publisher 2003 won't print borderless

[Br. Giovanni]

I am trying to print a brochure with a four-way bleed. I set up for
borderless printing on glossy brochure paper, but the program keeps
defaulting to regular 8.5X11" letter paper and leaving a 3/4" white border.

In 'page setup' under printer properties, I call for 8.5X11" borderless
paper size, borderless printing, HP glossy brochure paper, and best printing
quality. I have also set printer defaults to these settings. Print preview
then shows the brochure as intended, borderless.

Then I go to the File tab and Print, check all borderless settings, and
click on OK. The screen flickers, the print preview goes back to showing the
document cut off by 3/4" on the right side (in landscape), and if I allow
printing to proceed, this border shows up on paper.

When I re-check the page setup, I find that the paper size has been changed
back to letter paper and 'borderless printing' has been unchecked. Yet when I
look at the default printer settings, they are as they're supposed to be.

Complicating things, on a couple of occasions Publisher has printed this
very same brochure properly, without cutting it off. I have tried everything
I know, every way I could find to reset the paper choice, to no avail.

This is driving me NUTS!

The printer is not at fault, by the way. It prints borderless 8.5X11" all
day long from other software, and the problem persists even when the printer
(an HP 5740) and its driver have been uninstalled.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Br. Giovanni

 

[Mary Sauer]

I have the same problem with my borderless HP printer. I learned a long time ago
to save the publication as an image and use the HP software to print.

 

[Br. Giovanni]

I tried this upon your recommendation. Unfortunately, the type comes through
grossly pixellated and the quality of the piece is degraded to the point of
uselessness.

From what you say, I suppose I will have to buy a new printer, or new
software, or -- if my present rage is any indicator -- new both!!

It seems very odd that the leading consumer desktop publishing software will
not work usefully with the leading consumer desktop printer. Bleed-offs are
very common in well-designed brochures and flyers carrying photo art.

Conclusion: Publisher 2003 is only marginally useful with this defect. I
would not recommend the software to anyone trying to produce attractive
marketing materials -- the templates are really not useable.

Br. Giovanni

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

Successful marketing materials should NEVER be based on a template. If the
person who designs the material can't do something original, how do I know
their product/service is exactly what I need?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]




(snip)

 

[Mary Sauer]

I did not have a degraded images when converted my projects. At what resolution
did you convert your publication?
It would seem to me if you were able to print borderless at one time, you should
be able to do it now. Do you have a full bleed option on your printer?

 

[Ed Bennett]

Conclusion: Publisher 2003 is only marginally useful with this
defect.

That's like trying to say that your printer is only marginally useful with
this defect (which would in fact be slightly more accurate).

Your printer driver is either passing false margin information to Publisher
to prevent it from printing full bleed, or is cropping off the bleeds from
Publisher files (I'm not quite sure which, as I'm not sure how Publisher's
printing engine works). Either way, it's nothing that can be cured by
Microsoft altering Publisher (at least not without risking serious harm to
the way most other things print).

 

[Br. Giovanni]

I agree with you entirely. My point is that Publisher will not apparently
permit me to design the original piece I want, and the templates (which
presumably WOULD print OK) are of no value to me. Ergo, Publisher itself
appears to be of little or no value, at leat to me.

Successful marketing materials should NEVER be based on a template. If the
person who designs the material can't do something original, how do I know
their product/service is exactly what I need?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]




(snip)

Conclusion: Publisher 2003 is only marginally useful with this defect. I
would not recommend the software to anyone trying to produce attractive
marketing materials -- the templates are really not useable.

Br. Giovanni

 

[Br. Giovanni]

Point 1: I saved the file as a JPEG file, without the option of specifying
resolution. I also tried copying and pasting into an Adobe Photoshop file,
with no better results. However, I will follow this lead further. Thanks.

Point 2: I don't know how I got the piece to print borderless before. It
may have been by specifying Image Writer as the 'printer' first, then
switching to the HP printer. But I can't seem to do it again.

This is the real knot, as I have a perfect print-out of the outside of the
brochure, with a photo bleeding off two thirds of the paper.

My objective is to be able to produce effective 'marketing' pieces for a
tiny non-profit that may wish to change the content of the pieces relatively
frequently.

Br. Giovanni

 

[Br. Giovanni]

Point 1: Were I in an HP discussion group, that is how I would have phrased
it. What I lament is that these two leading products do not work together
properly. As a consumer, I am indifferent to the location or ownership of the
fault.

Point 2: You are doubtless correct in your hypothesis that the driver is
feeding bad margin data to Publisher, as the problem does not occur until
Publisher tries to open its dialogue with the printer, but occurs regardless
of whether the printer is actually connected to the computer and turned on.
Thus the fault would lie with (the entirely dysfunctional and unresponsive)
HP. Surprise.

Br. Giovanni

 

[stever]

I am trying to print a brochure with a four-way bleed. I set up for
borderless printing on glossy brochure paper, but the program keeps
defaulting to regular 8.5X11" letter paper and leaving a 3/4" white border.

I am having the same problem. I just found a work-around. If you
print just one page at a time, borderless will work. For some odd
reason, printing borderless does not work when you are printing more
than one page at a time.

For my brochure I am printing the fronts first and then the backs.
Seems to work.

Steve