HP Photosmart Printer

Aligning Greeting Cards Using an HP Photosmart Printer

Hi;

I am having a problem printing my scanned artwork/greeting cards on my HP Photosmart C5180 All-in-One Printer. Although the image looks centered on the monitor (with all the nudging etc. working on a plain 7 x 10 paper - image required on bottom 7 x 5 side) when I go to print on thicker greeting card paper the image prints uncentered in the middle of the 7 x 10 card?

So I have tried to use various greeting card templates with various software programs including Printmaster, Roxio PhotoSuite and Microsoft Digital Image.

The images still come out uncentered or mis-sized.

(I dare not even attempt printing inside and at the back of the card yet!)

I am confused about how to coordinate the printing options on the Printer -- i.e., Borderless 5 x 7 and Orientation Landscape/Portrait with the Print Size Options available on the software, i.e. 5 x 7 (landscape/portrait).

Too, I have read that my front load HP is not ideal for greeting card paper though the option for greeting cards is available in the Features/Paper type setting. (I have tried HP technical support but they seemed to know little about greeting card issues.)

I am afraid of throwing good money after bad by buying more software programs or another printer when I can't seem to print more than 5 decent cards at one time. Too I've invested in 250 pre-folded cards. I would be grateful for any assistance you may offer.

Genna

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I have PrintMaster Platinum 12 so I think I can help you.

I prefer to have control of my design space rather than rely on pre-formatted templates. Your question is a good example of the problems you can encounter with templates. Usually they work fine, but when they don't it can be very frustrating.

Open a new portrait orientation Poster. File>Printer Setup>Print Setup will bring up the box shown below.

Select Paper: Size and scroll down to find Photo 8 x 10 in. and select that. This is the closest to your paper size and has the correct length, which makes laying out your page easier.

Click on View and make sure Rulers and Guides are checked. By clicking on the top and side rulers you can create guidelines to define your design space. Don't forget to take borders into account.

In the illustration below, the rulers start 1/8 inch in from the paper's edge. This means your paper width as measured on the ruler will end at 6 7/8 inches -- not 7.

My printer is set to minimize margins, which allows me to print to within 1/8 inch of the paper's edges. So I set guidelines at the outer edges and then 1/8 inch in. I also set a guideline horizontally where the card will be folded and 1/8 inch on either side of this line.

If your HP Photosmart truly prints to the edge, you don't need the extra set of guidelines.

Create your card design within the guidelines you have set. The front of the card goes on the bottom as shown.

If you want to put a logo or title on the back of the card, create it on the top half. Then flip in upside down by clicking Layout>Mirror Left to Right and Layout>Flip Top to Bottom. Move it to the center top of the upper design space.

You say you can print about five good cards at a time. As you can see from the top photo, I printed seven cards and every one registered just fine using the Guideline method.

I printed on an HP DeskJet printer.

If your Photosmart still does not behave properly, try not selecting cardstock as the paper type. It usually makes little difference.

If that solves the problem, there is a bug in your printer's software. Report it to HP and they should eventually provide a fix.

In the meantime, you can work around it.