HP 5180 doesn't print on my letterhead

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Level 1

65 points

HP 5180 doesn't print on my letterhead

Just bought a HP Photosmart 5180 multifunction printer. Like it generally, photos a little light but fixable I'm sure,

But it won't print on my letterhead! It takes the letterhead into the printer, waits a moment then ejects it unrpinted. Then it takes another sheet from the paper tray and prints on that!

The letterhead has a dark green strip across the top, part of the design.
HP helpdesk say the printer can't detect the paper because of this, it's a known fault and they will write a fix to fix it. Don't know when though!

In the meantime, any ideas??

intel imac, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Aug 3, 2007 3:43 AM

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Answer 1

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Aug 3, 2007 8:57 AM in response to GeoffUK

It seems like the work-around would be to get your Word processor (or Preview) to rotate the first page (or all pages) 180 degrees -- and then insert your letterhead "upside" down (ie rotated 180 degrees).

This would allow the plain edge of the letterhead to enter the printer first.

In Preview, the rotation option is under the Tools menu.

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Answer 2

GeoffUK Author

Level 1

65 points

Aug 3, 2007 9:26 AM in response to Boece

Hi Boece

Thanks for your response.

I tried that and it does indeed work. Even though I also have a strip of colour at the bottom of my letterhead also. It's only about 1 cm though as opposed to the 4cm at the top.

What happens if I design something like an invite that I want to print on coloured paper??!!

HP in the States have now come back and said it won't print on coloured paper and there's no fix.

So a pretty weird thing for a printer to not be able to do.

So do I swap it or not? The HP was certainly the top in all my researches and looks great. The Canon MP 510 was the second choice but looks like it should be with a PC not a mac.

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Answer 3

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Aug 3, 2007 9:34 AM in response to GeoffUK

I'd suggest that you try printing on colored paper. It might work regardless of what HP says. It seems unlikely that they designed a printer that can't handle colored paper.

It is possible that the particular layout of your letterhead is what is tripping up the printer.

In that case you could redesign the letterhead -- or have the printer print the letterhead design for you each time. Or keep rotating 180.

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Answer 4

elmac

Level 5

4,252 points

Aug 3, 2007 8:51 PM in response to Boece

Hi, why not save your letterhead as a template, then open it and proceed to write your text starting x number of lines down (this can be set in page preferences)..this should solve your issue..let us kno'.....L

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Answer 5

GeoffUK Author

Level 1

65 points

Aug 4, 2007 2:40 AM in response to elmac

Hi Elmac

Do you mean so that everytime, the letterhead itself is printed as well as the text? I thought about this but it would mean I'd use a lot of coloured ink as the desgn of the letter head has a page wide 4cm strip of dark green at the top and a 1cm strip at the bottom. Interestingly, when I tried the upside-down printing method, the bottom strip wasn't a problem.

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Answer 6

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Aug 4, 2007 6:53 AM in response to GeoffUK

Yes, we both suggested printing the letterhead colors each time as one option.

As I suggested earlier, your printer may just have a problem with the particular layout of your letterhead.

Please try printing on colored paper and see if it works. If it does, you may be able to fix things by slightly tweaking the design of your letterhead -- or by the upside down printing work-around.

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Answer 7

GeoffUK Author

Level 1

65 points

Aug 4, 2007 7:11 AM in response to Boece

Hi Guys

I'll get some coloured paper and get back to you in a day or two on that.

Regarding printing my letterhead each time, what do I do with the 1500 printed letterheads I already have?!

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Answer 8

Boece

Level 5

6,264 points

Aug 4, 2007 8:08 AM in response to GeoffUK

+Regarding printing my letterhead each time, what do I do with the 1500 printed letterheads I already have?!+

Unless HP comes up with a firmware fix, I think you will have to use the 180-degree rotation work-around.

I don't think this has anything to do with HPs software on your Mac; my guess is that you would have the same problem if you used your all-in-one to photocopy onto the letterhead. So I think it is a printer firmware issue.

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Answer 9

elmac

Level 5

4,252 points

Aug 5, 2007 10:17 PM in response to GeoffUK

Hi, well tell us the latest update!
my suggestion was to set up TextEdit or Pages -> (page set-up) so that you are actually starting your text about 2-3 inches lower than the top of the page- this
should allow you to use your already printed letterheads, but should allow you to start printing further down the page allowing for your heading. I use an HP1210 with a template I made allowing my text to start printing 3 inches down the page, whatever is on the top should make no difference with this set up...L

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Answer 10

GeoffUK Author

Level 1

65 points

Aug 6, 2007 3:07 AM in response to elmac

Elemac, sorry I misunderstood your previous suggestion. On the page layout in both Appleworks and Word, I have the top margin set to 2.5". On my previous printer, an Epson 740, the first line would start well below the printed letterhead. On the HP, when it prints on plain paper, it does this too.

I just tried to copy onto the letterhead and the same problem occured so it's obviously something to do with the printer not seeing the letterhead.

Looks like the 180 turn-around is the only way around it.

I'll let you know what happens when I try to print on coloured paper.

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Answer 11

GeoffUK Author

Level 1

65 points

Aug 7, 2007 7:56 AM in response to GeoffUK

Well, I did the coloured paper test. I tried printing on yellow, green, blue and red paper. It printed quite happily on all of them except.....green. Which just went through unprinted.

And what colour is the strip across the top of my letterhead? You've guessed it, Green!

The strip at the top is about 4cm wide and the strip at the bottom about 1cm. And it will print using the upside down method with the paper going in bottom first. So it looks like the top 4cm looks like green paper to the printer.

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