How far are the printing areas from the edges of the paper????

Hi guys,

Im trying to create title blocks on 11x17 and 8.5x11 paper sizes while maximizing my printing space. Does any know how far is the offset from the edges of these sheets to the print area? and is there anyway I could see what the offset is for other paper sizes incase I need to make title blocks for other sizes?

sorry for the noob question

Thanks

The printable area is determined by the printing device. Newer printers can get very close to the edge but this is not always desirable and can lead to prints being cut off on older ones.

Do you have these two elements below checked to display? They are found on the options dialog, Display tab. You can measure the distance yourself with the DIST command(sub command of Measure). It may not be accurate, but it is good within a hundredth or so of a unit. The printable area limit is the dashed line.

There are no snaps on the paper background or the printable area line. You'll have to use a scientific measuring instrument suite called "Hand Eye Coordination".

Or, you can simply draw your border line a little bit inside the dashed line.

I use 24" x 36" full bleed with a printable area just over 0.03" inside the edge of the paper, but my border line is 1/4" inside the paper, except on the left side where I leave 3/4" for stapling space.

Don't go all crazy trying to squeeze every single square inch out of the paper. It's not worth the trouble. The border will get cut off on at least half the plotters out there if it is too close to the edge. It may work fine on yours but not on someone else's. This applies to pdf output as well, which is an exact digital copy of your plotter output.

Any border line closer than 1/4" from the edge of any paper is asking for trouble. Normally, when not using "Full Bleed" paper, even 1/2" is too close.

is there a safe distance from the edge of the paper to the print area that will work on all printers?

You must have missed this:

Any border line closer than 1/4" from the edge of any paper is asking for trouble. Normally, when not using "Full Bleed" paper, even 1/2" is too close.

And wear safety glasses.

Super simple draw a rectangle and plot it !

gEt a thing called a ruler and measure the two lines that plotted this will match exactly your hard clip limit. Come inside a fraction and redraw your rectang should see all 4 sides now.

After reading up on printing areas ive discovered that the printable area is due to the physical limitations of various printers. These limitations mean that there is a "printable area" on the page that is smaller than the paper itself, and that this printable area is a an area inside which the printer can operate optimally to produce the highest quality prints. Appearantly there are also driver options that can affect these limitations, but generally its the physical limitations of the printer. So Like Dana W said "Don't go all crazy trying to squeeze every single square inch out of the paper. It's not worth the trouble." and like RobDraw said "The printable area is determined by the printing device."

Thanks guys for your valuable input!

Glad to help.