How to adjust Printing margins

Report · May 30, 2013

How do I reduce the white borders around my pictures when I print. They used to be 1/8 of an inch, but are now larger. I have not made any changes to print set-up.

Message title was edited by: Brett N

Report · Jul 02, 2013

Greetings. Unfortunately, the Photoshop 8 that I have is corrupted, and

destroyed many of my pictures. (I spent days on the phone with Technical

Support trying to recover photos, so I am not willing to run that risk.)

And if it is about the printer and the driver, why does the same printer

print the pictures from Photo 8 correctly, and also, the same printer prints

the pictures on my new computer from Photo 11 correctly if I print from

Picassa?

And are you saying there is no way to adjust the margins?

thanks.

Harriet Tamen

In a message dated 7/1/2013 6:04:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 02, 2013

Yes, there is no way to adjust margins within Photoshop Elements. It does not control this, as margins are controlled by the printer driver.

While the copy of PSE8 may be corrupted on your old computer, this would not carry over to the new computer is you install from the original disks (assuming the disks are not damaged in anyway, but even if there is damage it should prevent the installation from completing rather than ending up with a damaged installation of the product). You could always duplicate your image first before attempting to work with it to test this issue. But this would be an important step to verifying the source of the issue.

When choosing your page size in the printer driver dialog box, if you scroll to the top or the bottom of the list, is there a Custom setting or something similar? This is generally where you would adjust margins manually.

Report · Jul 02, 2013

when I go to Print there is an option called More Options. I can select

Custom Print Size. When I do that, the Print Size box shows the following:

Scale to Fit Media (not checked)

Height: 3.53

Width: 5.53

Unit: inches

Max. Print Resolution: 350 ppi

I tried to change the height/Width to 4 x 6 and I get the following

message:

Invalid Value - the value you've entered is outside the range

(o.20...3.53.) The closest valid value will be used.

does this help clarify anything?

Harriet Tamen

In a message dated 7/2/2013 2:02:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 02, 2013

The range is the size of the page minus the margins. So it is telling you it cannot do a borderless print. So it is forcing nearly a quarter inch margin on the image (4 - 3.53 = .47 .47/2 = .235 ~ .25 or 1/4 inch). That is why you are getting 1/4 in margins instead of 1/8 in.

Report · Jul 09, 2013

Greetings. I did as suggested and installed photoshop elements 8 on my

computer. When I printed the same picture - the white border was the 1/8

inch that I want, so obviously, there is a problem/issue/setting in Elements

11 that is causing the problem.

Harriet Tamen

Attorney-at-Law

212 East 39th St.

New York, NY 10016

Tel: 1 212 284 52 62

In a message dated 7/2/2013 5:17:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 09, 2013

Can you post new screen shots of what PSE8 looks like on the new computer?

Report · Jul 10, 2013

I will do so, but I have looked at everything - and the settings are

identical. I just did it again. I printed from 11, then printed the same

picture from 8. I made NO adjustments or changes to the print settings, just

opened and printed - and the borders are different. I will also try and send

you copies of the two pictures so that you will see the difference. this

is very frustrating.

Harriet Tamen

Attorney-at-Law

212 East 39th St.

New York, NY 10016

Tel: 1 212 284 52 62

In a message dated 7/9/2013 4:23:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 15, 2013

Greetings. I am having trouble responding to your last point, and to

posting the new screen shots. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

Harriet Tamen

Attorney-at-Law

212 East 39th St.

New York, NY 10016

Tel: 1 212 284 52 62

In a message dated 7/9/2013 4:23:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 16, 2013

Greetings. did you get my last message? thanks.

Harriet Tamen

Attorney-at-Law

212 East 39th St.

New York, NY 10016

Tel: 1 212 284 52 62

In a message dated 7/2/2013 5:17:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 17, 2013

When you reply to an email to post to the forum, attached images will not be posted. You have to visit the forum website and then use the Insert Image button.

Report · Jul 17, 2013

Report · Jul 17, 2013

Screen shots have been set. also,I am trying to send you jpegs of the picutres - one as printed in 11 and one as printed in 8, but I get a message saying the content is not allowed. I will try again to figure out how to do that sinceIi think when you see the difference, it will make very clear what I am talking about. thanks.

Report · Jul 18, 2013

these are the same picture, same size, printed on the same computer, with no changes to the print setting. One is Photo 11 (wide margin) the other is Photo 8 (narrow margin) I think this explains the problem. And you now have screen shots of all the settings. What I want is the narrow margin. I hope that you can now tell me what do to to make the change. thanks for your efforts.

