I never actually printed from inkscape before since I normally print to PDF first.

I have a very simple page I need to print from inkscape. Le format of the paper is letter and landscape. I checked the measurements in the preference and they are OK.

Now when I try to print, the printer does not recognise the paper I am trying to print to and either I need to set it manually, or either it automatically shrink down the page. I compared the measurements read by the printer and in inkscape and they are the same.

I tried with mm and inch in case there was a conversion problem and it still deos not recognise it correctly. But if I print to PDF and then print the PDF on the printer, it works.

Is this a bug, or there is something I do not do correctly.

I made some further testing and the results are weird. It does not seem to change the size but rather the alignment.

I have a rectangle alligned to the border of the page where of course some part of it will not get drawn (that is intentional).

But if I print directly from inkscape, for some reason, the whole page content get shifted to the left by exactly 1/4 inch, but if I print from PDF, I don't have this problem.

Well, all I really can say, is that printing seems to be Inkscape's weakest area. Have you searced in Launchpad (Inkscape's bug tracker)? https://launchpad.net/inkscape

If my reply here (more meant to bump the topic) doesn't result in more knowledgeable replies, you might try posting a bug report at Launchpad. There, those who are interested in printing issue, can test, and hopefully answer whether it's a bug or not.