Print on Both Sides results in Loss of Scale / Increased Margins

[Troublekiller]

Hello, I am hoping somebody can help me out here. I see on these forums that others have had the exact same problem - some have been able to fix it with the prescribed methods, and others, like myself, have not.

I have an HP Officejet 6700 Premium printer/scanner, and two computers, one with Windows 7 and one with Windows 10. The issue is the same on both computers. I just recently installed the printer on my Windows 7 computer, using the latest drivers from the HP Support website, but it was already installed on the Windows 10 computer many months back, using the wireless install function through the computer's list of Printers and Scanners. 

Here is the situation:

• I open a letter-size PDF, print it with the following settings: Scaling set to 'None', Auto-Rotate and Center 'on', Choose paper source by PDF page size 'on', Letter-size paper, Preserve Layout to 'Yes',  Borderless Printing set to 'Print with Border'... and Print on both sides set to 'None'
• The document prints great! In that it is to-scale (correct size), no extra margins added. 

Here is the problem:

• I change one setting - Print on both sides set to 'Flip on Long Edge'
• Now the document prints smaller, not-to-scale (incorrect size), with an extra 1/2" or so of blank space on top, bottom, and both side margins! This is unacceptable, as I need to be able to print proposals and reports to submit to municipalities to get jobs, often including drawings that need to be to-scale. And it just looks bad when shrunk down like that. 

Some things that have affected results, but not solved the problem:

• For some users, installing latest drivers seem to fix it, so I think it is a driver issue. Unfortunately I have the latest drivers installed, through HPs Support website. As far as I can tell, it is the correct basic driver for the printer. Seemed pretty straight forward to track it down.
• For me and another user, it was suggested we try setting the Preserve Layout to 'No'. Strangely, this DOES fix the scaling issue, but then at the same time crops the top and bottom margins by like 1 inch each! Not sure why it would add this crazy top and bottom margin, which is frustrating because it solves the scaling problem, but is otherwise worse because I am now losing borders and some text at the top and bottom of the page, like page numbers, etc. (Results were the same for the other user trying this, by the way)
• Borderless printing also does not work. It really should not affect scaling, but I tried it anyway like another user on these forums, and instead it won't even let me try. It has a little yellow caution symbol next to 'Print Borderless', and when I select it, it won't let me leave my other settings unchanged, saying it conflicts with both 'Letter' page size, and 'Flip on Long Edge' settings. I also have no idea why this would not work.
• Of course, I have tried many other combinations of settings. One thing remains - if I print double-sided, I get either a print that is scaled way down, or get my top and bottom chopped off.

Any input on this would be great! I have wasted over a day troubleshooting this already, and at least a few others share this issue. 

One 'HP Employee' seemed pretty certain it was a messed up margin setting or something in the actual driver. I am hoping it just takes a quick review of the latest driver software for this printer, and that a new driver can be uploaded to the support website to replace the 'faulty' one. 

If you, too, share this issue, please create an account and post a reply so we can get this looked at!

Thank you,

[Troublekiller]

By the way, I posted the above because almost immediately after I posted very detailed replies to two other conversations, both users sharing my exact same issue, the posts were archived! 

For the record, that was NOT helpful, moderators! Those replies took time to write, and you instantly deleted them. I know those topics were a couple years old, but both have users still experinecing this issue, and contained valuable troubleshooting input on the subject. Instead of letting them stay alive, you deleted my replies, and made the others harder to find. 

I tried to find a more direct way to contact you, but couldn't so I'm posting here.

Can't believe I have to ask this, but please don't delete this one. 

Thanks,

[Troublekiller · Accepted solution]

Answer:

Turns out this is how the printer is supposed to function. An HP Support Representative was able to provide me with the explanation for why it does this. 

Link to the conversation below (I don't know how to provide a better link than just a copy+paste of the address, sorry):

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Software-and-Drivers/Double-sided-Printing-Results-in-Loss-of-...

To summarize, for mechanical reasons the printer requires empty/blank space at the top and bottom of the page in order to pull the paper back in and flip it automatically before printing on the other side of the page. 

Not a solution to the problem, but an explanation at least.

[Caspian_2010]

I have the new 9015.   The previous model, 8600, did not have this issue.  In addition, I joined the ink program and I've just spent lots of money on wasted pages only to find out I can't print narrow margins on the top and bottom of the page.  So far, the newer printer has taken away features and cost me money.