# CMS-1500 Claim Form PDF
Source: https://www.stedi.com/docs/providers/providers-cms-1500-claim-form-pdf

***

title: CMS-1500 Claim Form PDF
sidebarTitle: CMS-1500 PDF
--------------------------

Stedi automatically generates a [CMS-1500 Claim Form](https://www.nucc.org/index.php/1500-claim-form-mainmenu-35) PDF for each professional claim you submit.

We strongly recommend reviewing the following behavior and recommendations if you plan to send these PDFs to payers or retain them for your records.

## Retrieve PDFs

To download the PDF:

1. Go to the [Transactions page](https://portal.stedi.com/app/healthcare/transactions) and click the claim you want to download.
2. Click **Download CMS 1500 claim PDF**. You can choose to download it either with or without the CMS-1500 form overlay.

![CMS-1500 PDF download](/images/providers/cms-1500-pdf-download.png)

### Standard form size

The generated PDFs use the standard 8.5" x 11" format.

## Edit PDFs

Single-page PDFs are editable so you can make any necessary adjustments before printing and sending them to payers. You can use any PDF editor to make changes to the generated CMS-1500 PDF.

## Print PDFs

Note the following behavior and recommendations when printing CMS-1500 PDFs.

* We recommend generating PDFs with a white background (no red form overlay) if you plan to print them on pre-printed claim forms.
* The form boxes and labels **must** be printed in red ink and the item values **must** be printed in black ink for the claim form to be read by a scanner. Your vendor may choose not to process claim forms that don't conform to these specifications.
* Set the **Page Size & Handling** option to **Actual size** or the equivalent in your PDF reader application. The **Fit** option may cause the contents to be scaled down to fit within the printable area, causing the form fields to be misaligned when printed.
* Don't print forms from the Apple Preview app built in to macOS. There appear to be problems with field alignment and fonts. Instead, we recommend using either Adobe Acrobat or Google Chrome.

### Printer models

We generally recommend using business laser printers to print CMS-1500 PDFs. However, due to mechanical variations between printer models, we can't guarantee that the generated PDFs will align perfectly with pre-printed forms. You should always test the alignment with your printer before using the generated PDFs for official submissions.

You may not get acceptable results when using inkjet printer models because the file contents can extend beyond the normal printable area. If you do plan to use an inkjet printer, don't enable a **borderless** option because this may cause the printer (or printer driver) to slightly magnify the page image regardless of other print settings. This behavior can crop form edges and cause form fields to appear in the wrong positions. Some inkjet printers have a manual setting to change the extension amount, but this isn't always available and may not give consistent results.