Please help. Margins all wrong with roll printing

[Alexey]

I have a 4880 printer. Centering/margins are perfect when using a sheet feeder. However, when I insert roll paper (8 inch roll), the margins are seriously shifted.
For example, let’s say I am printing with margins on 8” roll. I set the width to match the paper. The side of the paper closest to the capping station will be borderless, with a mm or two of the print cut off. The other side of the print has a margin about twice the size it should. It’s as if the entire printing area is shifted by a cm or so towards the capping station side. I tried reinstalling the roll several times and trying different size rolls. The printable area is always shifted. Is there a way to correct this?
Thanks do much in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

and what is the image size you want to print ? Which program are you using to print ? Does it have a print preview ?

 

[Alexey]

This happens with any size image on roll paper (same thing happens with manually inserted paper into the back feed. But Cut sheet media from the front sheet feed centers perfectly). For example, I may select printing with margins (margins are auto set as far as I know). Then on one side (strangely the side closest to the printhead/inner edge), it overprints so there are no margins and large margins on the other side. If I print an image much smaller than the sheet (so that margins are over an inch), then the image is off-centered toward the side closest to the printhead. I ususlly print from Photoshop. But I tried Qimage, Photoshop Elements and On1. The problem just recently started. I was printing on rolls and manually inserted sheets fine before.

 

[Alexey]

This offset does not appear in print previews. This printer is known for vertically offsetting an image by half an inch from the bottom of the page. But that is a feature of the printer. What I am getting is offsetting toward the left side of the image.

 

[The Hat]

What I am getting is offsetting toward the left side of the image.

The only time this can happen is when the Application your using is set to a different sheet size to the print driver size setting, they both should match, Which O/S are you using..?

 

[Alexey]

Thanks so much for your responses! Truly appreciated. I am in Windows 10, mostly printing from photoshop.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

The problem just recently started. I was printing on rolls and manually inserted sheets fine before.

What happened - a driver or firmware update for such an old printer would not happen anymore - but what else - did you change/reinstalled the printer ? Did you move from Win7/ to Win10 ? Did you change any default margin settings in the printer itself ? Do you get any error code which relates to that problem ? Does the problem happen as well with roll paper of another width ? do you have another computer/notebook e.g. running still on another Windows version on which you can test whether the printer does the same ?

 

[Alexey]

That is a great idea, testing it out with another computer. I will try that and report back. Thanks!

 

[Alexey]

I was able to get some measure of normalcy. I was going through all options on the printer and found a measure sheet option. This allows the printer to pre-measure the position of the roll prior to printing. When I turned it on, the printer now seems to center properly on rolls. This is my second 4880 printer and I always had the option on off and never had a problem. But at least this brings some measure of normalcy to roll printing. Thank you so much to all who responded to my query!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for your feedback, it just shows the complexity with the setup and support , and even more with parameters to be entered directly into the printer.