Actual Size vs Fit to Page for MTG Proxies: Which Print Setting Should You Use?

TLDR

For reliable mtg proxy print scaling, use Actual Size or Custom Scale at 100% when the PDF page size matches both the loaded paper and the paper size selected in your printer settings. Turn off Fit, Scale to Fit, automatic enlargement, and borderless expansion. Print one test sheet before committing an entire deck. Actual Size preserves the PDF’s scale, but it cannot repair a badly sized PDF or force an oversized layout into your printer’s usable area.

Fit to Page is convenient when getting everything onto the sheet matters more than exact card dimensions. That is usually the wrong tradeoff for proxies intended to fit sleeves or sit over backing cards. The dangerous part is that a fitted page can look perfectly normal while every card is a little too small. Your PDF viewer has not betrayed you exactly; it has merely obeyed an unhelpful instruction with tremendous efficiency.

Actual Size, 100%, Fit, and Shrink explained

In Adobe Acrobat, Actual Size prints a page without scaling. A Custom Scale value of 100% provides the equivalent percentage-based instruction. Fit can enlarge or reduce the PDF page to fit the selected paper’s printable area, while Shrink Oversized Pages reduces pages that are too large but does not enlarge smaller pages. Adobe documents these controls in its official PDF page-sizing guidance.

Print setting	What it does	Use it for proxy sheets?
Actual Size	Sends the PDF at its intended physical scale without viewer-side resizing.	Yes, when the PDF and paper sizes match.
Custom Scale: 100%	Uses an explicit percentage while preserving the same intended scale.	Yes. It is a useful alternative when Actual Size is not shown.
Fit or Fit to Page	Reduces or enlarges the page to fit the selected printable area.	Usually no. It may change card dimensions.
Shrink Oversized Pages	Reduces pages considered too large but leaves smaller pages alone.	Only as a diagnostic or when exact dimensions do not matter.
Custom Scale below or above 100%	Deliberately shrinks or enlarges the output.	Only when correcting a measured, repeatable error with a known cause.

The important phrase is “viewer-side resizing.” Selecting 100% stops that application from intentionally scaling the page, but scaling can still happen later in the print chain. It also does nothing to correct a PDF whose page or cards were exported at the wrong physical dimensions.

MTG proxy print scaling is a chain, not one checkbox

A proxy sheet passes through several layers before ink reaches paper. Any mismatch can alter the result or cause clipping:

PDF page dimensions: The file itself is built for a particular physical page size and card layout.
Loaded paper: The sheet in the tray must match the intended page format.
Application print dialog: The PDF viewer may apply Actual Size, Fit, Shrink, or a custom percentage.
Operating-system dialog: A system-level dialog may introduce its own paper and scaling choices.
Printer driver: The driver can apply Scale to Fit, enlargement, reduction, poster, or borderless controls.
Printer hardware: The printer has a physical imageable area and may not print to every edge of ordinary paper.

Let’s Proxy’s current guidance recommends using PDF output, matching the page size to the loaded paper and driver setting, selecting Actual Size or 100%, and running a test sheet before a larger job. The broader MTG proxy print settings guide covers the related PDF, paper, media, and print-quality choices.

Why Fit to Page makes proxies too small

Fit does not ask whether the cards are already the correct size. It compares the PDF page with the printable region reported for the selected paper. If the PDF extends beyond that region, the application may reduce the entire page until everything fits. Every card, gutter, border, and crop mark shrinks together.

This commonly happens when a PDF was prepared for edge-to-edge output but the printer requires unprinted margins. It can also happen when an A4 file is sent to a Letter setup, a Letter file is sent to A4, or the printer driver has a smaller paper size selected than the application does.

The preview may not make a small reduction obvious. A neat 3-by-3 grid still looks like a neat 3-by-3 grid. The problem becomes clear only after cutting a card and placing it in a sleeve or over a known-good card. For the same reason, “the whole bottom row is finally visible” is not proof that Fit solved the problem. It may have hidden a paper-size or margin mismatch by shrinking everything.

Why Actual Size can still clip the sheet

Actual Size preserves the PDF’s scale; it does not guarantee that the selected printer can image the full page at that scale. Adobe notes that content outside the available paper or printable region can be cropped rather than automatically corrected.

If Actual Size clips the bottom row or outer columns, check the setup instead of immediately shrinking the cards. Likely causes include:

The PDF page is A4 while Letter paper is loaded, or the reverse.
The paper size selected in the viewer differs from the driver’s paper size.
Crop marks, bleed, or page furniture extend beyond the printer’s usable area.
The 3-by-3 layout fits the physical sheet but not the printer’s imageable region.
The printer driver is rotating, centering, or imposing margins differently from the preview.
The PDF itself was exported with an oversized page or misplaced content.

A nine-card layout is not automatically safe just because the arithmetic works on the full sheet. Margins, gutters, bleed, trim allowances, and the printer’s imageable area all consume space. See the guides to how many MTG proxies fit on a page and 3-by-3 margins and gutters when a row or column keeps disappearing.

