my photos do not print evenly around the edges and I don't know why> I seem to get a thick white area all down the right side of picture no matter what I do. Please help...thanks a lot

Question

my photos do not print evenly around the edges and I don't know why> I seem to get a thick white area all down the right side of picture no matter what I do. Please help...thanks a lot

Hi

I am having hassles with printing out my photos on iphoto on my MacBook. I have tried printing with the borderless setting but that also gives me a thick white space on the right side of the finished photo. I have used different paper and this area on the right side still prints out blank (white paper showing) and the left hand side coloured area is all filled in but there is this constant blank stripe on the right. I tried two different borders but still got this uneven result. Any ideas please as it is a frustrating waste of paper and ink. Thanks heaps. Angie

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 9, 2011 5:00 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,322 points

Nov 9, 2011 5:29 AM in response to angelafrommelbourne

What version of iPhoto?

What Printer?

Have you updated the drivers for the Printer?

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

Nov 9, 2011 7:12 AM in response to Yer_Man

Hi

sorry, I am not giving enough information-new at this.

iphoto version is 8.1.2.

HP printer 1300 series all in one.

Drivers are updated regularly but will try again for update.

Meantime, is there possibly a setting somewhere I am missing so there isn't this 2cm white border on the right side of photo please? I read about cutting it down etc. but the problem with that quick fix is that the photo is going to then be too short on the sides once inside the frame, so, I do need all the edges on the A4 paper to be the same.

Many thanks for your kind help.

Angie

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Answer 3

Badunit

Level 7

31,162 points

Nov 9, 2011 10:50 AM in response to angelafrommelbourne

I'm not sure I can explain a 2cm border but I can possibly explain why a border of another size would be there.

A4 paper is 210mm x 297mm. Aspect ratio is 1:1.4143
4x6 photo aspect ratio is 1:1.5 which would be 198mm x 297mm, leaving a 12mm border on top or bottom of a landscape oriented photo.
5x7 photo aspect ratio is 1:1.4 which would be 210mm x 294mm, leaving a 3mm border
4x3 photo aspect ratio is 0.75:1 which would be 210mm x 280mm, leaving a 17mm border
4x5 photo aspect ratio is 0.8:1 which would be 210mm x 262.5mm, leaving a 34.5mm border

Perhaps there is a print setting or printer setting to "fill entire page" versus "fit entire image"? Otherwise you may need to crop your image to the proper aspect ratio (which would be the better of the two options because you will be the one determining what is cropped, not the printer).

You may also have printer settings for borderless printing that sets the expansion, which is how much larger the printer will make the photo to ensure there is no border. Paper does not always feed the exact same way each time so the printer has to overprint to ensure there is no border. More expansion means better chance you'll have no border but it also means more of your photo gets cropped.

Or you may have printer settings that allow you to align the printer for better borderless printing without so much expansion.

EDIT (now that I have looked at a manual for your printer):

It is also possible that it will not do borderless printing on that size paper no matter how hard you try. If I understand the manual correctly, there should be borders all around your image on A4 paper. I am surprised there are not. I am looking at page 51 of the following manual:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000039888.pdf

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Answer 4

Nov 9, 2011 5:45 PM in response to Badunit

Thank you so much for your trouble and for your kind assistance.

I am not very computer or printer savvy and find this all does my head in! There is a setting in MacBook for borderless printing which looks how I want on the screen on my macbook but the printer still prints with this wide gap on the right side but I will perserver and keep trying your suggestions and whatever else until I get it right. I might even have to eventually buy a new printer. Even though the HP isn't THAT old, in todays world I guess it might be outdated-pity Apple do not make their own printers.

Cheers and thank you again.

Angie

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Answer 5

Badunit

Level 7

31,162 points

Nov 9, 2011 7:54 PM in response to angelafrommelbourne

Not all printers will print borderless at the size you are printing. That doesn't mean it is outdated, it just was not designed for that purpose. Also, standard photo sizes do not include A4. Closest is 8 x 10 (versus 8.3 x 11.7 for A4 paper). It might do an 8x10 borderless. I am still surprised it does A4 without putting margins all around as per the specs in the manual.

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Answer 6

Nov 10, 2011 5:19 AM in response to Badunit

Hi again,

Thank you for trying to help me. I rang tech support again but after a long time on the phone and tweaking some settings, it still did not help. In the end I decided to do away with my nice fancy border and just go for a plain look. I have the setting on A4 because the only way I can get the borderless setting to appear is with the very small (4x7 I think) setting so I went for A4 and put in your recommendation of 8x10. It looked really okay on the plain paper I have been going through and then I put in my canvass photo paper and it is better than at the very start of all this. The right hand side is still a little bit wider but, I think I can work with this and the photo is a lot bigger printing this way. It's more photo and less border.

Thanks for your help. Really do appreciate your kind time and patience.

Kind regards,

Angie

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