Getting margins correct in Pages - didn't print right

When I set left and right margins to 1", the margin which I measure on the paper sheet is 2.6 cm when 1" is 2.54.

I guess that with an other test I would get a slightly different value because the printer doesn't guarantee that the paper position would be nominal.

But as you see, we are in a difference in the range 2% not in a 20% one.

For the top margin, the difference is a bit larger : 2.8 cm which is in the range 10%.

Both measures were made on a single test.

When I print by error twice on a single page, the offset commonly reach half a millimeter.

I guess that if professional tools insert some lay mark, it's because they are aware that the printed area may move.

As far as I know, the trimmers cutting the pages work with a tolerance of 1 to 2 millimeters so I'm amused when I read that some users are annoyed by such variations.

On the other hand, I'm really puzzled by the 20% offset which you report.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 23 janvier 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.2

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Which model of printer do you have?

Is there somewhere in the printer dialog that says that is is printing to i.e. 95 % scale or such?