Slight slant on printing

[Solebanana]

I've had an Envy 4527 for a little while, and the printout has looked OK, but I've never previously had cause to notice whether the front and back of a page are printing exactly on top of each other.

Using Disc Cover 3 to print a CD cover, I've printed one side, reinserted the page as the program won't print sides successively in the same print, and then printed the second side on the other side of the paper.

Looking at the print markings on the resulting print, they're close at the beginning of the print though a slight angle is evident with the left hand side down a bit and the right hand side up a bit. By the time it gets to the bottom of the page it's about 2-3mm out. I'm afraid this is far enough to be significant.

There are no error messages either on the software or the printer itself, and no obvious sign that the printer has struggled - no funny noises, no obvious feed problems, just chug chug chug and out it came.

Out of curiosity, I tried printing the two sides to PDF, combining them by printing to PDF again, and then doing a full two sided print of the combined PDF, that is not involving me reinserting any paper in case that was the issue. No different, still slanting. It isn't to do with how I put the page back in, it's the printer, and the amount of error seems to be consistent and repeatable.

I'd really rather not take the whole thing to bits, especially and particularly if that's not really the cause and the Envy 4527 just does print at a slight angle because that's just how it's built.

Suggestions? Any way of using any print options to put an angle on the other way?

[Betty0610]

@Solebanana

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Does this happen on copies too?

Ensure that the printer is up to date with its firmware and Mac is up to date with its software. If you are unsure you may use the links below to update the printer firmware and Mac software:

Update printer firmware

Update software on Mac 

Let me know if this helps.

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Thanks!

Have a great day!

[Solebanana]

Hi

Unfortunately, no that doesn't help. I did check for printer firmware upgrades and it said there were none, and I'm on an old machine which won't run the latest Mac. I know it's not uncommon for software houses to insist their software must run on the latest and greatest version of the operating system, but on Mac Yosemite is as far as I go, and it's got the latest updates for that. I have got latest Linux, and the latest Windows, but again on old machines. Printing isn't a problem on those, but as I mentioned that's because the slight angle isn't normally noticeable.

Trial and error tests indicate that applying a manual tilt of -0.09 degrees on both sides corrects the slant. This doesn't sound like much, but along the length of an A4 page it's enough to cause two to three millimetres discrepancy between front and back at the bottom (end) of the print and I'm afraid that is significant for example when printing CD covers.

I did find one workaround:

1. Export what you want to print as an image - a JPEG say.
2. Paste it into a blank document in OpenOffice Draw (or any equivalent that allows fractions of a degree tilt)
3. Centre it both ways by right clicking and using align.
4. Apply -0.09 degrees rotation to the image.
5. On a second page in the same document, do the same for whatever you want on the back.
6. Print it.

This of course isn't a fix, it's a workaround; though it does have the advantage that for any one document when it's sorted once it's sorted and should always print straight after that.

Out of curiosity I did have a look at the underneath of the printer with the tray out. It looked clean, no dust or anything. I was struck by how small the feed roller actually was. I still don't think this is dust or mechanical malfunction because it's so highly repeatable and still happens even if the machine itself does the page turn. I still think it's a design fault and that for 99% of users they're just never going to notice it. If you like you could argue that exact alignment would be a requirement for a specialist professional printer rather than a home printer i.e. if you want it to print straight you have to spend a lot more money.

However, do test it there. Print a rectangle, just an empty black rectangle with say 2 point lines on the sides, longways along an A4 page, exactly the same on both sides. Then hold the page up to the window and tell me if the two rectangles sit absolutely cleanly on top of each other. I'm guessing you'll see one is slightly twisted relative to the other one. If you print it five times I'm guessing the amount of twist will be the same, and that it'll still happen even if you cleaned every part of the printer yesterday.

[Betty0610]

Does this happen on copies too?