Formatting a document for home auto-duplex printing

[citac]

Hello there,

I have a question which is not strictly related to ebooks, but to get to the print I have to prepare the electronic document.

I want to print a 268 Word document on a Brother auto-duplex printer. I'm trying to get the page margins, spacing and leading set up so that when a page is printed, the text block on both sides of the paper aligns. Right now, whatever setting I've tried, the lines are well, misaligned. The paper is thin enough that I can see through it. It basically looks like the first image, and I'd like to make it look like the second image:





This document will be printed double-sided on A4 paper like a booklet, with 4 sheets/16 pages per booklet and will be hand bound. I tried setting the double-sided option just on the printer, but the printout was misaligned. I then tried just setting everything in Word, normal and mirrored margins with and without setting the gutter, tried book fold but I get the same result. Does anyone know if there is a booklet setup I can try and get the result I need? I can't go to a copy shop because of my work schedule and commute, plus I'd like to learn this so I can repeat it as necessary, and also to take advantage of the printer I have.

&

[phillipgessert]

Might be that the paper just slips in the printer for the second side. If it were me I would just measure the offset and set the alternate margins "wrong" in the opposite direction.

[Deskisamess]

I format documents using mirror margins, and have no issues.

Page Setup - Margins, the inside I set at .9" (we use 3 hole paper), with the other 3 margins the same at .5"

Mirror Margins

No header or footer

Then in Print...Properties, Multi Page at Normal, 2-sided

This seems to work ok for me, using very old Word from Office 2003. Using a Brother laser 3170 series.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by citac

Hello there,

I have a question which is not strictly related to ebooks, but to get to the print I have to prepare the electronic document.

I want to print a 268 Word document on a Brother auto-duplex printer. I'm trying to get the page margins, spacing and leading set up so that when a page is printed, the text block on both sides of the paper aligns. Right now, whatever setting I've tried, the lines are well, misaligned. The paper is thin enough that I can see through it. It basically looks like the first image, and I'd like to make it look like the second image:





This document will be printed double-sided on A4 paper like a booklet, with 4 sheets/16 pages per booklet and will be hand bound. I tried setting the double-sided option just on the printer, but the printout was misaligned. I then tried just setting everything in Word, normal and mirrored margins with and without setting the gutter, tried book fold but I get the same result. Does anyone know if there is a booklet setup I can try and get the result I need? I can't go to a copy shop because of my work schedule and commute, plus I'd like to learn this so I can repeat it as necessary, and also to take advantage of the printer I have.

&

Okay, so...you're trying to print this like a book, effectively. The mirrored margins, with gutter, etc., should make this work perfectly. You should not have this offset, unless, as Phillip said, your printer is slipping somehow.

What are the settings, exactly, that you're using? Margins, etc. and do you know if your printer has any minimums or added margins, for the device, that it's adding?

The offset that you're showing us looks as though the printer itself is adding something. Have you tried doing this with one sheet/two pages only? Using some Lorem Ipsum or the like?

Hitch

[citac]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Okay, so...you're trying to print this like a book, effectively. The mirrored margins, with gutter, etc., should make this work perfectly. You should not have this offset, unless, as Phillip said, your printer is slipping somehow.

What are the settings, exactly, that you're using? Margins, etc. and do you know if your printer has any minimums or added margins, for the device, that it's adding?

The offset that you're showing us looks as though the printer itself is adding something. Have you tried doing this with one sheet/two pages only? Using some Lorem Ipsum or the like?

Hitch

Hi, thanks for helping! Yes, this will be printed as a book and I will bind it by hand.

I haven't been able to test this much this week since I was mostly on the road; right now I'm preparing to print a few pages with different settings. The printer is set to default,, A4 size paper, plain paper at 600 dpi and print settings: text, 2-sided/booklet:: booklet..

But now it's spitting out blank pages of my document, even though the toner is brand new. It prints the printer report setting without any problems. I will have to troubleshoot some more before I can begin test-printing. It might be worth just to try some regular copy paper, though I decided against it at first since it's too bright.

[citac]

Originally Posted by phillipgessert

Might be that the paper just slips in the printer for the second side. If it were me I would just measure the offset and set the alternate margins "wrong" in the opposite direction.

Do you think this is due to the paper I'm using? The brand is Rey Adagio, ivory 80 gsm. I don't have any regular white paper at the moment, but this one seems a bit more see-through than the regular paper, possibly thinner ??

I'm confuzzled. I used to print double-sided on a Canon Pixma MG series without issues, but after years in heavy-duty service it died and repairing it would cost more than a new printer, so I got this one.

[citac]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I format documents using mirror margins, and have no issues.

Page Setup - Margins, the inside I set at .9" (we use 3 hole paper), with the other 3 margins the same at .5"

Mirror Margins

No header or footer

Then in Print...Properties, Multi Page at Normal, 2-sided

This seems to work ok for me, using very old Word from Office 2003. Using a Brother laser 3170 series.

