Not being an expert on these matters, I am struggling to understand Dorico’s definition of page margins and I’m wondering whether I’m missing something.
Based on the figure on page 729 of the Operations Manual, I would expect the distances A (left margin before the left-most object, i.e. instrument name), B (bottom margin below bottom of the copyright statement) and C (right margin from the right-most bar-line) to the paper edges to be 1.482cm (I can see how the margin to the top might be a bit different), but I’m finding them all three to be noticeable larger: 1.9, 2.2 and 2.1 cm (give or take).
I get the same result whether I print directly to the printer from Print Mode in Dorico with 100% scaling (see third figure),
May be look at the printer designated in the ‘Print setting’ dialogue box. Some printer margins cannot set below a certain value.
So, for example, if you request 1.2cm for the bottom margin, but your printer cannot go below 1.9cm, you will have a bottom margin of 1.9cm, even if you specify another value. 1.9cm is a very common value on inkjet printers.
Thanks. Yes, I use the Graphics option when working with PDF. Just to clarify, when you say “they look the same to me”, do you mean it looks the same when printing directly as when going via PDF, or did you measure the margins, and they are what you expected?
Yes, this might well be what is going on. But what is interesting is that I explicitly ask for no-scaling. So if the document margins are correct, but the printer can’t handle it, I would expect some of the music to not print at the edge. Do you know how I can check this (or should I just look for the printer documentation)? I have a laser-printer, not ink-yet.
Logically by going through your system’s print setup and not by staying in Dorico (I’m on MacOS and on Mac, we can bypass Dorico’s dialogue box and call up the system’s dialogue box itself ; I don’t know if this is possible on Windows, which I don’t know). Yes, the documentation of your printer gives always the minimum margin values in the printer specifications.
Not to add too much insight to the discussion, but I have a configured margin of 7mm in Dorico and I just measured the PDF out: 7mm, so no deviation here.
Latest Dorico on Windows 11.
The printed page gives 47pt on one side and 43 on the other, suggesting that my printer is slightly mis-aligned, but not scaling. The staff size is correct.
I suspect that somewhere in the print process, your printer [driver] is scaling to fit, rather than cropping. See if you can find the default settings in the printer’s control panel itself, or web front end, if it has one.
Ok, thanks everyone for checking things out. I’ve now also ‘measured’ the margins in the PDF themselves, and they are indeed correct. They still don’t print out properly, but it must then have something to do with the printer, even though my WIndows printing options specifically ask for no scaling and no margins. In any case, doesn’t seem to be a Dorico issue. Thanks again!
