HP laserjet 500 color M551 edge-to-edge / no bleeding / no margin / borderless

[explodedk]

i have a HP laserjet 500 color m551 but i can't seem to figure out if i can print borderless or not.

i've found a setting in the printer called edge-to-edge which is by default disabled. i've enabled it but still all prints have borders.

I can't seem to find any settings in the print drivers (CLJ_M551_sw_win_driver-installer_13284.exe) where i can check borderless or edge-to-edge or anything like that.

i am running windows 10 enterprise, and downloaded the latest PCL6 driver november 21st.

any help would be much appreciated.

[davidzuts]

No laserjets are capable of doing full bleed.  Just the nature of the design where there has to be a small border on the sides usually about 1/8 of an inch.

[dansdaduk]

I agree with @davidzuts

As far as I know, the standard unprintable margin on LaserJet printers is about 4 mm; on those models which support the 'edge-to-edge' option, this reduces to about 2  mm.

As David says, the reason for not providing full-bleed is in the design; it it were allowed, there would be a risk of contamination of (and perhaps damage to) components within the printer, due to loose toner; at the very least there would be the possibility of smearing and other image defects.

[davidzuts · Accepted solution]

The actual reason for the design is the fuser.  Since the width of the paper is 8.5 inches there has to be "play" on each side of the fuser and allowing for toner to reach the edges of each sheet would contaminate the edges of the fuser path and over time cause jams or other image quality issues.  That said if the user were to purchase a larger format color laser printer which handles up to 12x18 paper, then full bleed will be possible on paper up to size 11x17.  Letter size paper will allow for full bleed since it feeds using the 11 inch side as the leading edge.  Also inkjet printers will allow for full bleed since unlike toner used in laserjets  inkjet printers use liquid ink which dries and does not need heat to adhere to the paper.  Some inkjets use heat to dry the ink faster but that is a different technology and will not cause issues with full bleed.

[dansdaduk]

David

I defer to your much superior hardware knowledge.

Chris

[explodedk]

thanks alot for the great answer and why it's not gonna work.

If I we're to buy another printer to print posters on (hopefully many over time) do you have any recommandations for a reliable "cheap" printer that does both a3 and a4 and can do edge-to-edge?

[davidzuts]

Nothing Cheap when dealing with large format lasers.

http://www.printershowcase.com/11x17-color-lasers.aspx?gclid=Cj0KEQiAj8uyBRDawI3XhYqOy4gBEiQAl8BJbbX...