Printing Greeting Cards

I don't think you have to sign up for .Mac for anything related to your problem. There's not much you can do to resize the card - I think it was designed for the kinds of cards that iPhoto prints.

You could either trim the printed cardstock at the bottom, or set your print dialog to center it and then trim the upper and lower edges, if that's a possibility.

If you want to create good printable cards, try Pages (iWork '06) - it gives you a lot of control on the picture and text, as well as the document size, and also has a media palette that accesses your iPhoto library.

e_rhino:

I've had similar problems with printing cards. I cut my card stock to 7 x 10 beforehand and then start the print. As soon as the card comes out of the printer I flip it end for end and reinsert into the printer. Most times I'm not fast enough so have to hit the feed button on the printer. As my printer and most other printers, 7 x 10 borderless is not supported so I do get a small white border around the card. When you use a full sized sheet the front and back don't line up on each side of the paper. Trimming the stock to size beforehand is the only way to get the from and back to line up properly.

Do you Twango?

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

Do you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? If so I've developed a workflow that will allow me to print the cards borderless. It requires more effort that just going thru from iPhoto but I get truly borderless 7 x 10 cards. Let me know if you have either of those applications and I'll post a workflow.

Your printer may not support full borderless printing for that size of paper, or there might be a preference to set for that. Most normal printers, because of the mechanism involved, can't print the last 1/4 - 1/8 inch because there's nothing for the rollers to hold while the head moves, and printer heads will stop squirting ink when they sense nothing in the rollers.

You might just have to trim post-print. That's how full-bleed printing works anyway - they print on larger stock and then cut it down so the image can go edge to edge. If you preview an iPhoto book the PDF will be 8.1 x 10.1" but the book you order and receive, all printed and bound, is 8 x 10 (or whatever) because the extra bleed space has been trimmed off.

Try this procedure for printing cards on US Letter paper (which works on my hp Deskjet 5150):

Choose File>Print from the iPhoto menu.
Press the "Advanced" button.
Choose the "Paper handling" option.
Check "Scale to fit paper size", and choose "US Letter">"US Letter" from the list box.
Leave the "Scale down only" box checked.
You may also want to choose the appropriate preset for photo print quality.
Click the "Print" button.

Card will be positioned at the top margin and centered left-to-right.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Yes, I have iPhoto 6.0.5, but I suppose it's possible the print dialog box comes from the printer driver, and thus depends on the type of printer. In any case, I had the same problem you have with the last half-inch or so of the card missing. I don't know what you might try other than snooping around for ways to tell iPhoto that you don't really have 7x10 paper. Sorry it didn't work.

I think that option is part of Tiger, so e_rhino at 10.3.9 wouldn't have it.