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Printer test pages by paper size
A test page only measures your printer if the sheet matches the paper in the tray. Choose the size you actually load and the geometry on the page stays true.
Paper size pages
- A4 — 210 mm wide by 297 mm tall — the sheet every test on this site is dimensioned against, and the standard almost everywhere outside North America.
- Letter — 8.5 × 11 inches — 215.9 × 279.4 mm. Wider and shorter than A4, and printing A4 artwork on it is the single most common cause of a test page that looks wrong for no real reason.
- Legal — 8.5 × 14 inches — 215.9 × 355.6 mm. Shares Letter’s width but runs 56 mm longer, which makes it the right size for testing feed consistency across a long sheet.
- A3 — 297 × 420 mm — exactly double A4. The extra area makes it the most useful size for judging banding and registration across a wide sweep.
- A5 — 148 × 210 mm — exactly half an A4. Small stock saves paper for repeated checks, but it leaves no room for edge marks, so it tests ink rather than paper feed.
Set scaling to 100%. Choose Actual Size in the print dialog, never Fit to page — scaling distorts every measurement on this sheet. The Download PDF button hands you that same sheet as a ready-made file, so there is no scaling decision to get wrong.
Choosing a size and printing at scale
- Identify the paper actually loaded in the tray, not the size you meant to buy.
- Open the matching page from the list above.
- Set the same paper size in the print dialog. Selecting A4 while Letter is loaded rescales everything.
- Choose Actual Size or 100% — never Fit to page.
- Print at Best or High quality on plain white paper.
- Measure the reference circle with a ruler if you want a hard number rather than a visual check.
Reading the result
| You selected the right size and circles print round | Geometry is correct. Anything you can see now is a genuine fault in the printer rather than a driver setting. |
| The page fits, but white space remains at the bottom | The driver is fitting A4 artwork to Letter, or the reverse. The sheet is being rescaled and every measurement on it is wrong. |
| Marks near the paper edge are clipped | The tray guides or the paper size setting do not match what is loaded. Check the physical guides sit against the stack, then set the same size in the driver. |
| Two sizes print at visibly different scale | Expected — that is the point. Compare like with like: always retest on the same paper size before concluding something changed. |
| The printed circle measures larger or smaller than stated | Scaling is not at 100%. Set the dialog to Actual Size and reprint; a scale error larger than a millimetre invalidates every dimensional test. |
Also check
- Alignment page — Skew is measured across the whole feed path, so it only shows up on a full sheet printed at the size the tray actually holds.
- Nozzle check — Print it on the same paper size you use day to day — a check run on different stock tells you little about your normal output.
- Greyscale ramp — Tone behaves differently on coated and uncoated stock, so density results only transfer between prints made on identical paper.
Related test pages
- Alignment printer test page — If lines that should be straight come out crooked, or text looks doubled, the printhead is out of alignment. This sheet measures it.
- Nozzle Check printer test page — A nozzle check is the fastest way to find out whether an inkjet printhead has clogged nozzles. Print this page and read the gaps.
- Colour printer test page — One sheet that exercises every colour channel at once: bars, a smooth gradient, a mixing grid and a type scale.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I print an A4 test page on Letter paper?
The driver has two bad options: crop the bottom, or scale the whole sheet down to fit. Both destroy the geometry. Always print the page that matches the paper loaded, then change the tray if you need a different test.
Do I need a different test page for every paper size?
No — the same pattern works at any size, because the drawing is generated at the dimensions you choose rather than being a fixed image. Picking the matching page simply preloads the right dimensions for you.
Why do some printers refuse legal-size paper?
Legal is longer than most compact trays accept. If the printer has no legal path, the driver will silently resize the job. Use A4 or Letter instead and accept that long-format marks will be clipped.