Epson 4900 - Borderless Letter?

[Varka]

Hey folks,

I have a brand new Epson 4900 printer, and am trying to print borderless 8.5x11 Letter-size prints for binders etc. However, it appears that borderless printing is not possible using sheet media in Letter size - but for some reason, it is possible to print A4 size (just that smidge wider & shorter than Letter).

Does anyone know of any way to get my 4900 to print 8.5x11's borderless? I will have an absolute ton of 8.5x11 prints to do on a daily basis, and putting bordered vs. borderless side by side there really is no comparison.

Any suggestions?

[Wayne Fox]

Borderless printing on the 4900 for sheets is only possible for the sides, it requires a top and bottom border. I don't think it is possible for a4 size sheets.  Not sure where you came up with A4 sheets printing borderless, certainly not in Epson's documentation ...

"Note that borderless printing applies only to the left and right sides of the page on cut sheets; margins are required at the top and bottom of the page. For full-bleed borderless printing, use roll paper (see page 69 for instructions)."

the 4900 printer has pads for the overspray ink when printing borderless (open the top and you can see them). Those pads are for specific sizes - 8.5 inches is not one of the them.  If you somehow managed to get it to print borderless at 8.5" you will probably shortly have a mess as there is the overspray ink has no where to go.

I'm not sure there is an inkjet printer that can print a full 8.5x11" sheet borderless ...

[Mark D Segal]

Perhaps the OP is from outside North America and perhaps Epson documentation outside North America refers to A4 rather than Letter format. A4 is the standard format for letter-size outside North America. I imagine the printers are configured accordingly.

[darlingm]

Pg 62 of manual claims it can print on 11" wide roll paper, however there's a note stating "Requires use of the borderless printing spacer".  No idea if one of these comes with the 4900.  Think I'm about to order a 4900, but haven't yet.  I know you asked about sheets, but just pointing out this option as like others, I don't think this can be done otherwise.

[Wayne Fox]

Perhaps the OP is from outside North America and perhaps Epson documentation outside North America refers to A4 rather than Letter format. A4 is the standard format for letter-size outside North America. I imagine the printers are configured accordingly.

The implication in the original post was that fully borderless A4 sheets was possible.  I don't believe it is, and so my comment was more in reference to the fact that fully borderless printing on cut sheets is not possible on the 4900.  The printer requires some space at the top and bottom of image for gripping the paper.

After looking at the printer, it appears Epson configures the border free maintenance tank as mainly designed for A4 paper, and requires the spacer for 8" paper.  Printing 8.5 inch wide borderless may indeed be possible by telling the printer the paper is A4 and disabling the paper size check option. However, if printing cut sheets you still will have a border on top and bottom.

Pg 62 of manual claims it can print on 11" wide roll paper, however there's a note stating "Requires use of the borderless printing spacer".  No idea if one of these comes with the 4900.  Think I'm about to order a 4900, but haven't yet.  I know you asked about sheets, but just pointing out this option as like others, I don't think this can be done otherwise.

The printer does come with a "spacer" and to print borderless on roll paper for some widths requires the spacer.  this allows the edge of the paper to be over the waste absorbing of the borderfree maintenance tank.  One downside, the paper rolls can only be on 2" cores, rolls on 3" cores cannot work with the spacer (which I think is needed to use 8" and 11" roll paper).

[darlingm]

. . .
The printer does come with a "spacer" and to print borderless on roll paper for some widths requires the spacer.  this allows the edge of the paper to be over the waste absorbing of the borderfree maintenance tank.  One downside, the paper rolls can only be on 2" cores, rolls on 3" cores cannot work with the spacer (which I think is needed to use 8" and 11" roll paper).

Ahh, great information to know, thanks!  So nice of them to leave out that you can't use 3" cores with the spacer.  (Appears no where on page 62, perhaps elsewhere in the manual though.)

[Varka]

Thanks for everyone's feedback so far; indeed, upon further investigation it appears that borderless printing is indeed only possible on the top and bottom of roll fed paper - not for cut sheets.

In my original post, I mentioned A4 as being able to be printed 'borderless', due to the 'borderless' check box becoming available when A4 paper was selected in the Epson print driver.

Upon further inspection of the printer, it looks unlikely that feeding regular cut sheets into the printer will work with borderless printing on the top and bottom of the page; the sides seem to be fine but not those two edges.

I have looked around for 11" wide paper rolls of reputable quality (I really like Red River, but they don't offer them in anything but 17" and 24" wide), but have yet to find any that meet the bill. Does anyone have any recommendations for other paper suppliers who might stock or be able to provide 11" wide rolls?

I really, really do not want to have to guillotine cut countless 17" roll sheets into two 8.5" wide prints over and over just to get a simple borderless print going...

Alternatively, does anyone have a suggestion for a companion Epson printer I could get to run mass letter-sized prints through?

Thanks

[hugowolf]

I really, really do not want to have to guillotine cut countless 17" roll sheets into two 8.5" wide prints over and over just to get a simple borderless print going...

With a longer rotary trimmer, it may be your best option.

Alternatively, does anyone have a suggestion for a companion Epson printer I could get to run mass letter-sized prints through?

The Epson 3880 does a wide range of borderless sheet sizes, including A4 and US Letter, but it doesn’t handle multiple sheets that well. If you wanted to ensure no missfeeds, you would have to sit there manually feeding each sheet.

Brian A