100% scale, never “fit to page”
“Fit to page” resizes the sheet so it fits the printable area of your machine, which is never quite A4. The drawing shrinks by a few millimeters, the white margin planned around it turns uneven from one side to the other, and the line thins out with it. Choose “actual size” or “100%”: our pages are already calibrated for the sheet the page picks — portrait or landscape depending on the drawing —, margin included. The one exception is the PDF on US Letter paper, a little shorter than A4: there, “fit to page” keeps the whole frame.
Black only, at normal quality
A coloring page doesn’t need a deep black, but an unbroken line a child’s eye can follow. Draft mode — “fast quality” or “ink saving” depending on the brand — turns it pale gray, and a child cannot see where to stop: keep normal quality. The saving comes from elsewhere. Tick “black only” or “grayscale”: without it, some printers mix their black from the three color cartridges.
Both sides, and two pages per sheet
A sheet printed on both sides makes two coloring pages, best kept for colored pencils: markers go through and spoil the drawing underneath. For car trips, the “2 pages per sheet” option prints the drawing at half size, on half the sheet; for a second drawing, put the paper back in the tray head to tail. Smaller, these pages are best kept for drawings with large areas — but they slip into a bag pocket.
Print once, color several times
A page slipped into a clear sleeve, or run through a laminator, takes a dry-erase marker and wipes clean: the same sheet for twenty sessions. Keep the spoiled prints too. A drawing already started makes a good scratch sheet for trying a color before putting it on the clean one.