Letter, A4, and nine-card layouts

Letter and A4 are different page formats. Printing a PDF designed for one onto the other at 100% does not transform the layout. It places the original-sized content on differently proportioned paper. Depending on the orientation and margins, that can leave extra space in one direction while clipping content in another.

Fit will usually make the page fit, but it does so by changing scale. That may be acceptable for a rules reference or a temporary oversized table aid. It is not ideal when the finished proxy must match a sleeve, backing card, or existing deck.

For dimension-sensitive output, choose a PDF generated for the paper you actually have. Then make the same selection in the PDF viewer and printer driver. If you must use a mismatched page format, rebuild or re-export the layout for the new paper rather than relying on Fit. The MTG proxy card size guide can help when checking whether the underlying card layout—not merely the page—is dimensioned correctly.

Borderless printing can secretly enlarge the page

Borderless printing sounds useful because it removes white edges, but many borderless workflows achieve that result by expanding the image slightly beyond the paper. Epson, for example, documents an Auto Expand option that enlarges output to eliminate white borders. Its Retain Size option avoids that expansion but may leave white edges if the source image does not extend beyond the paper. This is a documented Epson example, not a universal description of every printer. Epson’s borderless layout documentation explains the distinction.

That expansion is helpful for photographs because a little edge cropping is usually preferable to an accidental white strip. It is risky for proxy sheets because enlargement changes card dimensions and can crop outer cut lines or borders.

Start with ordinary non-borderless printing, sufficient margins, and 100% scale. Use borderless mode only when the sheet was deliberately designed with bleed and you have confirmed how that printer and driver handle expansion. Bleed is expendable artwork outside the trim line; it is not permission to crop rules text, mana symbols, or the card border you intended to measure.

A one-sheet verification workflow

Do not use a 100-card Commander deck as your printer-calibration consumable. One plain-paper sheet can reveal almost every scaling problem that matters.

Inspect the PDF page properties and identify whether it is Letter, A4, or another format.
Load that exact paper format and confirm its orientation.
Select the same paper size in both the application print dialog and printer driver.
Choose Actual Size or Custom Scale at 100%.
Disable Fit, Scale to Fit, Shrink Oversized Pages, automatic enlargement, and borderless expansion.
Print one page on inexpensive plain paper.
Measure the printed card width and height rather than measuring only the full page.
Cut one card accurately enough to test its physical footprint.
Place it in the sleeve and compare it with a known-good card or proxy behind it.
Check the outer row for clipping and inspect whether cut lines, borders, and gutters remain usable.

Let’s Proxy’s file-quality guidance likewise recommends a PDF, 100% or Actual Size, and a plain-paper comparison test before the production run. Measuring the card itself is important: the page can be centered and attractive while the individual cards are uniformly wrong.

Symptom-to-fix troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to try
Every card is slightly too small	Fit, Scale to Fit, or a custom percentage below 100%	Select Actual Size or 100% in every available print layer, then retest.
Every card is slightly too large	Borderless expansion or a custom percentage above 100%	Turn off borderless Auto Expand and check the driver’s scale control.
Bottom row or outer column is clipped	Wrong paper size or insufficient imageable area	Match PDF, loaded paper, and driver size; use a layout with larger margins rather than shrinking cards.
A4 PDF behaves strangely on Letter paper	Page-format mismatch	Export a Letter version or load A4 paper. Do not use Fit when card size must remain exact.
Preview looks correct but paper is wrong	Driver-level scaling or borderless processing	Open printer properties and disable fitting, enlargement, or borderless expansion.
100% output is still the wrong size	The PDF itself was exported incorrectly	Check the PDF’s physical page and card dimensions, then regenerate it.
Cards fit, but cut lines disappear	Bleed, crop marks, or margins exceed the printable area	Use a layout designed for the printer’s usable region and preserve adequate gutters.

When a custom scale percentage is reasonable

Custom scaling can be useful when you have measured a consistent hardware or workflow error and cannot regenerate the source. Treat it as a controlled correction, not a guessing game. Print a test at 100%, measure the resulting card, calculate the needed percentage from intended size divided by measured size, and test again.

Do not use a custom percentage to rescue one clipped edge before finding the cause. Shrinking the entire sheet may make the edge visible while creating undersized cards. Also avoid stacking corrections: a 99% application setting plus driver fitting plus borderless expansion can produce an output that is difficult to predict and harder to reproduce later.

The setting to use before printing a full deck

Use Actual Size or 100% when the PDF was prepared at the correct physical size and all paper settings match. Use Fit only when preserving the entire page matters more than preserving card dimensions. If Actual Size clips, diagnose the page format, printable area, margins, gutters, and driver settings instead of automatically shrinking the sheet.

After one measured test card fits correctly in its sleeve, save or note the working settings before printing the rest. If repeated paper and driver limitations make a large home run impractical, bulk MTG proxy printing is a reasonable alternative to fighting the same scaling chain across an entire deck. Either way, the next action is the same: verify one physical card before producing the other ninety-nine.