HP laserjet: never can get symmetric margins

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Kilpatrick
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael Kilpatrick

Folks,

I use the Sibelius music package for printing music,
but the problems I get with my printer also appear
on Microsoft Word (Win XP).

I print a mixture of single A4 sheets and 2-page A3
spreads. Sometimes for a 3-page music part I glue
a single A4 sheet to the side of an A3 spread to
get a 3-page spread. I use the manual feeder tray
for A4, and the lower tray 2 for A3.

The problem is this: when printing an A4 sheet, the
left margin is always far too narrow. The printed
area of the page is always shifted to the left on
the paper. I just can't stop this problem. It should
be obvious that a sheet of A4 should be identical to
half of a 2-page A3 spread, but they are not!

The A3 spread themselves are not perfectly symmetrical,
but only out by a little bit. The left-shift of the
single A4 sheets, however, is excessive. I have
a 6mm left margin compared to a 12mm right margin.

Surely the printer should begin printing at the
same distance from the edge of the paper? Surely
it must allow a user to create 2-page A3 spreads
that look the same as two separate sheets of A4?
There seems to be nothing I can do about it.

Does anybody understand where these errors originate
from?

I did a test using Word. I set the margins to 1cm
all rounds, and set a solid border. To my horror,
not only are the left/right margins skewed also,
but the total printed area is in fact larger on
an A4 sheet than it is on half of an A3 spread.

Michael
 
When you print 2 up on a single sheet you are offerd gutter seting
aswell as margins in effect the center space between the two pages. This
may be where you are geting the error from
 
Trev said:
When you print 2 up on a single sheet you are offerd gutter seting
aswell as margins in effect the center space between the two pages. This
may be where you are geting the error from
Click to expand...


The gutters are set to zero, and of course that's only in Word.
The problem occurs in Sibelius too. It's a real wind-up...

Michael
 
The problem is this: when printing an A4 sheet, the
left margin is always far too narrow. The printed
area of the page is always shifted to the left on
the paper. I just can't stop this problem. It should
be obvious that a sheet of A4 should be identical to
half of a 2-page A3 spread, but they are not!
Click to expand...

On all the Laserjets I have used (three different models over the
years) there is a little doohickey at the back of the paper tray which
can be adjusted to center the paper in the tray. Perhaps yours is a
bit out of kilter.
 
Marek said:
On all the Laserjets I have used (three different models over the
years) there is a little doohickey at the back of the paper tray which
can be adjusted to center the paper in the tray. Perhaps yours is a
bit out of kilter.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, are you suggesting that I adjust the A3 paper tray
to make the offset on the paper the same as that on the A4
paper? Or is there an adjuster on the manual feeder top tray
from which my printer is taking A4?

Michael
 
Hmmm, are you suggesting that I adjust the A3 paper tray
to make the offset on the paper the same as that on the A4
paper? Or is there an adjuster on the manual feeder top tray
from which my printer is taking A4?
Click to expand...

No, what I am saying is that there is a gizmo at the back of the tray
where the offset can be adjusted. It has half a dozen positions, each
one of which moves the stack a millimeter or so. It moves the stack
regardless of what kind of paper you have the tray set to. On the
three different Laserjets I have used you had to remove the tray to
access it. In theory the user should never have to touch it, but
sometimes things get out of calibration That's why it's there. It's
not even mentioned in the user guides. I didn't know about it until I
read about it in a service manual.

You didn't say which Laserjet you have. I know you can adjust the
paper position on the three different models I have used, but I have
no idea if yours includes the capability.
 
Marek said:
No, what I am saying is that there is a gizmo at the back of the tray
where the offset can be adjusted. It has half a dozen positions, each
one of which moves the stack a millimeter or so. It moves the stack
regardless of what kind of paper you have the tray set to. On the
three different Laserjets I have used you had to remove the tray to
access it. In theory the user should never have to touch it, but
sometimes things get out of calibration That's why it's there. It's
not even mentioned in the user guides. I didn't know about it until I
read about it in a service manual.
Click to expand...

On this LaserJet 5100 printer I can see no gizmos of any sort
that offset the paper stack. There are absolutely no adjusters on
the manual feeder (tray 1) other than the two self-linked sliders
that centre the paper left/right in the tray, and this is not the
direction in which the error occurs. In the lower tray (tray 2)
in which I put the A3 paper, there are adjusters for the width
and length, but only on apaper-size scale, to select between
A3, B5, letter, etc. I can see nothing that would seem ot move
the stack a millimetre or so! Could you perhaps describe in more
detail what you have seen on the printers you refer to?

Michael
 
On this LaserJet 5100 printer I can see no gizmos of any sort
that offset the paper stack. There are absolutely no adjusters on
the manual feeder (tray 1) other than the two self-linked sliders
that centre the paper left/right in the tray, and this is not the
direction in which the error occurs. In the lower tray (tray 2)
in which I put the A3 paper, there are adjusters for the width
and length, but only on apaper-size scale, to select between
A3, B5, letter, etc. I can see nothing that would seem ot move
the stack a millimetre or so! Could you perhaps describe in more
detail what you have seen on the printers you refer to?
Click to expand...

Pull your tray 2 completely out of the printer and place it on a
table. Look at the back of the tray. On mine there is a little round
plastic thingy on the outside of one corner with a screwdriver slot in
it and an arrow on one side. It's about one centimeter in diameter
(3/8 inch). You can rotate it to any of six positions. Each position
moves the entire paper tray assembly by a millimeter or so. Or maybe
it's set up in inches, like each setting is 1/32 or 1/16 inch.

As for your manual feed tray, mine is the same sort -- self-linked
sliders. However, if you look underneath you can see a plastic wheel
that rotates. On mine there is a screw in the center of this wheel. I
didn't try it because my printer is centered fine, but I'll bet if I
loosened that screw I could slide that wheel left and right to adjust
the centering.

But I should add that I don't have a 5100, so perhaps these features
are different or missing.
 
Back
Top