Scaled graphics when printing on a laser printer

Question
Why is my graphics scaled when I print on laser?

Answer
Back in the days when the Anoto technology was new, there were no laser printers of good quality; the only option for print was offset printing. Hence the Anoto pattern was designed according to these circumstances and it was decided that the grid squares should be exactly 0.3 mm in order to get a good resolution.

When laser printers started to evolve and became a good option for printing, they all used the resolution dpi (dots per inches) and usually in multiples of 600. The problem was that it was almost impossible for our pattern to be correctly printed, based on 0.3 mm within multiples of 600 dpi. To solve this issue, the pattern is printed with a dot scale of 98.7778% when printing using a digital printer which fits perfectly in 600 dpi, 1200 dpi, etc. The difference is so small that it will not affect the capturing capabilities of the pen, but it is noticeable on the rendered result unless you also scale down the background with 1.2222%. On the other hand, if it is important that the printed layout isn’t scaled, then the size of the layout must be increased before generating the file.

Applies To
Laser printers