How to print coloring pages that look great

A coloring page is only as good as its print. Faint grey lines, smudged edges or thin paper that tears under a marker can spoil it before the first crayon touches it. A few simple settings make a big difference.

Pick the right paper

• Standard 80 g/m² (20 lb) printer paper is fine for crayons and colored pencils.
• For markers, use 100–120 g/m² paper so colors don't bleed through.
• For watercolor or paint, try thin card (160 g/m² and up), if your printer takes it.
• Matte paper is better than glossy: crayons and pencils slide on glossy paper.

Printer settings that matter

1. Choose "Black and white" or "Grayscale". It saves color ink and makes lines darker.
2. Set quality to "Normal" or "High", not "Draft". Draft mode makes lines pale and broken.
3. Use "Fit to page" so no part of the picture is cut off at the edges.
4. Pick the right paper size: A4 in most of the world, Letter in the US and Canada.

Print one page first and check it before printing a whole book. It takes ten seconds and saves paper and ink.

PDF or PNG?

PDF keeps the page size and margins exactly as designed, so it is the best choice for printing whole books. PNG is handy for one page, for coloring on a tablet, or for adjusting the picture in another app.

Printing a whole book

• Print on both sides (duplex) to make a thinner book, but only if the paper is thick enough that lines don't show through.
• Staple along the left edge, or punch holes and use a ring binder so pages can be taken out one at a time.
• Keep a spare copy of the file: favourite pages get colored more than once.

No printer?

Copy shops and many libraries print PDFs from a USB stick or email for a small fee. Or color on screen: open the PNG in a drawing app on a tablet.