[MacNNFamous]

Hey guys,

I upgraded my printer to a wireless Canon TS6420A, and I'm having two issues I can't figure out.

1. For decades, I remember being able to adjust the print quality so you could use less ink for printing shipping labels or whatever, and more ink for photo paper, etc. I don't see that setting anywhere anymore, it's just a simplified print setting and I can't find a way to adjust this anywhere. WTF.

2. Everytime I print a shipping label, it cuts off the left 1/2" of the label. There is no way to 'center' what I am printing, it is either left justified where it cuts it off, or I can scale it up, and it'll still cut 1/2" off.

Help? I've tried googling but omfg its like decades of printer results that aren't applicable. Wondering if anyone has any tips.

[ghporter]

I just wrestled with my G7020 because of somewhat related issues. Like "How the heck do you make it use the rear tray"? And I discovered something that was very un-obvious.

When you open the Print dialog in whatever program you're printing from, there are a bunch of options and settings that aren't visible until you scroll the dialog up. Like "Media and Quality" which lets you select where it feeds from, and print quality (not the ink-saving feature you mentioned, but I think it's related).

Cutting off part of the label sounds like the printer thinks it is printing on something different from the shipping label you're using. And that could be a printer setting or the application itself. I recently did some Avery 8160 (1" X 2 5/8") labels with Word, and the G7020 did fine with them. I specifically used Word's Avery template for these, so I expected it to work correctly, and it did. Maybe your app isn't clear on which labels you are using...

[reader50]

Beware that certain apps (especially open-source apps) substitute their own print dialog. However, there will be an option (usually at the bottom) to use the System Print Dialog instead.

In the regular system dialog, hit the popup selector. It defaults to the name of the current app (with options specific to that app). Pop it over to the other choices, like Glenn mentions.

If you have an inkjet printer, you may get "Paper Type/Quality" as a choice. That will give you your Quality selector: Draft / Normal / Best.

On my laser, I only get a "Media & Quality" choice, which lets me manually select paper trays. Despite the name, my OkiData laser doesn't offer a Quality choice.

[MacNNFamous]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I just wrestled with my G7020 because of somewhat related issues. Like "How the heck do you make it use the rear tray"? And I discovered something that was very un-obvious.

When you open the Print dialog in whatever program you're printing from, there are a bunch of options and settings that aren't visible until you scroll the dialog up. Like "Media and Quality" which lets you select where it feeds from, and print quality (not the ink-saving feature you mentioned, but I think it's related).

Cutting off part of the label sounds like the printer thinks it is printing on something different from the shipping label you're using. And that could be a printer setting or the application itself. I recently did some Avery 8160 (1" X 2 5/8") labels with Word, and the G7020 did fine with them. I specifically used Word's Avery template for these, so I expected it to work correctly, and it did. Maybe your app isn't clear on which labels you are using...

I'm honestly just printing the shipping label on normal paper, and using some packing tape to adhere it.

[subego]

Is there a “Show Details” button? Can you give us a screenshot of your print dialog?

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

I'm honestly just printing the shipping label on normal paper, and using some packing tape to adhere it.

I've done that too - With some items I've shipped, an actual label isn't even practical.

But my point is that if you tell your app "I'm using an Avery 8126" for example, it should assume you're using standard letter-sized media. Having stuff shifted over by half an inch sounds an awful lot like the data source thinks the printer is using oddball media.

On the other hand, if that's what you're already doing, and/or you're telling the app "it's just 8 1/2 X 11 media", the app may not be causing the problem...

Check your app's paper settings, and then what media the printer thinks it has. For most of us in the US, the default should be "US Letter" or 8.5X11" paper.

[andi*pandi]

are you printing from the browser? I sometimes really hate the new firefox print screen. I look for the "use system print" dialogue box.