# Problem with uneven margins 13x19 8.5x11 4x6



## ave18 (Sep 22, 2015)

Hello,


Whenever I send something to my printer, the margins may look even in Lightroom (say .5" all around), but they don't print that way. Depending on what method I use, they might print with a larger border on the bottom, or on the side. I've tried a few different techniques to try and get around this.

1. Page setup: A3+, Borderless. 
Lightroom print module: Margins .5" 
Cell size is automatically set to 11.96 x 18.01
*If I print borderless though, it's not really accurate since you have to account for the bleed.
Here's a picture of how the borders come out uneven.







2. Page setup: A3+ Non Borderless (Ideally, would be best)
Lightroom print module: Margins .5"
It seems to show up fine in Lightroom, again, just prints uneven. 

Here's the same problem with an 8.5 x 11" photo (.25" border) and the same thing happens. Left side and bottom borders are smaller than the top and right side borders.





This is what acutally prints:






I have a feeling it may have something to do with the relationship between the cell size and the margin measurements.

One other thing. I just upgraded to the pro-100 from the pro9000 mkII and it's a similar problem. I thought it may have been the printer which is one of the reasons I upgraded.

This also seems to happen when I'm printing 4x6 images. The margins print uneven.

Thank in advance for your help!

Windows 7 (Also happens on the Mac)
Lightroom 5.2 64 bit
Canon pro-100 and Canon pro 9000 mkII
Paper Sizes: 13x19, 5x7, 4x6


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 22, 2015)

This is caused by the fact that the printed needs a little more space to hold the paper when the print is almost finished, so it doesn't print exactly in the middle. I see this too on my old Epson Stylus Pro 7600. The remedy is simple. Measure the difference and create your own preset that takes this into account.


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## ave18 (Sep 22, 2015)

Hello!

So, I would measure the excess white on the bottom border and *add* it to the bottom margin settings in LR? Effectively, lengthening the image. Then, for the side margins which print too small, I measure and subtract the over-printed area in the margin settings in LR. I feel like the last time I tried this, the whole image shifted and the borders were still uneven, but I will give it a go tonight when I get home.

I think I will try it with some 4x6 images tonight when I get home, because testing this out on 13x19 paper is quite expensive.

Regards 



JohanElzenga said:


> This is caused by the fact that the printed needs a little more space to hold the paper when the print is almost finished, so it doesn't print exactly in the middle. I see this too on my old Epson Stylus Pro 7600. The remedy is simple. Measure the difference and create your own preset that takes this into account.


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 22, 2015)

No, add it to the top margin, or subtract it from the bottom. The margins are the white areas, so you either need to make the bottom margin smaller or the top margin larger.


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## clee01l (Sep 22, 2015)

JohanElzenga said:


> No, add it to the top margin, or subtract it from the bottom. The margins are the white areas, so you either need to make the bottom margin smaller or the top margin larger.


In the Original post: *Page setup: A3+, Borderless*, if you try to create a borderless print by running the the cell boundaries to the full page (i.e. borders = 0), LR & and your print drivers will not let you set margins any smaller that the non printable area.  This then becomes the value to be subtracted from that margin if you want even margins on both ends.  For example, it the non printable area is determined to be 0.02"  (the value for my Canon Pro100) and you want a top margin of 0.5", then you set the top margin to 0.48" and the bottom margin to 0.5"


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 22, 2015)

I'm not sure I follow you. What I notice on my printer (and I assume that is what happens to the OP as well) is that the _bottom_ margin of the actual print is larger than the top margin. The print as shown on the photo is printed from left (i.e. top) to right (bottom). So to correct that, you would have to _increase_ the top margin of the printer settings by that difference, wouldn't you?

BTW, the OP says it also happens with a .25 margin, so this is not related to the print being borderless.


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## clee01l (Sep 23, 2015)

JohanElzenga said:


> BTW, the OP says it also happens with a .25 margin, so this is not related to the print being borderless.


 I'm saying that you can find the minimum extent of the non printable area (at least on the Canon 100 Pro) if you attempt to set all of the margins to zero. At least one margin will default to some small value


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## Johan Elzenga (Sep 23, 2015)

OK, so do we agree that the remedy is then to set the other three margins to this same small value?

It may be different on different printers, however. On my large format Epson Stylus Pro, the print will always have a larger bottom margin, even if you set a large enough margin (large enough to cover that non-printable area) on all sides. So this is what I had to do: Let's assume that the bottom margin is always .25" larger. The remedy is then to add this to the other three margins only, or subtract it from the bottom margin. So if you want a print with a .50" border, you set the top margin, left margin and right margin to .50" and you set the bottom margin to 0.25" (because the printer adds another .25" to the bottom anyway). I use a template that does exactly that.


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## clee01l (Sep 23, 2015)

JohanElzenga said:


> ... So if you want a print with a .50" border, you set the top margin, left margin and right margin to .50" and you set the bottom margin to 0.25" (because the printer adds another .25" to the bottom anyway). I use a template that does exactly that.


Exactly!  I have Publish presets that do this too.


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## ave18 (Sep 24, 2015)

Thanks for the input gents! With your help, I've managed to solve the problem. It's exactly as you said Johan, the over value just needs to be offset (for my printer it was about 1/16th off). I've had this problem for years and I'm shocked that we still don't have a "CENTER PRINT" button. Anyways, problem solved, but my measurements do change with different size papers. I'll leave my settings below just in case anyone ever runs into the problem. 

Btw, it didn't help that my printer was set to default prints at -180 degrees (left to right), which COMPLETELY threw me off there for awhile.

A3+ 13x19" Centered Print with .5" border/margin
LEFT .44
RIGHT .50
TOP .50
BOTTOM .44


4x6" Centered Print with .25" border/margin


LEFT .24
RIGHT .27
TOP .27
BOTTOM .24

~Raul Hernandez
http://www.rubylighthouse.com



JohanElzenga said:


> OK, so do we agree that the remedy is then to set the other three margins to this same small value?
> 
> It may be different on different printers, however. On my large format Epson Stylus Pro, the print will always have a larger bottom margin, even if you set a large enough margin (large enough to cover that non-printable area) on all sides. So this is what I had to do: Let's assume that the bottom margin is always .25" larger. The remedy is then to add this to the other three margins only, or subtract it from the bottom margin. So if you want a print with a .50" border, you set the top margin, left margin and right margin to .50" and you set the bottom margin to 0.25" (because the printer adds another .25" to the bottom anyway). I use a template that does exactly that.


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