Publisher and HP 6540 borderless printing

[Wildfire563]

Hi,
I've got an HP 6540xi. I am trying to print a full page 8.5 x 11 landscape
brochure in borderless mode that I've created in Publisher. When I print it,
however, it stretches the image by about 2% (about .25 in) in the lengthwise
direction so the image ends up being chopped on one end. This problem occurs
both in Powerpoint and Publisher. I tried printing an 8.5 x 11 photo in the
HP Photo utility that came with the printer, and it works fine from there.

Is there any way to get the Microsoft products to print to this device
correctly?

Thanks,

Thomas

 

[Mary Sauer]

This is what HP says about your printer
To work around this issue, try one of the following procedures.

a.. Print the image on larger paper using a border. Then, with scissors or a paper
cutter, cut the image to the desired size.

a.. Within the software application being used, adjust the placement of the image
so more of the desired part of the photo or image will show on the borderless paper
when printed.

 

[Wildfire563]

Thank you for your quick response, but, you've got to be kidding me. Is
Microsoft going to fix this what appears to be a major bug? Why would I
consider using Microsoft Office software at all if it can't even print
accurately? Why can sofware packages from other manufacturers print on this
printer accurately and not Microsoft? I'm sorry for the venting, but I have
spent several hours debugging this problem, and every time, it prints the
same.

Is this a problem with HP's drivers or is it a problem with the data you are
sending to the printer?

I can send the file to you if you would like to see if I have done anything
wrong, but the page size within Publisher and Powerpoint is clearly 11" long,
not 11.25" long. It prints properly in the width (8.5") direction. It
appears to be feeding the page too quickly. It's hard to tell if there is
any stretching in the image, it looks fine to me, but the difference is only
about 2%, so I don't know if I'd notice that.

Thank you,

Thomas

 

[Mary Sauer]

You can send the document to me if you wish, I have an HP borderless printer.
gsauer at columbus dot rr dot com

Publisher has no printing issues. Like all applications Publisher gets its
instructions from the printer driver. This is something you will have to take up with
HP. It is possible your driver needs upgrading. HP has very good support documents.

This is another suggestion from HP
Small margins in MS Word
When printing borderless images from MS Word, a small margin appears.
Solution
The paper size must be set to borderless in both the application (MS Word) and the
printer driver. To set borderless printing in the application, follow the steps
below.
Click File, then Page Setup.
In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Paper tab.
Under Paper Size, select the appropriate borderless paper size.
To select borderless printing in the printer driver, follow the steps below.
In the application, click File, and then click Print.
In the Print dialog box, click Properties, and then click the Paper/Quality tab.
Select the appropriate borderless paper size.
NOTE: Under Paper Type, you cannot choose plain paper and print borderless. Choose
photo or brochure paper instead.

 

[Wildfire563]

Hi Mary,

Thank you for taking a look at my document. I have been setting it to
borderless in both page setup and in the printer properties forms. There
seems to be an issue with Publisher that it keeps forgetting this setting in
the page setup form, but that issue is not really bothering me. I just keep
checking it to make sure it's ok. The setting does override the printer
properties setting but at least I can get around it by being careful. It
seems that every time I change the printer properties settings, it resets the
page setup. So you may have to reset that yourself when you get the file.
Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong.

I am using an HP 6540xi. It is basically brand new, the only thing I have
been doing with it is trying to print this brochure. I have been using
Hammermill Business Glossy 32 lb paper, and HP Brochure and Flyer 48 lb
glossy paper. The results are exactly the same with both types of paper.
Also as noted, I have printed a borderless photo using the HP Photo Printing
software v3.5.0.270 and the photo printed fine from there. The image fit the
page just like it looked in the print preview, and had no borders.

