How to override bottom margin on z3200?

[William Chitham]

Currently doing some large volume (for me) printing and want to improve efficiency by eliminating time consuming trimming. I want to put a 17" x 23" image on an 18" x 24" page so I load a roll of 24" paper, set up an 18" x 24" custom page landscape and...  snag. The printer insists on leaving a 0.6" margin on the trailing edge of the page. I know it doesn't need to do this because if I set it to "remove top/bottom blank areas" in the driver then it cuts the page within about .02" of the end of the image. So is there a way to override this unneseccary bottom margin? Printing from Qimage by the way and I've tried setting the bottom margin to 0, no joy.
Thanks,
William.

[Ernst Dinkla]

William,

I could reach for my calculator to make the imperial>metrics>imperial conversions but I won't.

Estimated, if I have a 609 mm wide roll , set the normal printing mode not borderless, there will be 5 mm printer margin at the sides so a usable size of 598x430 mm if I create a print page size in the HP PCL3 driver of 608x440mm (I always use 1 or 2 mm less than the official inch widths). This will give an inch paper waste at the width and 10mm paper waste in the roll length, in total. On long runs of the same sizes I might nest more images on one print page, reducing the 10mm per image on the length of the roll to 0, not the first and the last image of course that still has a 5 mm print margin at leading or trailing edge. Or give at least some slack that I can cut Qimage's edge marks off instead of through the middle. Manual trimming afterwards then.

If you do not use the (defualt) automatic roll cut setting in the driver, some margin is added when you hit the cutter button on the printer panel. You could move the paper backwards first from the printer panel but it will be a hit and miss operation as it adds that extra margin nevertheless. You could make two markings at the front of the printer and move the paper back that distance. Probably taking more time than manual trimming.


--
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

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[PeterAit]

Set the bottom margin to 0.4 so that 0.4  + 0.6 gives you the 1" you want?

[William Chitham]

Estimated, if I have a 609 mm wide roll , set the normal printing mode not borderless, there will be 5 mm printer margin at the sides so a usable size of 598x430 mm if I create a print page size in the HP PCL3 driver of 608x440mm

Sorry about the inches, happy to continue in metric. Unfortunately I do not see the result you describe. If I create a 608x440 page I get a printable area of 598x418. That's a 5mm border top and sides and 17mm at the bottom so I can't get a 12.5mm (0.5") border all round. It needs that 17mm for sheet handling but not for rolls so it is an annoying and unnessecary limitation.

I have a work round based on the dodge for using the Gloss Enhance in economy mode (one of yours I think?) whereby I add a 7.5mm white border to the image with an "invisible" dot at the edge, place on an overlength page (I tend to use Arch D as a default page size) and tick the "remove top/bottom blank area" option. Printer then adds 5mm to leading and trailing edge outside the invisible dots, result is a 12.5mm border. Result is prints drop out of the printer trimmed perfectly to size.

Best William.

[William Chitham]

Set the bottom margin to 0.4 so that 0.4  + 0.6 gives you the 1" you want?

Thanks Peter but I want 0.5" which is less than the minimum margin the printer allows at the bottom of the page.
William.

[Geraldo Garcia]

If I create a 608x440 page I get a printable area of 598x418. That's a 5mm border top and sides and 17mm at the bottom so I can't get a 12.5mm (0.5") border all round. It needs that 17mm for sheet handling but not for rolls so it is an annoying and unnessecary limitation.

I must ask: Have you double checked that "roll" is selected instead of "manual feed" or "auto" on the paper source?
Another funny thing is that, besides the driver stating it needs 17mm on the bottom when printing on sheets, it actually needs 22mm. A lot more.

[William Chitham]

I must ask: Have you double checked that "roll" is selected instead of "manual feed" or "auto" on the paper source?
Another funny thing is that, besides the driver stating it needs 17mm on the bottom when printing on sheets, it actually needs 22mm. A lot more.

Brilliant, mystery solved! I tend to leave it on "auto" but just changed it to "roll" and voila: 5mm all the way round. I guess auto isn't very auto after all, just goes to show there is always something new to learn about these machines. I find that odd workrounds and dodges that I devised when I first started out at the bottom of the learning curve have become such ingrained habits that it is hard to unlearn them, go back to basics and find better ways of doing things now I have more experience.
Many thanks everyone,
William.