How to Print a Calendar PDF at Actual Size: Print Settings for Edge, Mac and Home Printers

To print a calendar PDF at its designed size, choose Actual size, which Microsoft Edge describes as printing “the document in its original size without any scaling.” Use Fit when the paper in your printer differs from the page. This guide gives the option names from Microsoft and Apple, a table of fixes for cut-off and shrunken pages, and a one-page checklist to print and keep.

Our printables are US Letter (8.5 x 11 in) PDFs with real vector text, and every line of text sits at least 0.25 in from the edge. You can pick any of them from the free printable calendars or, for this month, the November printable calendars.

Print settings in Edge and on a Mac

Option names differ by app and printer, so this table lists only the ones the vendors document.

App	Setting	What the vendor says
Microsoft Edge	Scale: Fit	“Automatically adjust the size of the content to fit within the printable area of the paper.”
Microsoft Edge	Scale: Actual size	“Prints the document in its original size without any scaling.”
Microsoft Edge	Margins: Default	“Will leave 1-inch margins on all sides.”
Microsoft Edge	Margins: None	“Eliminates margins on all sides.”
Mac print dialog	Scale Down Only	“Keep smaller documents at their original size.”
Mac print dialog	Paper Handling, scale to fit paper size	Then choose your printer’s paper size from the Destination Paper Size menu.

Sources: Microsoft Support, Print in Microsoft Edge; Apple Support, Choose print options before you print on Mac. Both pages were checked on Oct. 30, 2026.

Apple’s Preview page, for PDFs that look the wrong size, states “Size on screen equals size on printout.” Check the preview before sending the job.

Why do printed calendar edges get cut off?

Every printer has an area it can reach. Canon says “the actual printable area will be the area inside these margins” and recommends printing within it. Its table lists the printable area for Letter paper as 203.2 x 271.4 mm, or 8.0 x 10.7 in.

That figure is the printable area, not the paper size. Against an 8.5 x 11 in sheet it leaves about 0.25 in on each side and about 0.15 in at the top and bottom (our arithmetic, not Canon’s). Epson’s spec sheet for one inkjet model, the ET-3700, lists top and bottom margins of 0.12 inch (3 mm) on single sheets. That is one model, so check your own printer’s manual.

This is why our PDFs keep text 0.25 in from every edge. A date box drawn to the very edge of a page falls outside the printable area.

Width and height	US Letter paper	Canon printable area, Letter	Margin left over (computed)
Width	8.5 in	8.0 in	0.25 in each side
Height	11 in	10.7 in	0.15 in top and bottom

What does borderless printing change?

Canon says that by selecting Borderless Printing, “printing with no margins is possible.” Not every printer has the mode. An Epson specification page adds that “when printing borderless, quality may decline in the expanded printable area.”

A calendar with a 0.25 in inner edge does not need it. A grid with text 0.25 in inside the edge prints in full without borderless mode, and Edge’s Margins: None only changes the dialog, not what the printer can reach.

Calendar printing problems and fixes

Problem	Check	Fix
Edges or the footer are cut off	Paper size in the dialog against the paper in the tray	Match the paper size. If the tray holds A4, choose Fit in Edge or scale to fit paper size on a Mac so the Letter page is not clipped.
The page looks smaller than expected	Scale setting	Fit adjusts content to the printable area, and Edge’s Default margins are 1 inch. Try Actual size, which uses no scaling.
Pages print in the wrong size on a Mac	Paper Handling	Choose scale to fit paper size, then your printer’s paper size from Destination Paper Size.
A smaller document does not stay its original size on a Mac	Scale Down Only	Select it to keep smaller documents at their original size.
The printer cannot reach the edge	Printer manual	Print within its printable area (Canon’s advice) or use Borderless Printing if the printer has it.

A4 measurements and option names for Adobe Acrobat and Google Chrome are not covered here because those pages were not reachable or confirmed when we checked.

Calendar printing checklist to print and keep

The checklist PDF has 13 tick boxes: paper size, orientation, scale, edges and a test page. It comes in a standard and an ink-saver version, with a notes area for your own printer’s settings.

Print one test page before a stack, especially for a yearly sheet such as the printable yearly calendar. Once the settings work, they apply to any of the sheets in this series, from the November 2026 calendar printables to the December 2026 set. If you are choosing between a Sunday and a Monday first column, see Monday start vs. Sunday start calendars.