A4 versus Letter madness!

[TC]

Hi folks

I've googled all over for this, but can't find the answer. It might be
more of a Canon printer question, rather than an MS Word one, but I'll
ask here anyway


I have an output that I need to print on A4 size sheets, *or* Letter
size sheets, depending on the situation. The output must be printed
axactly the same in either case - *no rescaling is desired*. The only
thing that changes here, is the physical size of the sheets that are
printed on.

Previously, when we used an inkjet printer, this worked fine. We just
inserted the size of sheet required, hit Filerint, and out it came.

Now we have a Canon Laser Shot LBP-2410. The Canon driver is set with
the size of paper in the printer - and/or, the printer senses the
actual paper size, somehow.

Now, if the document is Page Setup to A4 size, we can not print on
Letter paper, without the printer objecting. Conversely, if the
document is Page Setup to Letter size, we can not print on A4 paper!

So, how can my document, via Word, say to the Canon printer: "I don't
care what paper size you think is currently loaded! Just print this
friggin' document on whatever friggin' paper the user has loaded!!"

The "Scale A4 to fit Letter" option, or whatever it's called, is not
the answer here, methinks :-(

TIA,
TC

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

There is a check box for "Allow A4/Letter paper resizing" on the Print tab
of Tools | Options. Does checking that help?

 

[TC]

Not really. That option rescales an A4 document to print on Letter
paper. I need an A4 document to print on A4 paper, or Letter paper,
*without rescaling*, and without the printer objecting.

Any other ideas?

TIA,
TC

 

[Graham Mayor]

Word formats the document according to the printer driver and what is
allowable in terms of flexibility is dictated by the driver. Here there is a
conflict between what the document wants to do and what the printer wants to
do. The printer will win. If scaling is unacceptable then you are going to
have to change the page layout.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[garfield-n-odie]

If you have a manual feed tray on the Canon printer, try loading that
with letter-size paper and printing. Unlike with the normal paper tray,
the printer probably can't sense what size paper is in the manual feed
tray (at least that's true for both of my HP Laserjet printers).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Good thought! That's the basis on which I print "custom sizes" that are set
up as Letter.

 

[TC]

That sounds promising - particularly given the other reply to your
suggestion.

I'll see if my user will buy, borrow or steal a manual feed tray. (It
was not included with the printer.)

Thanks,
TC

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Does the front panel of the printer (where it says Laser Shot LBP-2410)
flop down so that you can manually feed envelopes and other odd-size
media? Looks to me like there is a thumbnotch at the top center of the
front panel, but I don't know what's behind it. I don't think you can
separately buy a manual feed tray... it's either built into the printer
or it's not.

 

[TC]

Hi Graham

This has confused me before, so maybe this is my chance to understand
it once & for all.

Say that I compose a document with Page Setup A4. Presumeably, Word
itself knows the standard size of an A4 page: 210mm x 297mm.

Say that I enter a custom margin of 30mm all around. Then I start
entering text.

I *assume* that Word then says to itself: "I must flow that text into
an area which, when printed, will not exceed 180mm x 267mm: the
selected page size minus the specifified margins."

If that is correct, then, what information does Word need *from the
printer driver*, in order to perform that task? And why does it matter
*what* paper is loaded when I actually try to print?

I know that different printers have different maximium printable
areas. So, a brand X printer might be able to print 1mm from each edge
of an A4 page, while a brand Y printer might only be able to print
down to 1" from each edge of the same page. Obviously, Word would have
to get that information from the printer driver, *if it wanted it*.
But I can't see how it would *need* that information in order to flow
known text, into a known square area. If that square area is not
physically printable, on the current printer, this will surely become
apparent when the document prints out, & there is text missing at the
relevant edge(s).

TIA
TC

 

[TC]

When I looked, the diagrams showed a manual feed tray an inch or two
high, running across the bottom of the printer fascia. But on ours,
that area is clearly not a removable tray. The tray is described as
"optional" in some of the data I've seen. So I'm fairly sure that it
is indeed, a purchaseable optional extra.

I'll be down at the business in question tomorrow (Saturday, where I
am). I'll check it again, & speak to the Canon people locally.

Thanks for helping out with this. I will definitely get back within
the next few days with what I have found.


TC

 

[TC]

Hi again. For political reasons, it seems that this issue will
probably not get resolved at my end :-( Thanks for your previous
help

TC

Does the front panel of the printer (where it says Laser Shot LBP-2410)
flop down so that you can manually feed envelopes and other odd-size
media?

(snip)