Paper Size, Orientation, and Scale

The Paper and Scale sections of the Print dialog control how big the sheet is, which way it's oriented, and how the floor plan is sized inside it. Most residential prints land cleanly on the defaults; this reference covers the choices and when to deviate.

Paper size

The paper size dropdown lists every available sheet. v1 ships five built-in sizes covering the common North American and metric options:

Size	Dimensions	Typical use
Letter	8.5 × 11 in	Default — fits standard office printers and most residential plans
Legal	8.5 × 14 in	Longer plans that don't quite fit on Letter at a usable scale
Tabloid	11 × 17 in	Larger plans, supplier-friendly drawings
A4	210 × 297 mm	Metric equivalent of Letter
A3	297 × 420 mm	Metric equivalent of Tabloid

The dropdown is sorted alphabetically by display name, so the order is A3, A4, Legal, Letter, Tabloid. Your last-used size persists per app mode — change it once and the next print remembers.

Future trade-specific apps can register additional paper sizes (architectural D, ANSI E, custom roll sizes, etc.). When a plugin paper size is registered it appears in this same dropdown.

Orientation

A two-button segmented control next to the paper size: Portrait or Landscape.

• Portrait — sheet is taller than it is wide. Good for skinny rooms (hallway, narrow bathroom) and for schedule-heavy prints where the floor plan is small and the schedules carry the page.
• Landscape — sheet is wider than it is tall. Default for most residential plans because rooms are usually wider than they are deep, and landscape leaves more horizontal room for dimensions and labels.

The default is Landscape. Switching orientation rotates the sheet — the printed content reflows to fill the new bounds.

Scale

The Scale dropdown controls how the world coordinates of your floor plan get translated to printed inches or millimetres on the sheet.

Option	Meaning
Fit to page	Auto-scale: VisionPlan sizes the floor plan to fill the available drawing area on the sheet
1/2" = 1' (1:24)	Half-inch architectural — large, detailed
1/4" = 1' (1:48)	Quarter-inch architectural — the common residential default
1/8" = 1' (1:96)	Eighth-inch architectural — small, suited to whole-house plans on Letter
1:50 (metric)	Common European residential scale
1:100 (metric)	Smaller metric scale for larger plans

The default is Fit to page, which is almost always what you want for a one-room plan on Letter or Tabloid.

When to use Fit to page

Fit to page is the right choice when:

• The print is for visual reference (sharing with a client, showing a contractor what the layout looks like).
• You're printing on a small sheet (Letter or A4) and just need everything to be readable.
• You don't intend to physically measure things on the printed sheet with a ruler.

Fit to page sacrifices ruler-measurability for visual clarity. The floor plan is sized to look right on the page — the actual scale ratio drifts with the paper size, the orientation, and the plan's bounding box.

When to use a fixed scale

v1 limitation: The Scale dropdown currently controls only the ratio label printed in the title block — the drawing itself is always fit to the available page area, regardless of which scale you pick. Picking "1/4" = 1' (1:48)" stamps that label in the title block but doesn't shrink the drawing to that ratio. Wiring the rasterizer through the chosen scale is planned for a future release. Until then, treat the Scale dropdown as a labeling control — measurements scaled off the printed sheet won't match the labeled ratio.

Use a fixed scale (1:24 / 1:48 / 1:96 / 1:50 / 1:100) in v1 when:

• The title block needs to read a specific architect-scale ratio (permit submissions, formal document sets that expect a stated scale in the cartouche).
• You want the label to communicate intent to the reader, even if they can't currently scale-rule off the sheet.

1/4" = 1' (1:48) is the standard residential ratio and the most common choice for the label.

How the three choices combine

The paper size sets the sheet bounds. The orientation flips width and height. The scale (in v1) sets the ratio label in the title block. The drawing is always fit-to-page regardless.

A few common combinations and what they're good for:

Paper	Orientation	Scale	Typical job
Letter	Landscape	Fit to page	Quick client review print
Letter	Landscape	1/4" = 1'	Single-room residential with a 1:48 label on the title block
Tabloid	Landscape	1/4" = 1'	Multi-room plan, larger sheet, 1:48 label in title block
Tabloid	Landscape	1/8" = 1'	Whole-house plan on one sheet, 1:96 label in title block
A4	Landscape	1:50	Metric residential print with 1:50 title-block label
Letter	Portrait	Fit to page	Schedule-heavy print where the floor plan is incidental

What persists between prints

All three choices — paper size, orientation, scale — persist per app mode. Reopen the Print dialog in the same mode and the same combination comes back. Switching between Customer and Contractor mode restores each mode's last-used choices independently.

The choices reset to defaults only when the persisted settings file is cleared (for example, clearing browser storage on web).

Tips

• For a first print, leave everything on the defaults: Letter, Landscape, Fit to page. Adjust only if the result isn't what you need.
• If you've drawn a large home and the print looks cramped on Letter, switch to Tabloid before touching the scale dropdown. More paper is usually cheaper than fighting the scale.
• The scale label in the title block reflects the dropdown choice exactly, but in v1 the drawing itself is always fit-to-page — so readers cannot scale-rule directly off the printed sheet at the labeled ratio yet. Honouring the dropdown in the rasterizer is planned post-v1.
• Portrait orientation is uncommon for floor plans but useful when the schedule sections dominate the document set — a portrait page lays out long tables more naturally.

Related

• How to print a plan
• Print dialog sections
• Use the print area marquee