HP 7510 Duplex Problem, y-axis scaling?

[ItalSanif]

I've read about the problem with vertical scaling/additional margins when duplex enabled on HP OfficeJet 6500. 

I've also found this issue in a review of HP Photosmart 7510 [ http://www.trustedreviews.com/hp-photosmart-7510_Printer_review_performance-and-verdict_Page-2#tr-re... ].

> When printing duplex, the machine appears to use different inks for front

> and back sides of pages and to automatically reduce the size of page images,

> though not by as much as Kodak Heroes do. We can understand that duplex

> engines may need large page margins, but still feel the driver software should let you know.

1) Is this by any chance the same problem with "squashed" (vertically scaled) pages as in HP 6500?

2) What are the minimal top&bottom margin when printing in duplex mode on HP Photosmart 7510?

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More background:

Several other users have confirmed the problem in threads: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Issues-Troubleshooting/Officejet-6500A-PLUS-Duplex-scaling-iss..., http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Issues-Troubleshooting/6500A-Plus-AiO-Duplex-Issue-Margins-Off..., http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Printing-Questions/HP-6500A-Adds-extra-1-2-quot-margin-to-top-amp...

There are also two possible solutions:

1) Delete additional HP software [from: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Printing-Questions/HP-6500A-Adds-extra-1-2-quot-margin-to-top-amp... ]

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It was HP's own print utilities that was causing the problem!

I remembered problem started occuring when I installed the hp utilities (HP monitor), in order to use network scanning.Prior to that I only installed the drivers.

Delete all HP bloatware and you should be able to print fine.

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2) Use other driver [from: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Officejet-6500A-PLUS-Duplex-Fix/td-p/6... ]

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Hi everyone,

I thought I would post this for other people who have experienced the same problem as I with the default drivers for the Officjet 6500A PLUS where when printing in duplex mode the subject matter on the y-axis would appear squished.

The fix was given by a person at HP Tech Support...

First off you will want the printer already available to the computer before proceeding.

1. Go to Start => Device and Printers => then click on the button labeled "Add Printer" on the top left corner of the device window.
2. Click the button "Add Local Printer" (Choose this option if you don't know your setup)
3. Select the radio button "Use an existing port"
4. On the dropdown list select the option "CN115130TP05JW (not the fax one)
5. Now in the Manufacture list to the left select "HP"
6. On the Printer list to the right select "HP Deskjet 6980 series (HP)"
7. After the driver installs go into the "Device and Printers" window and right click the newly added "HP Deskjet 6980 series" and select "Printer Properties" on the dropdown list.
8. In the HP Deskjet 6980 Properties window click on the "Device Settings" tab on the top of the window.
9. In the list of settings look for "Duplex Unit (for 2-sided printing)" and select it.
10. Once highlighted select from the dropdown list "Installed";
11. Once finished press Apply
12. Now go into whatever you were using to print the documents and select the "HP Deskjet 6980" as your printer. Enable Duplex printing and you should see the pages print out correctly.

Hope this helps anyone that was having the same problem as me.

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[Shane_R]

1) Yes that is the same problem.

2) I belive the minimum is 1.5 in. top and bottom, but I could be wrong on that.

Any thing else you need help with?

[ItalSanif]

Thank you for response.

1) Could you tel me, whether the fixes described above works? I intend to print some technical drawings and any loss of proportion is unacceptable.

2) In other thread [ http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printing-Issues-Troubleshooting/Ink-Drying-Message-HP-Photosmart-7510/t... ] you've recomended 6700. Is that model free from y-scaling problem?

[Shane_R]

1) Yes.  To the best of my knowledge, the fix does work.

2) To the best of my knowledge, the 6700 has the same problem as the other printer's that duplex, and I'm not sure if the fix above will work for it, but it should.

[mr-stem]

I recently purchased an HP Photosmart 7510; in fact two, as I just bought one for the office after my initial pleasure with the one at home ...

... until today when I ran into this same issue about the y-axis scaling.  So I can confirm two things:

1. using the 6980 series driver stops the y-axis squashing (though I am not 100% convinced the colour output has the same quality)

2. uninstalling the HP Basic Software for 7510 series (or whatever it was called) does not seem to make any difference.

