Double-sided Printing 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,

[Flower_Bud · Accepted solution]

@Troublekiller

Welcome to HP Forums,

This is a great place to get support, find answers and tips,

Thank you for posting your query, I'll be more than glad to help you out 🙂

As I understand, double-sided Printing Results in Loss of Scale or Increased Margins

Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, however, to provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details:

Have you tried printing double-sided using different applications? 

For the printer to automatically pull the pages back in and prints the other side it needs fixed margin space. This is why it's scales down the document. If you choose not to scale the document, it would cut out one or two lines. Therefore, I would suggest you try reducing the content on a page and then try printing. 

Also, try printing from a different application. 

Hope this helps,

If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out to us 🙂

Cheers 🙂

[Troublekiller]

Thank you!

While I am disappointed to hear that the cause for the 'issue' I am experiencing is a simple limitation of the printer itself - i.e. unable to print a large two-sided document at the correct scale - I am very happy to get an explanation for why this is the case. 

You must be correct about the printer requiring extra blank space on the top and bottom to flip the page - as annoying as that is. 

I tried printing from a Word document, as you suggested, and had the same outcome(s). Either it will cut off the top and bottom 5/8" or so to create these blank margins, or it will scale down the entire page to fit between them. 

I have marked your response as a solution. Specifically:

"For the printer to automatically pull the pages back in and print the other side it needs fixed margin space. This is why it's scales down the document. If you choose not to scale the document, it would cut out one or two lines."

I hope others with the same question can find this post.

I have one request - can you tell me what this requirement / function is called??

I will need to purchase a new printer soon, and want to know how to buy a printer that "will print 2-sided documents to scale without manually having to flip the page". Gotta be a shorter way to say that.

[Flower_Bud]

)@Troublekiller

Thank you for responding,

It's great to have you back 😉

You could refer to the specs  for print margin (Paper-handling specifications)

*To achieve these margin settings on a computer running Windows, click the Advanced tab in the print driver, and then select Minimize Margins.

Also, before you buy a printer just compare the print margin settings with your present printer (A printer which can print without margins).

You could contact our HP Shopping team regarding this: https://store.hp.com

I hope this answers your query 🙂

Have a great day 🙂

Cheers 🙂