vectors.
Also,
Printers often deviate a bit from their ideal resolution (upto a few precent) and scaling in X and Y directions can be different.
Some programs have means to callibrate this but this is not really implemented in Pcbnew. It may be a better option to plot to a file in .DXF or .SVG format, and then use another program for the actual printing.
The reasoning that I’ve heard for this (though it might not be true) is as an anti-counterfitting measure. Currency printed slightly off in scaling will be caught in a bill-feeder. Unfortunately, for those of us why want dimensional accuracy from our printers for non-illicit reasons have to bear the burden.
This would be a very silly anti-counterfeitng measure.
It simply is not a very important factor for hosehold printers, which are designed around good enough, and cheap. (And planned obsolescence).
Thanks! I did not see this output selection when plotting the Gerber files.
Hi, Paulvdh
Thanks a lot for explaining that about print versus plot. So…what is the advantage of printing? I do appreciate (recently learned) that .pdf plots are searchable while .pdf prints are not.
Are you old enough to remember pinko commie plots? 
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.