Inconsistent margins, driving me mad.

[sorbiegunner]

I am printing out greeting cards on 125x250mm card blanks on my Epson ET-2810 printer. There should be 3mm margins all round but the front and back margins are different every time.
The design is set so that there should also be a 3mm margin either side of the fold but the image on the front page always has too big a margin at the front and prints up to or over the fold. The layout all looks correct in the print preview but it doesn't print like it shows in the preview. Is there anything I can do to get this to print correctly consistently?
I am using Affinity Publisher 2. I can't compensate for this in the design because the margin is never the same twice it moves by as much as 5mm forward or back. It is printing straight and the long side margins are spot on.

 

[jimmychou]

Hey there, if your printer allows, set up a custom paper size that matches your card blanks exactly. This can help ensure that the printer knows exactly where to place the print.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @sorbiegunner
It is hard to know about your specific issue, yet here are some general thoughts.
- those are pretty tight margins, so using larger margins will help when the variability has been minimized
- The guide bars for the paper should touch the paper yet not be snug. You don't want anything catching on the paper to throw it off.
- A wheel (or wheels) pulls the paper in. You should make sure they are clean as they can accumulate paper dust and pull unevenly
- feed one sheet of paper to print at a time. It is more of a pain, yet it will have more consistent resistance than multiple pieces of paper stacked on each other.
- I am trying to remember how paper is fed on your printer, yet if there is a rear option where the paper goes straight in rather than being curled, that might help, too.
- print at the slowest speed (most likely the highest quality) so the paper is not yanked as much

That may only solve some of the problem, yet it may make the variation less and a better result.

Just some quick thoughts.
John Wheeler

 

[bplaman]

Hello. There is no such paper size in the printer driver. You need to create a CUSTOM paper size of 125x250 mm, WITHOUT BRIDGES. After that, print from the EPSON PRINT LAYOUTH program, entering a margin size of 3 mm. The margins will be accurate to 0.1 mm.