Quilters Using Windows 10: Read This Before Printing PDF Files!

Do you have Windows 10 on your computer, and have you been having trouble getting your PDF quilting patterns to print out at the correct size?  If so, read on!

On my new Windows 10 laptop, I discovered that my Farmer's Wife 1930s foundation paper piecing pattern files (the ones that came on the CD with the book) were all printing out too small, so that my resulting blocks finished about almost a quarter inch too small.  I faulted my piecing precision, I accused myself of going nuts with the steam iron and shrinking paper AND fabric, and I even wondered whether the pattern files themselves were too small.  I checked my printer settings, both on the printer itself and through the computer's printer settings, and verified that both were set to print at 100% actual size with NO SCALING.

Finished Edge Should Measure 6" but Printed at 5 13/16"

And yet, when I printed my own templates or foundation piecing patterns directly from my EQ7 software, THEY printed out at exactly the right size.

Finished Edge of Block Exactly 6", Printed from EQ7 and Not a PDF File

Then I tried printing the PDF templates for one of Esther Aliu's beautiful BOM quilt projects and -- you guessed it -- it ALSO printed out slightly too small, just like the Farmer's Wife PDFs.  All of my PDF patterns, regardless of where I got the files, were all printing out at only about 96% of the correct size ever since I "upgraded" to Windows 10.  So I figured that something was telling my computer to scale all of my PDF documents specifically.  And that's exactly what the problem turned out to be.  I found the solution here on superuser, where someone else had posted about their multi-page poster PDFs automatically shrinking down to fit on one page in Windows 10.

Windows 10 has its own built-in PDF viewer "app" that opens PDF files by default, and that program automatically scales all of your PDF documents (shrinking them slightly) when it prints them.  This handy-dandy Win 10 PDF reader does not show you anywhere that it is doing this, and there is no way to print a PDF document at actual size through the Win 10 PDF viewing app.  How stupid is that?! 

Fortunately, the solution is an easy one.  Just go to Adobe's web site and download their free Adobe Acrobat Reader DC here, and then set Adobe Acrobat as your default program for opening PDF files.  When you open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, you will see your options for scaling or printing at actual size.  That way your 6" block patterns will result in actual 6" blocks, not 5 3/4" blocks. 

My 6" Sampler Blocks

Please share this with other quilters you know.  It is such heartache to spend two days precisely piecing an intricate block, only to have it finish too small due to unforeseen technical difficulties.  Now that I have wasted half a ream of newsprint working this out, I deserve to go back to my studio to make a block as a reward -- a CORRECTLY SIZED block this time!

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and Esther's WIPs on Wednesday.