I am going to look into printing the document as a 600 dpi image from
Publisher and then see if I can print it from Photo Printing as well. I will
also try to print an image from another package to see if I have a problem
there. I have spent several hours with a rep from HP already, and the only
thing we can see is that it is an issue between MS and HP. I get the same
result with Borderless Autoprint on and off under paper/quality. I have
tried many different settings on the printer including Borderless Photo with
Photo paper and Custom Borderless with Glossy brochure paper and other
similar combinations. I have gone into the custom... Form under
paper/quality and made sure it was set to 8.5 x 11. As far as I know I have
the latest drivers. I will check again today, but I only installed the
printer a couple of weeks ago and made sure the drivers were up to date then.

Thanks again,

Thomas

 

[Wildfire563]

It has been stated several times to me that Publisher (and Powerpoint) use
the printer drivers and this is a driver problem. I have several issues with
this statement however:

1. I have printed borderless documents from both Internet Explorer and HP
Photo Printing Software using the same printer property settings I am using
for this document and they all printed fine.
2. As noted previously, there seems to be an interaction between Publisher's
Page Setup settings and the Printer Driver Properties settings in that if I
change the Printer Driver Properties sometimes the Page Setup gets reset.
From my point of view, the Page Setup I create in Publisher should be
completely independent of the settings I use in the Printer Driver. My point
is there is something going on between Publisher and the Driver and how the
printer is controlled.
3. In the Printer Driver, I have set an option that is supposed to pop up a
print preview for every document I print to the printer using an HP Preview
utility. This preview has worked for all other packages I have printed from.
From all Office products, however, this preview does not come up, so there
is no way for me to see what the printer thinks it is printing. Office is
bypassing at least some portion of the driver for this to occur.

These three examples show that Office is doing something more than most
packages do in its interaction with the printer drivers.

It is also possible that it is not a MS/Driver interaction problem at all
but that Office (both Publisher and Powerpoint) is composing the document
incorrectly. But I don't know how to prove whether or not this is the case.
As noted, I have spent several hours with HP and their estimation is that it
is an application problem. And so far, given everything I have tried, I am
inclined to agree with them. If you still believe it is a driver problem, I
would appreciate some technical explanation that I can give HP that proves
what you are sending to the printer is correct, and the driver's
interpretation of the image is incorrect.

What I know is that the printer is capable of printing a borderless image
correctly, as I've done in two different packages, that the paper is 11"
long, that, to the best of my knowledge, the document is set up to be 11"
long in Publisher (and Powerpoint), and that the image looks as it should in
Publisher's Preview and is 11" long in the preview, but it is not printing
properly.

Finally, I forgot to mention that I have tried printing with the "Print Line
by Line" option under Tools both on and off, and there is no difference, the
print looks the same with it both on and off.

Thanks again,

Thomas

 

[Mary Sauer]

I have answered Wildfire privately.

This is what I have found. My HP printer is one week old, I have spent a good amount
of time this a.m. trying to do borderless from Publisher, won't work... At least the
cartridges are only ten dollars each.
I converted his brochure to a picture (.jpg), printed from the HP Image Zone and it
worked perfectly. Really a nice borderless brochure.
So I agree with Wildfire in the sense Publisher is ignoring the driver setup and
printing his brochure with the default margins. This will have to be worked out with
HP... They supply the drivers, there is a communications problem somewhere.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Mary, out of curiosity, which printer model of HP did you get? And how do
you like it so far?

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Mary Sauer]

It is a 8250, to be honest Brian I have used it very little. I'm not crazy about the
paper tray. I read some good reviews, plus the free shipping... I did print one photo
with the sample paper HP included, the color is stunning. I still use my 5000 for
almost everything. There are six cartridges in the 8250. It is a thermal printer.

I converted Wildfire's brochure to a PDF, did the standard adjustments and it printed
correctly.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Impressive looking and impressive price...says $179.00 and "Worlds Fastest"

Might have to peek at that. I have a Photosmart P1000.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

And i know my printer is getting dated, but (DAVID), never a single problem,
and prints awesome.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.