100% scale default setting for PREVIEW printing

In Terminal application:

defaults write -app Preview PVImagePrintingScaleMode 0

No restart necessary

Worked for me on MacOS Sierra with all updates as of November 2016 (answer was already posted here by VikingOSX -- thank you!)

I've been having the same problem across multiple versions of the OS X Operating System within our office, (OS X 10.7.5 and upwards).

From the numerous forums it appears many people are raising a complaint on the matter and various workarounds offered but no apparent movement from Apple on providing a fix, or more precisely understanding why a fix is necessary.

To address the why it is an issue, below is a typical example of the process within the Office I work in:

• We daily produce accurate to scale drawings in a CAD package.
• We produce PDF versions of these at A4, A3 (and other) paper sizes.
• We open these PDFs in Preview to create accurate printed paper copies.
• We need these to be printed at 100% every time in order for them to remain at the correct accurate scale.
• As an example the PDF is A3 with a drawing scaled 1:100
• Preview will initial choose to default to A4 68% (which is A3 scaled down to slightly smaller than an actual A4 sheet).
• Changing the paper size to A3 in the print settings, Preview will choose to default to A3 97%.
• The result is it takes an accurately drawn A3 document at 1:100 and choses to shrink the document 3% so that the drawing shown is actually printing at 1:103 scale.
• Therefore for every single drawing we open and print by this method we have to;
  • Go into the print setting every single time,
  • Type 100% every single time, and
  • Select A3 every single time.
• If we fail to do this then we risk the drawings printing at the wrong scale and the Client's, Consultants and Contractors who rely on these to be accurate building or manufacturing to the wrong scale.

Changing the setting every single time, day in day out is tedious, time consuming and a waste of our valuable time resources. This is why we need to be able to control Preview's settings to a Default of our choice and not a random size of the Application's choice.

Please can this be addressed as a matter of urgency across the OS X versions. From the various Forums on the Apple boards and elsewhere from a quick Google search, this does not appear to be a new issue and is causing a daily headache for many long term Apple users.

Hope this helps further the debate and bring about a solution.

I know that the following command will complete ok on El Capitan 10.11.2, but can anyone confirm that it restores 100% print coverage back to Preview. Something that I have not noticed missing. I also set the Preview Preferences : PDF to this setting:

defaults write -app Preview PVImagePrintingScaleMode 0

You may have to restart for this to take. Also, see this post.

We just need sth. equivalent since printing presentations in wrong size isn't as funny as just getting it printed in 100% AS A DEFAULT.

The old OS X´s Terminal script was very useful:

defaults write com.apple.Preview PVImagePrintingScaleMode 0

On Yosemite 10.10.5 with its installed Preview, I can open a PDF, and in the Printing panel (see below), scale is preset to 100% by default.

That 100% appears without any PVImagePrintingScaleMode resource set in the com.apple.Preview.plist file. Even when setting that resource with a defaults write and -float 1.25 for 125%, this resource is apparently ignored, and 100% shows regardless.

Presets dont affect scaling.

Hi

and and there is a way to change the setting 'Reset Presets menu to "Default Settings" After Printing' from cli ?

I can't do that with defaults or plistbuddy…

I've start a new thread here :

Can't modify .plist with defaults or plistbuddy

Yeah, please fix thix. Sometimes I need to print very much. It takes so much longer now. It was just cmd+p before. Now it is cmd+o > cmd+p > type 100% (wait for some lag) and hit enter.

Please fix!

I'm not entirely sure I understand the problem here, but I think that the solution may be to use the 'Presets' dropdown on the Print Dialog that appears when you Print from Preview. This allows you to modify the Default Settings with 'Save Current Settings as Preset ...'. Also, and this is what I think you are looking for, there is a 'Show Presets...' dialog accessible from the same menu where you can select 'Reset Presets menu to "Default Settings" After Printing' as an option.

C.

My bad. Scale used to be stored as one of the Copies & Pages properties:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/89563/how-to-changing-printer-scaling-o n-mac-os-x-10-8-2

but on Yosemite this parameter is missing.

C.

bump! Need FIX!

Going back to Adobe Reader right now…

I just updated to 10.10.5 cause I thought the problem is solved there. Unhappy to say that, but …

NO … still not working 😟

Hopefully it will work with 10.11 next week.

This has been one of my biggest issues using Preview. It doesn't allow you to save Scaling presets. And by default it always set to "Scale to Fit". Is there no fix for this yet?!

This worked for me without even needed to restart.

Thank you VikingOSX