A good coloring page starts with a good print. You don’t need professional equipment: a home printer is enough, provided you know a few settings. Here are our tips for crisp coloring pages that are pleasant to color and economical with ink.

Choosing the right paper

Paper matters more than you might think.

  • Ordinary paper (80 gsm): perfect for colored pencils and for trying things out. Avoid it for very wet markers, which bleed through.
  • 120 to 160 gsm paper: the right option for markers and wax crayons. It doesn’t curl and the drawing holds up better. Check that your printer accepts this thickness.
  • Drawing paper or light card: ideal for water-based paint or light watercolors, but it won’t go through every printer.
  • Recycled paper: works very well too, and is greener.

The right format: A4

Our files are in A4 format, the standard in Europe. If you use US Letter paper, open the print dialog and tick “Fit to page” (or “Fit”): the drawing will be slightly reduced but stay whole. Avoid “Actual size” in that case, or the edges may be cut off.

The print settings that matter

  1. Orientation: keep the file’s own, the drawing is designed for portrait.
  2. Scale: “100%” on A4 paper, “Fit to page” on any other format.
  3. Quality: “Normal” is enough for a coloring page with bold lines. Switch to “High quality” for very detailed drawings, such as some mandalas.
  4. Color or black and white: our coloring pages are black lines on a white background. Choose “Black and white” or “Grayscale”: printing is faster and you keep your color cartridges.

Saving ink

  • Turn on draft / economy mode for tests, but not for the final drawing: the lines would turn grayish.
  • Only print the pages you need: in a story book, select the page range (for example “1-4”).
  • Use scrap paper with a blank back for a first try that your child can scribble on freely.

Preview before printing

Always click on the preview: you check at a glance that the page is centered, that nothing is cut off and that the orientation is right. It saves wasting paper.

Fixing common problems

  • The edges are cut off: choose “Fit to page” or turn off the “Actual size” option.
  • White bands appear: the nozzles are probably clogged; run the print-head cleaning.
  • The line is pale: check the black ink level and turn off economy mode.
  • The file won’t open: update your PDF reader or open the file in your browser (Chrome, Firefox and Safari all read PDFs).
  • Is the PDF protected? It isn’t: a personalised footer simply shows your name and order number, which is completely normal.

No printer?

Two solutions: send the PDF to a local print shop or copy shop (a few cents a page), or color directly on a tablet with a drawing app that accepts PDF files.

Now that you’re ready, browse our coloring pages or try a free coloring page to test your printer.