Labels suddenly printing with different margins

[ann_0586]

Help !  I've been printing labels from InDesign onto Avery labels for years.  Suddenly the top margin has changed and is not aligned with the template.  It's not a printer issue, I've tried it on both Epsons I have (ET-2750 and ET-2850).  Has an InDesign update changed something ?

[BobLevine]

There is no way for anyone here to know what's going on without seeing the files and the printer. FWIW, though, I would recommend exporting PDFs and printing the labels from Acrobat or Reader.

[ann_0586]

Thanks Bob, I appreciate that I've haven't given much detail. 

My main question is why, after years of printing correctly from the same files, without my changing any formatting on either printer or in InDesign, should they suddenly be misaligned on both of my printers.  It has to be an Adobe issue and my question relates to whether or not a software update could cause this change ?

Does anybody know ?

[BobLevine]

It has to be an Adobe issue and my question relates to whether or not a software update could cause this change ?

By @ann_0586

Here's the thing...while it may well be, there are too many variables to conclude that. Have the printer drivers been updated? Has the O/S been updated? Are you sure the files haven't been updated?

Anything at all is possible. Has Avery changed the labels at all?

[ann_0586]

Hey Bob, thanks for that. 

The printer drivers haven't been updated nor the labels changed but I did get an InDesign update and I think, after reading all the comments, it's likely the update isn't compatible with my very old OS (High Sierra).   I'm on a laptop at the moment but as soon as I go in the office I'll see if I can revert to a previous version of InDesign so I can get the job done and then go looking for an up to date OS

[Joel Cherney]

It has to be an Adobe issue

It might be, but it doesn't have to be.  Did you recently apply an update to InDesign? If not, then it's comparatively unlikely that it's an InDesign issue. If so, you should be able to roll back to your previous install and make the issue go away. That might prove that it was an Adobe issue, though.

However, there are some other places to look. If you look at Rob Day's post, you'll see that you can click through the InDesign printer dialog into the OS printer dialog. He's posting screenshots of what's going on in macOS, but my view from Windows looks quite similar.  Your preferences here can be reset without your input- Rob specifically points out that those settings could be reset by a print driver update. Have you applied an Epson update recently? But I'm guessing that you're on a Windows machine, like me, and those printer settings could have been reset by a Windows OS update. (Yesterday was Patch Tuesday, right?)

In either case, it's worth taking a look to see if those settings look familiar to you, or if they've been reset to defaults. 

[ann_0586]

Thanks Joel, lol on the Windows updates

On the printer window thing, I do click into the printer dialog box every time I print as I use different setting quite a lot.

I'm on an archaic Mac .  I did notice an automatic update in my cloud apps happened last week sometime but I didn't think much about it. So I'm going to go back to a previous version of InDesign and see if that sorts things till I get a new OS or a new computer

[rob day]

Hi @ann_0586 , Watch out for the InDesign Print dialog and the Printer... dialog, which is specific to the selected Printer.

For example here I have a Brother laser printer selected as Printer, but if I want to change a setting specific to the Brother printer, I have to click through to Printer... in order to get to the printer’s settings like Destination Paper Size, Scale to fit paper, etc. Those settings could have changed with a print driver update

[ann_0586]

Thanks Rob,  good advice. I do click into the printer every time I print as I often change colour, print quality etc. so probably not that.

[Peter Spier]

I can't think of anything in an update that would do this. You should check the Setup tab in th print dialog to be sure everything is correct, and make sure you put your lables into the printer with the correct end forward.

[ann_0586]

Thanks Peter,  I've been printing from these files onto Avery labels  for 15 years so I generally get the labels the right side up lol. Though seriously, Avery labels are not evenly placed on their backing and each one has to be checked before going into the printer.

And you're right, a software update didn't do it.  I tried one last time yesterday before I packed up the computer to send in to the menders for OS update and Bingo, the labels printed perfectly.   I hadn't changed a thing - it's a mystery to me but I hope it stays working.

[ann_0586 · Accepted solution]

UPDATE  I tried to print the labels one last time before unplugging the computer and bringing it to the menders to have an OS update and Bingo .... the label sheet printed perfectly, margins properly aligned.  No idea why but I'm thankful.  Also thankful to you all for your helpful replies.