Printing Borderless or with Margins?

[thetoness]

I am relatively new to the world of printing but having purchased an Epson 3880 I am ready to  delve into it. I will be printing about 75% black and white photos.  Sizes will be mainly 17 x 22, 13 x 19 and some 8 1/2 x 11.  Should I print borderless? Should I print with margins? If so, what size should they be? What are the advantages/disadvantages to both methods?  Thanks for your help.

[neile]

I always print with margins. I gives you somewhere to put your mucky fingers while handing the print and a place to sign it. If you're framing, it gives a place to t-hinge on the back without the tape entering the image area.

I try and do 1" around on larger images. Smaller stuff I don't sweat it so much.

Neil

[Alan Goldhammer]

+1 to what Neil stated.  I use 1 inch margins on paper sizes 13x19 and 17x25 with 1/2 inch margins on letter size paper (long side becomes 10 inches that the short side varies depending on the cropping of the image.  You also want a place to sign your print which you cannot do if you go borderless.

[Schewe]

Also note that borderless printing is only available on certain page sizes...(can't remember which at the moment). I also suggest a minimum usable margin for print handling and for long term conservation and preservation. I would only ever do borderless for small hand held "snapshots" like 4"x6".

[AFairley]

I would not print borderless because the print driver will expand the image a little beyond the print size in order to get the full bleed, though you can compensate for that in your cropping. 

However, to maximize the print size from the 3880. I print on 17x22 with the minimum margins allowed by the 3880, and matt using 1-1/4" archival print corners which IMO work as well at that print size as T-hinges on the top, and don't impinge on the print area.  I don't have to worry about borders for signing in that I am not selling fine art prints, so it works fine for me.

If you are framing or mounting without an overmatt, you can either go borderless to start or trim off the borders later.

[Mike Guilbault]

I'm not sure about the 3880, but on the 4900 I can choose Borderless and Retain Size so that the driver doesn't 'expand' the image at all. I create a custom paper size that is slightly oversized, like 8x10.25 for an 8x10" print.  It prints borderless but doesn't expand the 8" side at all. 

However, I only use this for certain jobs.  Everything else I print with a border, sometimes only 1/2", but usually 1" all around or more depending on the aspect ratio - as already mentioned above.