Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

My old trusty HP LaserJet 5P printer slightly shrinks the printed pcb image on paper when I printed a pcb image from a PDF file. On screen pbc measures 5.2 cm (2 inch) on paper is 5.0. On screen measures 8.1 cm (3inch) and 7.7 cm on paper.

Does KICAD software contain a method to compensate Laser printers so the printed image is almost identical to the image size on screen?
I have not installed KICAD but have studied a tutorial.


The printed image size differing from screen size concerns me since I will be using Toner Transfer. For 2 by 3 inch pcbs is this shrinkage going to cause SIGNIFICANT errors when drilling holes for IC sockets? For slightly larger pcbs, is error going to be more severe?

Do other LASER PRINTER users have this same problem?
How are you compensating? Does software like Paintshop Pro X10
provide small size adjustments when printing jpg files?

This my first post. Thanks for any help.
Dave_s