Printing Your Own Diary Inserts

I frequently see our diary inserts in use on blog posts and it is great to see them in use. However, there are a still a few people that struggle to print them for one reason or another.

To be able to give people step by step instructions covering every possible printer/computer combination with all the different versions of Word and all the different types of printer is just not practically possible. So I hope to be able give you enough hints and tips to help you identify the problems you have when printing the files out.

Paper
First of all we are going to discuss printing on A4/A5 paper, this covers the majority of the inserts available.

If you are in North America ISO standard size paper (A4/A5) is not readily available you generally use Letter size paper which is not the same as A4.

Lime Tree did an excellent post on printing inserts which she fully explains the differences in size of A4 and Letter size paper. If you don't have A4/A5 paper, I urge you to go and read that post now. When you have come back and continue from here!

If you are changing your computer/printer set up from printing on Letter size paper to A4/A5 paper you will need to adjust the settings on your printer and your computer so it knows you are printing on A4/A5 size paper, if you don't tell it you will get some odd printed results because of the physical different in the paper size in both width and length. Making these changes is going to vary from one operating system (Windows, Mac OS) to another. Try looking at the Help pages in Word and for your Printer on how to change these settings. 

Printing for A4/A5 organisers. 

If you are printing inserts for your A4/A5 Filofax personal organiser then it is relatively straight forward. A4 will just print straight on A4 paper, no scaling required, set it to print double sided and all should be fine.

With A5 on A4 paper you will be using booklet printing this setting isn't available on all printers. Your printer will need a duplexer fitted to it, so it can automatically flip the paper to print the other side of the page.

This what a typical set up window looks like for booklet printing:

Because Page One is a 'right hand page' as shown above, if there is a blank page at the beginning of the file you are printing, it's essential to 'print' that first blank page because the diary will then be in sync with the page turning with pages 2 and 3 facing each other. All even pages being 'left hand' pages and all odd numbered pages being 'right hand' pages

This is page one of the diary insert:

Then pages 2 and 3

Hopefully now you will see why it is essential to print that blank page 1..

If your printer doesn't have a duplexer fitted (to automate double side printing) then you will have to turn the pages over manually. The easiest way to do this is to print all the 'Odd numbered' pages first, then turn the pages over, and print the 'Even number' pages.

Note: Printing Word or PDF files

When printing either the Word or the PDF files, it is essential that you set the paper size correct in the application and in any printer dialogue boxes on your PC/Mac. If you are printing on A4 paper, then you need to set the paper size to A4 not Letter or any other size.

If you don't set the paper size correctly then the files will be resized according to the paper size you have selected, despite having A4 paper loaded in the printer.

Printing PDF Files

When you print your PDF file, it prints out smaller on paper than the Word or other file it was created from.

When you print from Adobe Acrobat Reader, you will see this dialogue:

You will see that 'Print Scaling' setting is by default set to 'Shrink to Printable Area? That's the one that's shrinking your PDF when you print it.

Change the setting to 'None':

Now, when you print the PDF it will print at the right size.

Printing Personal Size inserts on Personal Paper
Assuming your printer can handle paper as narrow as Personal Size pages (95 mm x 171 mm) then it is relatively easy to print on to Personal Paper. Filofax sell the plain paper in value packs of their white paper or reasonable quantity cotton cream paper.

The following instructions will help you with both creating your own personal size inserts on personal size paper and printing existing files formatted for personal size paper.

Step 1: Set up your paper size in the programme you are using.
In the example below we are using MS Word, but it works the same way in whatever application you use.

1.1 Firstly, select the Page Layout Tab, and click on the Size icon in the toolbar.

1.2 Scroll down the drop down menu and click on 'More Paper Sizes'

1.3 In the following options window click on the drop down menu arrow for paper size and select Custom Size

1.4 Enter the following dimensions in to the relevant boxes.

Height = 17.1 cm (171 mm)
Width = 9.5 cm (95 mm)

Depending on your printer this box is also asking you were the paper will be coming from for the first page and other pages. It's important to make them the same source. And if your printer has 'manual feed' tray or 'envelope' feed, then select that. Alternatively put the default tray if your printer only has the one feed.

1.5 Finally click OK to confirm the set up of the new paper size.  We now need to set up the margins for the page layout. So select Margins from the Page Layout Tab.

Set each margin to 1cm, the left hand margin needs to at least 1 cm to account for the punched holes. Diary inserts will already have 'mirrored' margins to account for these on each page with the margins swapping automatically.

1.6 Click OK and you are now ready to create your personal size page and then print it on to Personal Sized Paper.

Step 2: Printing

2.1 With your document loaded, select Print and your print box should appear. Select Properties:

2.2 Each printer will be slightly different, so you will have to search through the tabs to find the following settings.

Firstly look for Printer Paper Size, select this and then look for 'Custom'

Then enter the paper size:

2.3 The next thing to do as mentioned in the previous section is to tell the printer where the paper is placed in the printer (Envelope feed, Manual Tray, Default tray)

On some printers you can then save these settings with their own name to make it easier next time.

2.4 Load the paper. Again this is printer dependent. You need to load the paper so it is printed on the correct side first. On our own laser printer the manual tray has this symbol on it:

This indicates that it prints with the upper side of the paper first.   Now our ink-jet printer has the following symbol.

This indicates that the paper is printed face down, so you have to put the paper in the other way up on this one.

So here is the paper loaded in to the tray of the laser printer, ready to print face up, note the position of the punched holes.

The paper is already punched so before you print the pages, fan the paper to ensure the paper isn't 'joined' where the holes have been punched through the pages, otherwise the printer will drag through more than one page at a time!

If you are printing more than one page, select your document to print first the Odd Numbered Pages, then put the paper back in again but reversed to suit your printer, and then print the Even Numbered Pages

Having got this far.... you are now ready to hit print and hopefully your pages will come out correctly!

And here's some I made earlier...

If you have any questions after that rather marathon session, please fire away in the comments.