It is a frequent need for us to print Excel sheets. While printing, we face a problem very often which is our printed sheet seems smaller than the original format of the Excel sheet. If you have also encountered the same problem and are finding the solution, you have landed in the perfect place. In this article, I will show you all the possible fixes to the problem: “why is my Excel sheet printing so small”.
Possible Reasons Why Excel Sheet Prints Very Small
There are mainly 4 most frequent issues for Excel sheet’s small printing. Such as:
- Small Scaling Ratio
- Wrong Page Size Selection
- Improper Page Orientation
- Erroneous Margins
5 Solutions If Excel Sheet Is Printing Unusually Small
1. Access the Page Layout Tab to Scale Page
One of the major reasons for your problem is your page is scaled at the wrong ratio when printing. You can follow the steps below to fix this problem.
📌 Steps:
- First and foremost, go to the Page Layout tab from the ribbon.
- Afterward, go to the Scale to Fit group >> from the Width tool options, choose the 1 Page option >> from the Height tool options, choose the Automatic option.
You can see, that the Scale option is greyed out and it is fixed to 100%. As a result, you will see that your printing will now have the same scaling as the original Excel sheet and thus it would not be smaller.
Note:
In this process, the height is automatically fixed. So, if you have a large number of rows, there would be multiple pages when printing. But if you want to get them on a single page, you have to choose the Height tool options as 1 Page. But, it would shrink the rows of your sheet when printing.
Read more: How to Adjust Page Size for Printing in Excel (6 Quick Tricks)
2. Make Changes in Print Menu Options
Another great solution to your problem might be changing the Print menu options. Follow the steps below to try this.
📌 Steps:
- At the very beginning, go to the File tab from the Excel ribbon.
- Subsequently, click on the Print option from the expanded File tab.
- At this time, the Print window will open.
- Afterward, click on the last option from the Settings group >> choose the No Scaling option.
As a result, there will be no scaling in the print and you will get the exact sized print of your Excel sheet.
Read more: How to Fit to Page in Excel (3 Easy Ways)
3. Change Page Size
Sometimes, you can solve your printing issue by changing the page size. Follow the steps below to do this.
📌 Steps:
- First, go to the File tab.
- Second, go to the Print menu from the expanded File tab.
- Consequently, the Print window will appear.
- Now, click on the page size option which is selected as Letter by default, and change it to some other size from the dropdown listed options.
- You can choose the A3 option as this size is bigger than the default one. And as a result, you can get the print of the full dataset at the exact size of an Excel sheet.
As a result, you will see that your printing size doesn’t get smaller than the actual Excel sheet.
Read more: How to Add A3 Paper Size in Excel (2 Quick Ways)
4. Change Page Orientation
Moreover, you can solve your printing size issue by changing the page orientation. Go through the steps below to accomplish this.
📌 Steps:
- Initially, go to the File tab.
- Subsequently, go to the Print menu.
- As a result, the Print window will open now.
- Afterward, click on the Orientation tool which is set as Portrait Orientation by default.
- Next, change the orientation to Landscape Orientation if you have a large number of columns.
Thus, you can print your whole Excel sheet as the exact size of your Excel file.
Read more: Excel Fit to Page Scale/Preview Looks Small (5 Suitable Solutions)
5. Customize Default Margins
You can also customize the default margins to print your Excel sheet in exact size. Follow the steps below to achieve this.
📌 Steps:
- Similar to the previous two fixes, go to the File tab at first.
- Then, go to the Print menu from the expanded File tab.
- Afterward, click on the Margins option which is chosen as Normal by default. Now, change this option to the Narrow option.
As a result, you will be able to narrow your print’s margin and get the exact size of the contents of your Excel sheet.
Read more: How to Stretch Excel Spreadsheet to Full Page Print (5 Easy Ways)
Conclusion
To conclude, in this article, I have shown the 5 most possible solutions to fix the problem “why is my Excel sheet printing so small”. I would suggest you go through the full article carefully and practice thoroughly. I hope you find this article helpful and informative. If you have any further queries or recommendations, please feel free to comment here.
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