Envelopes and extra line 1/8 inch from edge

[tshehan]

Hi all,

I just started using an envelope feeder on an Apple 16/600 PS printer. I just found it lying around and for some reason most people around here love to print labels.....

I setup a simple layout in FM Pro 5 for a database of addresses. I have the Page Setup set to print landscape at 100%. ( I have tried different settings)

When I send #10 envelopes through the printer I always get a vertical line along the right edge of the envelope about 1/8 of an inch from the margin. I am defining the right edge as when I look at the envelope sitting on the table in front of me reading the address.

This happens to be the last edge that enters the printer when fed through the feeder. It 'looks' like there is something sitting right on the edge of the printable area of the envelope.

I have checked my layout and find no hidden lines lurking around. I have searched the information base at Filemaker and cannot find anything using the keywords I have chosen and related links.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your consideration.

I will post a summary if you send me an email. (preferred)

[BobWeaver]

Could this be a printer problem? If you feed the envelope in left edge first, the feed mechanish may cause the trailing right edge to contact the printer drum as it travels through the printer.

[tshehan]

I had wondered something similar myself. Here are some of my thoughts and things I have done:

1 - The envelope feeder only feeds them in edge first , I can't feed them in any other way.

2 - The line that appears is 1/8 inch from the edge of the envelope and is a 'hairline' line. It starts 1/8" from the top corner, prints for 1/8", disappears for 1", then reappears the rest of the way down the envelope and stops at the last 1/8". I will try a graphic representation using the "|" to represent the top and bottom edges of the envelope and the "_" to represent the line:

| __ _______________ |

Now rotate this 90 degrees CW to represent the right edge of the envelope as you hold it in front of you. Bear in mind that the line appears 1/8" from the actual edge of the envelope.

3 - If I use PageMaker to print to the envelopes I don't get line on the envelopes.

Whew - long reply. BTW I am using FMPro 5.0v3 and laserwriter 8.7 (direct from my computer) or laserwriter 8.6 from the server spooler. The printer is sitting on the network and not attached to a computer.

[tshehan]

Just a little update. I created a layout in PageMaker that has a Margin 1" larger than the length of the envelope and placed some text well inside the printable area of the envelope (assuming .25" margin).

When I print on the envelope -centering the page in the print area - which results in a 15 percent reduction, i get the same line on the trailing edge of the envelope. So, i have found a way to force the problem to happen when it normally would not.

I am not sure how this relates to the way the FM deals with its layouts but I am 'guessing' that however FM adjusts the dimensions to the print area, it results in the inclusion of something which would not normally be printed inside the printable area.

An observation and a thought only. Actual facts may differ.

[BobWeaver]

This may explain why your co-workers like address labels so much

Maybe, try defining a new envelope size, a bit smaller than the one you are using, but big enough to hold all the output.

Well, I've had some strange problems printing on envelopes from Filemaker too. Even though I select landscape in the page setup, and the page margins show up correctly on the layout, the envelope ends up printing as portrait. When I select portrait, the page margins that show up in the layout are wrong, but the envelope prints in landscape and prints correctly (the way I want it, at least). So, at that point I stopped worrying about it, and moved on to other things. I don't know if I tried this since downloading the latest updater. Maybe it's fixed now.

[john.daly]

Just athought. I have had a situation in the past where I had a line printing although there wa nothing showing on the layout - not wven invisibly. Did you create a completely new layout or did you duplicate the old one? If so try creating a completely new layout.

[tshehan]

As to the creation of the layout - I have created all templates and files from scratch. I have tried on different computers running different systems. The 'only' thing I have found so far is that I can force the issue in Pagemaker by printing through a spooler vs printing directly to the printer (the printer hangs on the network and is not connected to a computer). As a note: the spooler is running the same laserwriter driver version (8.6) as all the rest of the computers except mine. I am running version 8.7. I was told by apple in the past that if you are printing to their appleshare spooler the only driver that is used is the one installed on the spooler machine - it doesn't matter if the one on your computer matches or not, it doesn't get involved in the process. (unless you print directly to the printer)

I have tried shrinking and expanding margins - trying to fool the printer with different paper size choices.

Reading some other printing artices I found an article on the Filemaker site (#102323) discussing how to change the alignment of postscript printers. Has anyone used this on a 16/600 Apple Laserwriter? I thought I might see if I can't push the line off the page.