Unable to change margins

S
Posted By
stroute
Aug 26, 2004
Views
777
Replies
4
Status
Closed
I am attempting to print an 8×10 to a HP 990C se printer. I am unable to change the printer margins (they are greyed out). How to I get around this feature and change the margins to print the full page?

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Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 26, 2004
Stroute,

That’s not a photoshop feature/issue. It is determined by the printer manufacturer.

Your printer has hard margins past which it cannot print. These are coded into the printer driver.

If you’ve ever typed a long MS Word document and played with the margins, you may have seen MS Word say something like "The margins in the document extend beyond the printable area of your printer, what would you like to do: fix, ignore, cancel".

It’s the same thing. Since PS isn’t a page layout program, it doesn’t give you that friendly feedback. But know that as the print head moves across paper, there are physical limitations as to how far it can print. You may have noticed that the bottom margin is larger than the top margin. This is because at some point, the roller cannot push the paper under the head anymore. So they set a hard margin.

Peace,
Tony
S
stroute
Aug 26, 2004
Tony,
I understand what you are saying. I word you can change the margins to like .25 inches on everyside. I see with Photoshop all of the margin settings are greyed out. Does this mean I can’t change anyof my margins for the printer while using photoshop??

Thanks,

steve
Y
YrbkMgr
Aug 26, 2004
Steve,

Since Photoshop is not a page layout program, there is no NEED to set any margins – at all. Photoshop says

"you can print any size image you want, provided that it fits within the page size you set in your printer, and provded that it is not larger than the physical printing limitations on that size page."

So when folks ask about margins, it is generally thought that they have an 8.5 x 11" image, that they are trying to print on 8.5 x 11" paper. That (usually) isn’t allowed due to physical printer limitations.

Other than that reason, there is no reason to try and set margins.

If you explain what you are trying to do, there is probably a better way to accomplish it than the way you are trying.

Peace,
Tony
MM
Mac_McDougald
Aug 27, 2004
To say what Tony is explaining in a different way, in PhotoShop you set the IMAGE for a SIZE and that is what it prints.

In other words, let’s say you have an image that consists of 2160 x 1440 like my digicam shoots.
This image can be:
10 x 6.6 " at 216 ppi or 7×4.8 " at 308ppi
or any of an infinite number of other possibilities.

In any case, the image will print at the size you select in Image/Image Size dialogue.

Obviously, the smaller the image you print on your paper, the larger the white space around it, but this isn’t a "border" setting. It’s just "lack of image" area.

Mac

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