When using Sawgrass Print Utility, you might notice the size that is displayed in the print job options doesn't always match the desired size of your image.
This is a common point of confusion, especially when white space is surrounding the image and affects the dimensions displayed in Sawgrass Print Utility. In this article, we’ll walk you through why this happens, how margins and printable area come into play, and what causes the dimension warning message.
Before we start there are a couple of points we need to clarify:
- File dimensions or Document size (Shown in Red): This refers to the dimensions of the file or document. Some images may not have any white space around them, so the image size and document size will be the same.
- Image size (Shown in Yellow): This refers to the size of the actual image that sits within the document or file.
- Page Size: This is the media size that is selected in Sawgrass Print Utility, and should match the size of the paper loaded in your paper tray.
Printable Area and Margins
Sawgrass printers are not capable of borderless printing, which means you will not be able to print all the way to the edge of the page. There will always be a small unprintable margin around the edges—this is a physical limitation of the printer. Sawgrass Print Utility automatically accounts for this by positioning your image within the printable area of the selected media size, rather than the full page size. Any portion of the image that falls outside the printable area will be cut off.
For example, if your image is A4-sized, selecting A4 as the media size does not mean that the entire image will print edge-to-edge.
Sawgrass Print Utility automatically applies a margin (approx 4-5mm), creating a white border around the edges of the page.
Example - In the example below, I am printing a full A4 image from Photoshop and selecting A4 in the Send to Sawgrass Print Utility settings.
As shown in Sawgrass Print Utility, the image is positioned within the printable area of the page and surrounded by a white border. This is the margin and is normal as the printer does not support borderless printing.
In this case, you can use the Fit to Paper Size option to automatically scale the image so it fits within the printable area. The image size will be reduced and the proportions will be maintained. You can however still print without selecting Fit to Paper Size but outer area of the image will be cut off.
Image size vs Document size
When you open a file in Sawgrass Print Utility, it displays the document size, which includes any white space around the image. This means the size displayed may be larger than the actual image contained within.
Example - In the example below I am printing a small image that is placed on an A4 document. The image itself measures 140x180mm.
Again, I am printing from Photoshop using Send to Sawgrass Print Utility and selecting the A4 size in the Print Settings.
As you can see, when the file is loaded into Sawgrass Print Utility, the dimensions displayed are A4 despite the actual image size being 140x180mm. This is normal as Sawgrass Print Utility displays the document size rather than the size of the image.
Understanding the Dimension Warning Message
You may sometimes see a warning in Sawgrass Print Utility that reads "The Image will print outside the paper dimensions if not resized", even when you've selected the correct media size (e.g., A4).
This happens when:
The image size is larger than the selected media size and as a result will not fit on the page.
The document size, including any white space around the image, is larger than the printable area. The printable area equates to the selected media size minus the margins. The margin is 4-5mm around the page.
How to clear this warning:
Use the option Crop to Image Area to remove unnecessary white space that surrounds the image.
Use the Fit to Paper Size to resize the image. Depending on the selected media size this may result in your image being larger or smaller than desired.
Manually adjust the document size.
Important:
- If your image fills the entire page (e.g. full A4) and this warning appears, the edges of the image will be cut off because of the printer’s built-in margins.
- If your image contains white space around it but fits on the page, you can ignore the warning and proceed with printing without making any adjustments. The image itself will not be cut off as it does not extend into the margins.
- If your file contains white space around the image, selecting Fit to Paper Size may shrink the image to ensure the entire file—including the white space—fits within the printable area.
- In the above case, it’s best to use Crop to Image Area to remove the white space and retain the original image dimensions—as long as the image still fits within the printable area of the selected media size.