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Brian Taylor2

Q: Always Prints at 200%

This is for a colleague - I can't figure it out.
His MacBook Pro always prints at 200%, no matter what application he's in. He can change it to 100% in the print dialog, but has to change it every single time, as it always reverts back to 200%. Where to I set this to 100% so he doesn't have to change it?

17" Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Sep 8, 2008 1:01 PM

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Q: Always Prints at 200%

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  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Sep 8, 2008 1:51 PM in response to Brian Taylor2
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Sep 8, 2008 1:51 PM in response to Brian Taylor2
    That's strange. In Safari, the scale always reverts back to 100%, no matter what setting is used. AFAICT, the scale setting in Page Setup is retained when the document is saved. Open an untitled document (TextEdit is used for this example), select Page Setup (CMDSHIFTP), set the scale to 100%. click on the Settings: dropdown, and select Save as Default. Your colleague might have to do that for all text and other programs.
  • by John Blanchard1,

    John Blanchard1 John Blanchard1 Sep 8, 2008 9:24 PM in response to baltwo
    Level 5 (5,268 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 8, 2008 9:24 PM in response to baltwo
    The above is correct. Use TextEdit or any other app that has a Page Setup Dialog, set the scale to 100%, then use the Save As Default in the Settings menu.

    Another solution is to delete the com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist file in /<home>/Library/Preferences. That will reset any other preferences you have set though.
  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Sep 8, 2008 10:16 PM in response to John Blanchard1
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Sep 8, 2008 10:16 PM in response to John Blanchard1
    I looked at all those printing plists, but none of them addressed the Print Setup scaling factor. I surmise that those are buried within each apps plists, so doing the Save as Default thing is probably the best way to solve the issue.
  • by John Blanchard1,

    John Blanchard1 John Blanchard1 Sep 9, 2008 10:25 AM in response to baltwo
    Level 5 (5,268 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 9, 2008 10:25 AM in response to baltwo
    I couldn't find the scale in any of the plists either, but throwing away the com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist reset the scale to 100%. I don't think that the scaling factor is saved on a per-app basis, because of what happens when throwing away the com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist file and also because making a change to scale in TextEdit causes the change to appear in, for example, Safari.

    That said, your way is probably the easiest and the safest.
  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Sep 9, 2008 10:40 AM in response to John Blanchard1
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Sep 9, 2008 10:40 AM in response to John Blanchard1
    Thanks for the follow-up. I don't have the issue, so deleting the plist won't change anything. Let's see what the OP tries.
  • by Brian Taylor2,

    Brian Taylor2 Brian Taylor2 Sep 9, 2008 10:56 AM in response to Brian Taylor2
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Sep 9, 2008 10:56 AM in response to Brian Taylor2
    We'll have to wait for his reply - he is offsite for the rest of the week.