Printing in mirror image

[msgrace]

This is an update to my previous post-printing upside down.

The words on on the print out are backwards, if I hold the page up to the  mirror I can read it perfectly.  If someone knows how to correct that problem, please tell me.

I am sharing the printer (HP Officejet J5700 series among 3 printers; a PC which is connected directly  to the printer thru usb cable and 2 laptops, a windows XP, and a Windows Vista. I am havin the problem with the laptops, the PC is printing just fine.  

Thanks in advance,

msgrace

[Bosco56 · Accepted solution]

I'm trying to find a permanent fix but if you go to <Start> <Printers> Right click on the J5700 and select properties. On the "advanced" tab uncheck "Print Mirror Image". I hope this helps.

[DexterM]

I remember this issue popping up after customers upgraded to XP SP3. Bosco56's instructions is the fix though. It's easier than uninstalling SP3.

[Gogoud]

I have a fix for this problem but you have to dig into the registry with Regedit. But first I wanted to summarise the problem and a couple of simpler workarounds.

Problem:

All the HP 'Printing Shortcuts' available from the Printing Preferences window go wrong, possibly after upgrading Windows XP to SP3. The effect is that whenever you select one of these presets, it prints in mirror image unless you manually, after selecting the shortcut, go to the 'Advanced' tab and switch 'Mirror image' to 'Off'. This works fine until you next select one of the shortcuts.

Workaround for default printing:

As others have noted, go to Start/Printers, select the printer and choose 'Printing Preferences'. From the Advanced tab, alter 'Mirror image' to 'Off'. Click 'OK'. This works fine but only for the default settings.

Workaround for custom shortcuts:

You can create custom 'Printing Shortcuts' from the Printing Preferences window and provided you manually set 'Mirror image' to 'Off' these should work fine. But you can't alter or delete the pre-existing shortcuts, except by editing the registry as shown below.

Fix for Preset HP Printing Shortcuts:

This involves changing registry keys and the usual caveats apply. Do Start/Run/regedit, then navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Printers\[HP Officejet Pro K5400 Series]\DMCDriverData\Printing\HPPresetRoot\Preset PoolData

Obviously the printer name may vary. Select one of the PresetPool entries (i.e. PresetPool:0, PresetPool:1 etc) and double-click to modify. Scroll down to around about 0DA8 or shortly thereafter where you see the word on the right-hand side ‘H.P.M.i.r.r.o.r.P.r.i.n.t.i.n.g’ (each letter separated by a period which indicates a zero value). After this you will see some zero values and then the word ‘T.r.u.e’.

Alter the letters of T.r.u.e to read F.a.l.s.e taking care not to change the number of bytes (e.g. place cursor just to left of the letter to change, press DELETE, then type the replacement letter, then cursor right to skip over the zero value to the next letter). False has one more character than True so, as you might guess, you need to alter to 'e' the 2nd zero value following the final 'e' of True. After the final 'e' of False there should be one or more zero values (shown as .) and then the next entry (H.P.A.u.t.o.D.u.p.l.e.x.S.c.a.l.i.n.g) should start with a carat character (^).

Do this for each preset and for each HP printer on your system that has this 'PresetPoolData' keyset.

The fix works immediately.

[kimmyk58]

Your perma-fix worked! I'm so grateful. I was ready to scream. I print out some of my 37 page full color, legal size residential appraisal reports for clients and to go back and find it in "mirror image" is more than frustrating.

It's a little scary to go into that part of the computer as I am a novice when it comes to that sort of thing but if you follow his/her steps as directed, it works perfectly.

Thank you so much for taking the time to teach.

Kim

[kmisenor]

How do you remove check mark for mirror image, once it's been checked? 

[kimmyk58]

I believe I just clicked it again or try to put your curser in the box and hit delete (?) I just printed out the instructions and followed them exactly. I haven't had the problem since. Still so grateful I'm giddy 🙂 Best fix ever!

[kimmyk58]

If I didn't thank you personally I want to say thank you now.

Thank you.

[degebe2015]

How can , in postscript option, show mirrored output, I have win 7 64 bits, download the driver hp web, but not work, the driver is postscript in laserjet 5100, thanks

[ChadAmerica]

Thanks for your input.  I had the same problem and that fixed it.

-CMerica