Why Are My Coloring Pages Printing Too Small or Cut Off?

By the TheColoringPages.net team. Reviewed for accuracy, September 2026.

This guide to Too Small gives clear, practical answers, drawing on image scaling and years of hands on coloring.

Two printing problems frustrate parents more than any others. The first is a picture that prints far too small, marooned in a sea of white. The second is a picture that prints too big, so its edges run off the paper and part of the artwork disappears. They look like opposite problems, and they have different causes, but both come down to a few settings you can control.

This guide separates the two problems clearly, so you can spot which one you have and fix it fast. No wasted paper, no guesswork.

Quick answer: Pages print too small when scaling is set to “Shrink to fit” instead of “Fit to Page.” Pages print cut off when the margins are too wide or the paper size does not match the file. Fix small prints with the scaling setting. Fix cut off prints by reducing margins, enabling borderless printing, and matching the paper size. Always check the print preview first.

Too small and cut off are not the same problem

Before you change anything, work out which problem you actually have. The fix is different for each, and applying the wrong one wastes your time.

A too small print means the picture is smaller than the sheet, with white space around it. The whole image is there, just shrunk. This is a scaling problem.

A cut off print means the picture is too large for the sheet, so its outer edges are missing. You see most of the image, but the borders, and sometimes a chunk of the picture, run off the paper. This is usually a margin or paper size problem.

Look at your failed print and decide which one you are holding. Then jump to the matching section below.

Fixing pages that print too small

If your picture is shrunken with a border, the scaling setting is the reason. Printers default to a cautious mode that shrinks anything reaching the paper edge, and that mode makes full page pictures come out small.

Open the PDF and press Ctrl and P, or Command and P on a Mac. In the print window, find the scaling or “Page Sizing” control. You will see options such as “Fit to Page,” “Actual Size,” “Shrink to fit,” or a custom percentage.

Change the setting to Fit to Page. This scales the picture up to fill the whole sheet. If you only see a percentage box, type 100 for full designed size. Watch the preview update, and the picture should grow to fill the page.

The setting to avoid is “Shrink oversized pages” or “Shrink to fit.” It only ever makes things smaller and is the single most common cause of tiny prints. If that option is selected, switch away from it.

For a deeper walkthrough of this exact problem, including the printer driver setting that traps people who have tried everything, see our guide on why coloring pages will not print full size.

Fixing pages that print cut off

If your picture is too large and losing its edges, the fix is different. Now you are dealing with margins and paper size, not scaling.

Reduce the margins

Printers reserve a margin around the edge of every sheet, and some software adds even more. When the margin is wide, a full page picture gets pushed past the printable area, and the edges fall off.

In the print window, find the “Margins” setting and set it to “None” or “Minimum.” In many browsers this lives under a “More settings” link, so expand that first. Smaller margins give the picture more room to sit fully on the page.

Turn on borderless printing

If your printer supports borderless printing, switch it on. This lets the printer lay ink right up to the paper edge, which removes the margin that clips your picture. Many photo capable inkjet printers offer this. Look for it in the print window or in “Printer Properties.”

Match the paper size

A paper size mismatch also causes cut off prints. If the file is built for A4 but your printer is set to US Letter, or the reverse, the picture will not align, and part of it can run off the sheet.

Set the paper size in the software to match the paper in your tray. In the United States and Canada that is usually Letter, which is 8.5 by 11 inches. Elsewhere it is usually A4, which is 210 by 297 millimeters. When the software, the file, and the loaded paper all agree, the picture sits correctly.

Try Fit to Page here too

It sounds odd, but “Fit to Page” also helps with cut off pages. It scales the picture to sit inside the printable area, so nothing runs past the edge. If reducing margins alone does not do it, combine it with “Fit to Page” and the picture will pull back onto the sheet.

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Use the print preview every time

The print preview is the small picture on the right of the print window. It shows exactly what will come out before any ink hits paper. This one habit prevents nearly every wasted sheet.

If the preview shows a tiny picture with a big border, you have the “too small” problem, so fix the scaling. If the preview shows the picture spilling past the sheet edges, you have the “cut off” problem, so fix the margins and paper size. Adjust your settings until the preview looks right, then print. Reading the preview correctly saves more paper than any other tip in this guide.