HOWEVER (you knew there would be a catch), the correctly-scaled duplex output is now truncated at the bottom by about 5mm on odd pages.  Our headers and footers are a not unreasonable 1cm from the edge, and we basically lose the entire footer on odd pages in duplex model.  In contrast, the footer prints correctly on even pages in duplex, and all pages not in duplex.

At this stage it is clear that the printer/driver combination is broken and should therefore be fixed urgently under warranty.  I am hoping for a constructive response from HP on here before I proceed to write up what at this stage will be a very unfavourable review on Amazon, if not outright request to suspect product from sale.

Note: in desperation, I have even tried resorting to Manual duplex mode (from the application), but this doesn't work for more than one page pair at a time because the second batch prints in the wrong order (I guess because the paper loads face down in this printer)!

For reference, this is running on W7 (64-bit).

[mr-stem]

Slight correction: it appears that, with the 6980 driver, I get odd-page truncation at the bottom even in non-duplex mode, which is reminiscent of behaviour I used to get on my old HP Officejet 5600 series.  From a very naive perspective, could it be possible that this is an old bug, still present in 6980, which might have been fixed in a driver for a later series, but before the y-axis scaling issue crept in with the 7510?  Any information or helpful suggestions very welcome!

[malbec0]

I absolutely agree about this problem with the 7510 needing a proper fix from HP! As far as I'm concerned the printer is not fit for purpose as it is, if you can't print properly scaled drawings in duplex!!! HP themselves have been less than helpful, as I just get told to contact them during office hours. I can't do this because (a) I'm at work and not near the printer during the times they suggest and (b) a personal call in an open office is not good!

Come on HP - this is a problem that has affected lots of people, both with this printer and others. It's time you issued a properly updated AND TESTED driver and not make us resort to some obscure workaround. Canon duplexers don't suffer like this, so why should HP? I test software applications for a living, and I'm afraid this one would not have made it to the finish line.

[Kerrigrew]

I couldn't agree more. I've just bought & installed a 7510 today, fully aware of the problem, but hoping that a fix such as pretending it's a 3980 might work. It hasn't - not for me.

It's a fantastic printer, with quality as good as professional printing. So how can HP not bother to fix a bug in their driver that lets output quality down so much?

The problem is that, in duplex only, the 7510 foreshortens the page image top & bottom by 8% (I measured), increasing both margins as a result, with typefaces squeezed down vertically, giving them a false, extended  appearance (that's what typographers and printers call it).

You can overcome the excessive margins problem by reducing the margins top & bottom in say, your Word document. I've done that, and it fills the extra space with extra lines, nicely. But you still lose wysiwyg (margins on your screen will now vanish almost entirely though they're right on the printed page), and your typeface looks plain wrong. What a dog's breakfast of a solution for a printer with otherwise impeccable ouput!

I'll be trying other solutions I find on the forum, & will post if I find one that works. If not, how about rounding up as many disappointed duplexers as possible via these posts & collectively leaning on HP to give this printer the driver it deserves?

[Shane_R · Accepted solution]

In my time working with printers with this problem, I have stumbled across a viable workaround.  The key is to use a different print driver to print, but to make sure that you are using the right one.  The document that I link in my earlier post was ment to point people to a simple solutoin, but that didn't seem to work.  I looked for another way of assigning alternate print drivers, and other drivers that might work better.  I found that the Deskjet 990c and Deskjet 450 driver work as a generic driver for most printer, and retain most of the key features.  These drivers allow for duplexing without distortion.  I'll link a post I made with the new instuctions below.  I'm sorry I didn't come back to update this post sooner.

How to Assign Alternate Print Drivers in Different Versions of Windows.

[Kerrigrew]

I'm repeating my answer & thanks to Shane which I left in another thread on the same problem, just so more people might know Shane's solution works fine. I'm brand new to the 7510 so don't know if swapping drivers has any downsides, but it certainly cures the duplex.

'I found Shane_R's excellent instructions on how to swap drivers via a search, have just installed the Deskjet 990c driver, and YES! - it works! - my new 7510 does a properly-proportioned duplex page now... and on both sides!

Thank you Shane...'

I hope someone can mark both threads as SOLVED.