Reduce from legal to letter size not working

[jbee]

When I try to reduce (copy) the legal size paper to letter size the results are not correct. It will shrink top to bottom but will also shrink side to side.  In other words, the finished letter is correct top to bottom but a big margin on one side.

This happens on both the document feeder and the scanner glass.

Using two windows 10 and a vista laptop, connected thru router wi fi.

This printer did work correctly yesterday. I did unplug printer but no help.  Help.

[Bob_Headrick]

The Legal -> Letter scaling would be [edit - corrected] 72%, the printer is designed to keep the aspect correct so it applies this in both dimensions.  Are you wanting to scale the long edge but maintain the width?  This is not an option for copying.

[jbee]

Hi Bob   I know that is what is happening but that is not correct. When I do a preview of the scan, it does show the wide margin on screen. But the picture of which 'resizing' you would like to choose does show it correct. Why would they have it show up that way?

A4 to letter is 91%.  Legal to letter is 72%. That is some of the options I have.

There is something wrong here. No one would downsize a legal size paper to letter size if it doesn't look like a letter with the correct margin on both sides. I guess that would go for A4 to letter size also.

I did misquote myself as yesterday it didn't work correctly either. But it has worked in the past. One can't miss that big margin on one side.

Any suggestions?  Thanks for the quick reply.

[Bob_Headrick]

[Thanks for catching my error - I was remembering the 91% but that was the "fit to page" setting on my unit.]  

Which Officejet Pro 8600 series printer do you have?  I have used the Officejet 8600 Plus and 8600 Premium extensively in the past, neither had an option to scale differently in the X and Y axis.  If the scaling in width and length were not the same it would cause circles to appear as ovals, which could be an issue for graphics such as logos.  

One possibility - in the Copy settings there is a setting for Margin Shift.  This will move the margin to the right by 3/8".  This was intended to give room for a three hole punch on the left side, but it may help center things a bit more to your liking.  Alternately you could scan the page as a graphic, take it into a program like Paint, Resize, uncheck the "maintain aspect ratio" box, check Percentage,  select 74 for Vertical, OK.

[jbee]

Hi again Bob.  It is an office jet pro 8600 plus.

I did go into settings again and change the margin. All that did was to move that side about 1/2 inch away from the edge of paper. The other side is about 2 1/4 inch margin. Top to bottom is correct.

This is not right. All it is doing is shrink the whole legal size paper into a letter size paper.

Do you know as to why it would state legal size to letter size and then not do it correctly?

I didn't realize the incorrect size the other day. I know that it has been OK at some previous time. Looking at the finished letter size, one can't miss the two different margins. If I change the margins for this, that would mean I would have to do this at every copy or scan, or print from computers.

Any other suggestions?     I'm always open.

Thanks again.

[Bob_Headrick]

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@jbee wrote:

[snip] Do you know as to why it would state legal size to letter size and then not do it correctly? [snip]

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Please elaborate a bit on what you would consider correct?  If you have a full size legal document (perhaps with 0.5" margins all around) and you ask the printer to scale it from Legal to Letter what margins would you want or expect?

[jbee]

Hi Bob.  Thanks for the quick reply.

What I would expect is it to print from legal to letter as it states. Finished letter should look like a letter looking like what you stated.   0.5" all around. Especially on the sides. Top should be close to the original and the bottom could be shorter or longer depending on the original. When it has (without changing the margin for hole punches) almost nothing on one side 0.10" and 2.25" on the other, that is not legal to letter.

My printer states resize (not shrink) that does show on my printer screen. Looks like what I have been talking about. It shows it correctly. Side margins, correct size.

It is not very often that I need to do that type of copy, but I'm sure it has been correct in the past.

Thanks again. I am always open for other suggestions.

[Bob_Headrick]

OK, I dug an Officejet Pro 8600 Plus out of storage.  The icon for Legal to Letter does show margins as you desire, but I do not think the printer actually ever worked that way. I do not know of any way to have the printer scale the length by 72% while keeping the width at 100%.

Sorry I cannot help you.

[jbee]

Would HP themselves Know? A lot of business have high dollar copy machines and they can do it. If I have to make another copy,  I will go to Office Depot.

Bob, thanks again for trying.

[Bob_Headrick]

I will ask to have one of the HP engineers involved with the Officejet Pro 8600 to take a look at this thread, I would not expect any different answer.