Phone and desktop differences

The same picture can print differently from a phone than from a computer, because the two use different print menus.

On a computer, you get the full range of scaling and margin controls described above. This is the best place to solve a stubborn sizing problem, since you can reach every setting.

On a phone, the menu is simpler. You still get “Fit to Page” and paper size, which handle most cases, but you may not see margin controls. If a page prints wrong on your phone and you cannot fix it there, move to a computer for the extra options. Our guide on printing coloring pages from a phone shows what each phone offers.

What causes each problem, in plain terms

Understanding the why makes the fix stick, so you are not just following steps blindly.

A too small print comes from the software trying to protect you. It notices the picture reaches the edge of the sheet, decides it might get clipped, and shrinks the whole thing to keep it safe inside the printable area. Helpful for a spreadsheet, unhelpful for a full page picture. You override it with “Fit to Page.”

A cut off print comes from the opposite situation. The picture is being printed at full size, but the printable area is smaller than the sheet because of margins. So the outer edges fall outside what the printer can reach, and they simply do not appear. You fix it by shrinking the margins or letting the printer reach closer to the edge.

Seeing it this way makes the pattern clear. Small means the software shrank it, so grow it back. Cut off means the margins are eating the edges, so shrink the margins. Once the logic clicks, you will diagnose any print in seconds.

Ink and quality problems that look like sizing problems

Sometimes a print looks wrong in a way that has nothing to do with size, and people chase the scaling setting for no reason. It helps to rule these out.

If the lines print pale or gray rather than crisp black, that is an ink or quality issue, not sizing. Raise the print quality to “Normal” or “Best,” and check your ink or toner level. An inkjet with a clogged nozzle prints faint or streaky lines, which a nozzle clean from the printer menu usually clears.

If the page prints with faint banding or missing strips, the print head needs cleaning or aligning. Again, this is a maintenance fix, not a settings fix. Running the printer’s built in cleaning cycle solves most of it.

Separating these from sizing problems saves you from changing the wrong settings. If the picture is the right size but looks weak, look at ink and quality, not scaling and margins.

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Getting consistent results across a set

When you print a whole pack, you want every page to come out the same. A few habits make that happen.

Set your scaling and margins once, print a test page, and confirm it looks right. Then print the rest of the pack in one go, so every page uses the same settings. Changing settings midway is what leads to a set where some pages fill the sheet and others do not.

If you print the same kinds of pages often, note your winning settings somewhere simple, or save them as a preset in your PDF reader. That way you skip the setup entirely next time and go straight to a full, clean print.

When resizing is what you actually want

Sometimes a page is not printing wrong at all. You simply want it a different size on purpose, such as smaller to save paper, or two pages on one sheet for a mini book.

That is a resizing task rather than a fix. You can set a custom scale percentage to shrink a page, or choose “multiple pages per sheet” to print two half size pages together. Our guide on how to resize a coloring page covers Letter, A4, and half page prints step by step.

A quick checklist before you reprint

Run through this short list whenever a page prints wrong. It catches the cause in under a minute.

1. Decide the problem: is the picture too small, or cut off at the edges? 2. For too small, set scaling to “Fit to Page” or 100%. 3. For cut off, set margins to “None” and turn on borderless printing. 4. Confirm the paper size matches the paper in your printer. 5. Check the print preview looks right. 6. Print one test page before running a batch.

If you follow these in order, you will rarely waste more than a single sheet. And most of the time you will not waste any, because the preview tells you before you print.

Why good files make this easier

Part of the problem is the source. A page saved as a low quality image, or one built at the wrong dimensions, will fight your settings no matter what you do. A clean PDF built at a standard size behaves predictably.

Every page on our site downloads as a proper PDF sized for standard paper, so it prints full and centered with “Fit to Page.” Starting with a good file removes half the battle. For the complete printing routine from download to finished page, see our guide on how to print coloring pages at home.

Frequently asked questions about too small

The short version

A shrunken print is a scaling problem, so switch to “Fit to Page.” A cut off print is a margin or paper size problem, so trim the margins, enable borderless printing, and match the paper size. Read the preview each time, and you will fix either issue on the first try.

Ready to print a page the right way? Browse our free printable coloring pages and download one to test your settings.