I use A4 paper, and I need header/footer for running section titles and page numbers. I used to print double-sided on a Canon Pixma printer, but this has me stumped. Plus I'm about to travel for work so won't be able to test this more until I return. I don't understand why it's giving me blank pages now when during the last couple of weeks I printed 200 pages.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by citac

I use A4 paper, and I need header/footer for running section titles and page numbers. I used to print double-sided on a Canon Pixma printer, but this has me stumped. Plus I'm about to travel for work so won't be able to test this more until I return. I don't understand why it's giving me blank pages now when during the last couple of weeks I printed 200 pages.

Seriously, when do you think you'll have landed again in a way that would enable you to test? It seems that between you and us, we could address this if and when you have a good solid period in which you can try a few things. Tell the truth, it feels as though that printer is in the throes of dying.

I also think that maybe booklet is the wrong way to go, but that may not be the issue. When you can relay the ACTUAL margin settings, etc., all of them, let's hunker down and troubleshoot this bugger. OK?

Hitch

[citac]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Seriously, when do you think you'll have landed again in a way that would enable you to test? It seems that between you and us, we could address this if and when you have a good solid period in which you can try a few things. Tell the truth, it feels as though that printer is in the throes of dying.

I also think that maybe booklet is the wrong way to go, but that may not be the issue. When you can relay the ACTUAL margin settings, etc., all of them, let's hunker down and troubleshoot this bugger. OK?

Hitch

I think the earliest I can get back home is possibly Wednesday or Thursday, but in the meantime I can provide the settings since I saved several versions of my document to try out.

(I certainly hope the printer isn't dying - it's brand new, bought less than two weeks ago! It's a replacement for my old Pixma MG5120 - with that one I used to print duplex without problems but it finally gave up the ghost a couple of months ago. I can't afford yet another printer.)

The settings I tried from Word, without a gutter, as well as with a gutter of 0.3 cm:

Mirrored: 2.54 cm all around, then in the printer settings:





When that didn't work as expected, I set the printer properties 2-sided / booklet to "None" and tried book fold from Word, with 2.54 cm all around, and 16 sheets per booklet. (Perhaps next time a larger gutter would be better?)

That didn't work either. I was thinking it could be the paper, but the regular laser printer paper we use at the office is also 80 gsm, this one is just different in color. I'd really like to figure this out so I can do it from home, and finish this binding commission.

(P.S.: now that I see the preview of the post, looks like I left the Print settings as Graphics instead of Print; that shouldn't be causing issues, but then again, maybe??)

ETA as I was wrapping up work for today, it occurred to me that you might find the font, paragraph and header/footer settings useful as well, so just in case:

font - Baskerville Old Face, 12 pt (I went with 10 at first, but that becomes too small once printed as a booklet, so I set it to 12)
paragraph - alignment: justified; indentation - special: first line at 1.27 cm; spacing - before and after 6 pt, line spacing - multiple 1.15
chapter title - alignment: right; spacing: before 18 pt, line spacing - multiple 1.15
chapter subtitle - alignment: left; spacing: before 72 pt, line spacing - multiple 1.15
header - different first, odd and even pages, header and footer from top: 1.27 cm

[Hitch]

Stupid question--

Just as an experiment, what happens if you change your binding offset to 0? Or did you try that already? You said you tried sans gutter, but did you try without a binding offset?

I'm wondering if you're duplicating commands, here, in having settings BOTH in Word and in the printer?

Hitch

[citac]

Hmm, I think I made sure not to duplicate any settings, but I'll test that when I get back home. Thanks for mentioning that; I'll put it on my list of things to check!

[DaleDe]

You might try making a PDF and then printing that. You can tweak the PDF.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by citac

Hmm, I think I made sure not to duplicate any settings, but I'll test that when I get back home. Thanks for mentioning that; I'll put it on my list of things to check!

I'm thinking that you have a binding offset and a gutter. That's what's percolating inside my noggin.

Hitch

[najgori]

@citac
djes' zemo!
1. ms word is not dtp program
2. pdf is way to go (as DaleDe said)
3. "imposition" is word you need to google... pull that up jamie

src: 20+ years ago used to do design & dtp & prepress without imposition program & internet (export from quark pages as eps, place eps to image boxes on template, export as postscript file on external hard disk...)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by najgori

@citac
djes' zemo!
1. ms word is not dtp program
2. pdf is way to go (as DaleDe said)
3. "imposition" is word you need to google... pull that up jamie

src: 20+ years ago used to do design & dtp & prepress without imposition program & internet (export from quark pages as eps, place eps to image boxes on template, export as postscript file on external hard disk...)

I would agree with you, but I do feel I should point out that the OP says he's been able to do this previously. He wishes to do it again, and so...we try to help, right?

Hitch