Expert: LizaL - 4/12/2006

Question
LizaL,

I have an iMac 450, OS 10.3.9, HP 812c printer, Photoshop CS 8.

How do you determine where the printable margins are for a 8 1/2 x 11 page?  I can never figure out where the margins are and when I place a graphic too close to any edge it gets clipped.  Is this a photoshop question or a printer question?

Thanks
Ron  

Answer
Hi Ron,

It might a "both" question, depending on how you've set up your Photoshop file! And I'm assuming here that you're printing from Photoshop. But I have to admit, when I read it, the first thing that came to mind was checking to see what your printer drivers allow as margins.

All printers come with a standard set of margins, and most normal inkjets will NOT let you print very close to the edge of the paper. In fact, I have an HP Officejet 5500 All-in-One, and that driver gives me a larger bottom margin than side margins. If I want an equal .25 margin all around, I have to use my Epson photo printer, because I do believe my HP's default and unchangeable bottom margin is .5. I have no problems with the sides, only the bottom margin clips the page every time.

Anyway, I went to the HP site and looked up your printer, and found this page:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&os=219&dlc=en&pr...

I hope that link works for you -- it should take you to a page that tells you how close you can print to the edges of your paper. That would mean in any application, too, including Photoshop. I don't see the 812C listed, but it's got to be comparable to the 810 or the next later model.

Another thing: You could always use Ruler Guides in Photoshop to mark off your page margins -- once you're sure of what your printer driver allows -- and make sure you keep your graphics within those bounds.

The last resort to be sure your page prints within its boundaries is to hit the Scale button when you print. I'm not guaranteeing this will give you the best visual results, but you could try it.

That button would be found here:
http://www.little-works.com/all_experts/print_photoshop.jpg

I've selected Print from the File pulldown menu, and ticked the Scale to fit paper size button, as you can see. But this might not give you much more than a reduced page.

So all told, I'd check your printer drivers, see what kind of margins your printer will give you, and make ruler guides in Photoshop to keep you within the margins.

Hope this helps!

Lisa