How to print a PDF to fit A4 (even if the format is wrong)

1 min read·24 July 2026

A PDF made in Letter format or with an unusual page size can cause problems when printing on A4. White borders, cropped text or a tiny printout — here are the solutions.

Adjust in the printer settings

In the print window (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P), under "Page sizing" or "Scale", choose "Fit to page" or "Shrink to printable area". The printer then automatically scales the PDF to A4. In Adobe Acrobat Reader this is called "Fit" under "Page size and handling".

Convert the PDF to A4 with PDFrust

Want to permanently change the page size? Use the "Resize PDF" tool on PDFrust. Choose A4 as the target format. The content is scaled proportionally and always fits on an A4 sheet, even if the original page is Letter or another size.

Resize PDF

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Landscape pages

Printing a landscape page on A4 works best if you also set the orientation to "landscape" in the printer settings. Otherwise choose "Fit to page" so the printer determines the rotation automatically.

Multiple pages on one A4 sheet

Want to save paper? Use the "Multiple pages per sheet" tool on PDFrust to put 2 or 4 PDF pages on one A4 sheet before printing.