Owning a print device is one thing and knowing how to use it is another. It is quite common to find that there are people who still do not know how to operate this device properly, which can result to poorly printed documents. Do not worry; it is not a crime. There is always room for learning. Not being able to print the right size through the print device is a problem that can quickly be sorted out but before getting into that, a little study below will help you learn a thing or two on how the device works so that you never face issues such as printing the wrong size gain.


Most people would identify a printer as a physical device. Well, they are not far from the actual meaning as such because previous window versions such as Windows 95 and 98 or MS dos supported that meaning by practice.


From the perspective of the latest window versions systems such as Windows XP and others that came after it, a printer is not a physical print device, preferably a logical software that converts computer documents into instructions that can be printed on a paper through the print device. The print device is the actual physical device or machine used in computing to print out documents on a paper.


Printer Configurations : fix my printer

The printer in Windows is made of three different parts which are;

  • The print device (physical printer)
  • The print driver, and;
  • The spooler.

The print device works together with the print driver and spooler in Windows to form a logical printer. The scientific name given to the computer used in the printing process is the Print Server.

When you want to print a document (commanding the device to print), the following happens:

  • Windows submits the text to the print spooler- a software that manages saving of documents in the hard disk and sending them to the print device.
  • As mentioned earlier, the print spooler will work together with the print driver to convert the data into an appropriate language that the print device can understand. The language can be, PostScript (created by Adobe), Escape Codes (used to control dot matrix printers) and PCL (created by Hewlett-Packard)
  • When the translation completes, the document is saved in a file within the hard disk drive found in the spooler. The part of the hard drive storing the print jobs is called a Print Queue.
  • Then, the document is sent to the print device for a printout. fix my printer

Once all these steps are done, the configuration of the logical printer will be complete. To not get confused, keep in mind that Windows sends a job to a printer-a logical entity that is a combination of the print driver, the print device and the spooler which all work together. fix my printer

Why My Document Print So Small?

Ever had a failed attempt to print a document in MS Word? You probably ended up printing a much smaller size of that document. When that happens, the only logical reason is a modification of the page size by the person that prepared the previous document. Smaller page size is not a problem if it is the required document size and can always be modified.

image credit to brother

MS word default page size is 8.5 by 11 inches for letter paper size. The size of the document can be altered to meet the desired size. MS Word is designed in a very thoughtful manner that is inclusive for all kinds of documents and their required measurements. fix my printer

How Do I Fix Paper Size On MS Word? : fix my printer

Need to fix the size of your document? Follow these steps:

  • Open your MS Word document
  • Set your eyes on the taskbar and you’ll see the ‘Page Layout’ tab
  • Click the ‘page layout’ tab and select ‘size’ button in the page setup group
  • The drop-down menu will then appear, which gives you different size options to choose from according to your desires.
  • Set the desired width and height by typing in the boxes that appear in the paper size section. Tap ‘OK’ to effect the size change.
  • After that save your document by opening the ‘file’ menu and saving it in a folder of your choice or print the document directly with its new size by clicking ‘Print’ to get a printout.

NOTE

  • The procedures might change depending on the MS Word version you are using.
  • Every program you use to print offers you an option for scale adjustment of printing. Check to see that it is set to 100%, or any other scale size of preference. If there is no issue with the scaling, then the problem can be the Printing settings which solution is already provided above. fix my printer