Report · Jul 18, 2013

Thanks, but I have the newest Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Report · Jul 23, 2013

Thanks for the images of the prints. I do notice that the image is being cropped on all sides. This is odd as cropping should only occur on two edges when Crop to Fit is enabled. This setting will make an image fit the printed aspect ratio (4x6 in this particular case). It appears that this latest image that you are printing isn't natively 4x6, as even in PSE8 cropping is occuring. This can be clearly seen in the first three screen shots of the latest set you've provided. You can see both the original image and the print preview at the same time. On the far left of each there is the back of a woman's head. In the print preview, you can see less of her head due to the cropping. It's hard to say for sure, but it also appears that cropping is happening along the top as well. This suggests that cropping is happening on all sides.

Try unchecking the Crop to Fit option at the bottom of the right column of print options to see how this effects the preview of the image in the Print dialog.

Report · Jul 23, 2013

thanks. I will try it and see what happens.

Harriet Tamen

In a message dated 7/23/2013 3:41:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

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Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 23, 2013

Greetings. I just tried in both Photo 8 and Photo 11 - and checking or

unchecking "crop to fit" seemed to make no difference in the picture. the

borders were the same and the visible area of the pictures was exactly the

same.

Harriet Tamen

In a message dated 7/23/2013 3:41:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Jul 29, 2013

Changing the Crop to Fit option should alternate between the image fully fitting the frame (no blank areas) and being reduced in size to fit the frame on the long border (creating blank areas on the short border), unless the image exactly fits the print size (same aspect ratio).

As I continue to analyze your screen shots on notice other differences to what I see on my side. In the preview area of the Print dialog, The heavy black line around the print is the document boundaries, the actual size of the paper. Then there is a dark grey border region, which is the margin, then there is the picture itself. If you are using a Print Size smaller than the Paper Size, you will get a blue border around your print, and white for anywhere you'd have blank paper (when you disable Crop to Fit, the extra blank area will be within this blue boundary). When I look at things on my side, the margin area is not the same dark grey that you have, but the same light grey as the rest of the dialog window background. This difference comes from the instructions supplied by your printer's drivers.

I did a little check and found that your printer was discontinued a few years back, it's printer driver was last updated in 2009. This could be the source of the conflict between the newer version of Elements and why the older version is working differently (since it was released around the same time).

Report · Jul 29, 2013

Let me show you a little of what I see on my side to show you how much of what you see in the print dialog is actually controlled by your printer:

Here is my print dialog, not the area around the Print Size (outside the blue line) is not the dark grey it is on your side:

Here is the list of available paper types for this the Microsoft XPS Document Printer (a vitual printer, it creates documents similiar to a PDF and is installed by MS Office):

But the list is much smaller which I switch to a different printer, and also includes some borderless options:

Report · Jul 30, 2013

thanks. I will look at it. For your information however, I updated the

printer driver a few weeks ago. I have also been in touch with Epson about

the issue - they said it has nothing to do with the printer.

Let me look at this stuff, and try printing some things and see what

happens.

Harriet Tamen

Tel: 1 212 284 52 62

In a message dated 7/29/2013 8:31:37 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Aug 07, 2013

I have been looking at what you sent me, and also my print previews. It

seems as though adjusting the size of the photo (ie 4 x 6 or actual size or

custom size) rather than "crop to fit" may make a difference. I have to

experiment and see if that works.

Harriet Tamen

In a message dated 7/29/2013 8:31:37 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

forums_noreply@adobe.com writes:

Re: How to adjust Printing margins

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Report · Aug 28, 2013

Greetings. I have now printed the same picture 3 times: using Actual size, 4x6, and 4 x 6 Crop to fit. There is no difference in the margins. they are uniformly too wide. I don't know what else to do at this point - Photo elements 11 is useless to me. Any other thoughts? thanks.

Report · Aug 29, 2013

And by the way, I have several hundred pictures that I want to print, so I am getting desperate! thanks.

Report · Dec 19, 2013

Again, margins are not controlled by Photoshop Elements, they are controlled by your printer through its driver (Photoshop Elements does not know the physical requirments for your printer, some margins are present simply because of how the printer is built and the movement capabilities of the print head). The settings you are switching between with Adctual size, 4x6, and the Crop to Fit setting have nothing to do with margins. These are just settings for how large the picture will print within the available space, that is Paper Size minus Margins. To work with your printer drive to control margins, you have to click the Page Setup button in the lower left and select a Paper Size that has different margins or go into your Printer driver and customize the existing margins (if this is supported by your printer).