How to Print a PDF (Without Wasting a Ream)
The short answer
Printing a PDF is the same as printing anything else: open it, press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P), pick a printer, and hit Print. The differences from normal documents are the settings — page size, orientation, scaling — because PDFs are fixed layouts and don’t reflow. A minute of settings-checking beats a wasted ream of paper.
The three settings that matter
- Page size. The PDF was designed for a size (Letter, A4, legal). If your printer tray has the wrong paper, select the right one in the dialog — some printers auto-fit, others cut off margins.
- Scaling. This is where “it printed wrong” usually comes from. Fit to page shrinks content slightly to match the paper; actual size prints it as designed and may clip. If content is cut off at the edges, try Fit to page.
- Pages. All, a range, or specific pages. The dialog’s preview shows exactly what will print — use it.
That’s the whole secret: check the preview, adjust, print.
Print double-sided (if the document allows)
Most print dialogs have a two-sided option — it’s usually in the printer properties rather than the main dialog. Printers without duplex do it manually: print odd pages, flip the stack, print even pages. The honest gotcha: a PDF with a cover page throws off the odd/even math, so test with one page first.
The honest part
Three PDF-specific quirks:
- Backgrounds may vanish. Many printers skip background colors and images unless you enable “background graphics” in the dialog — the page prints with blank boxes where dark areas should be.
- Scanned PDFs print at scan quality. A low-res scan prints exactly that low-res. Printing to PDF won’t fix it either — the quality was decided at scan time.
- Color pages cost color. A PDF with photos will drain color ink. If it’s a text document with photos that don’t matter, print in grayscale — most dialogs have a color mode setting. For converting the file itself to grayscale, see the dedicated guide.