[Tex/LaTex] Standard way to enforce the following format requirement, especially the margin requirement of 2.5cm all around

formattinggeometrymargins

I am working on a latex file and also need to meet the following format requirement:

Font : Times New Roman

Font Size : 12 point

Margin : 2.5 cm all round

Spacing : Single-line spacing

PDF version: compatible with Adobe Acrobat Reader 5

So this is currently what I am using:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}  <--- font size

\pdfminorversion=4     <---- pdf version
\pagenumbering{gobble}

 \usepackage[a4paper,top=2.5cm, bottom=2.5cm, left=2.5cm, right=2.5cm]{geometry}   <---- margin

\usepackage{mathptmx}  <---- font time
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

 \lipsum

 \end{document}

However, the really annoy thing is that I simply cannot meet the margin requirement, after printing out on the paper and use a ruler to test.

I configure the printer with "A4" size:

enter image description here

But when I use the ruler to check the margin, this is what I find:

left margin: 2.5cm

right margin: about 2.9 cm

top margin: 3 cm

bottom: 4.5 cm

I have been tweaking the setting for quite a while, but still have no idea to fix the issue.

So here is my question:

  1. how should I fix the margin issue, and meet the requirement of "all round 2.5cm"?

  2. Could anyone provide some foolproof working example, to meet all the formatting requirements? I am rushing for this draft and probably have no time to hack more. It would be great if anyone can provide a working example.

Best Answer

Using the MWE below you can see that the margins in the PDF are those specified in the geometry package (that in this case you can simplify as commented above). So for example, you can see that in the diagram layout (click on the image to zoom it) that \textwidth is 455pt (= 16 cm), that is the expected when the margins are 2.5 cm in a A4 paper. 

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article} 
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry}  % add also "showframe" options  
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{layout}
\begin{document}
\layout
\lipsum[1-20]
\end{document}

mwe

When printed the margins could be different because the position of the paper input tray or wrong printer options. In particular as you set "scale to fit" seem that you PDF has been zoomed to fit all the PDF (including margins) to the effective printing area of your printer (that hardly could be as big as the page area).

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