#02-033 Why Do I Need Printer Calibration? Keywords: printer calibration Last updated: April 1, 1998 Q: Why do I need Printer Calibration? A: Printing on label sheets and other specialty paper products is quite different than printing on plain paper using a word processor or desktop publisher. The problem is that the paper is pre-cut in exact locations. The actual precision of where the paper is cut may vary from label sheet to label sheet by a very small amount, due to the manufacturing process. Even more of a problem is your printer's mechanical parts and resolution. Both of these vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer, making it very difficult to hit the label dead on each time it rolls through your printer. So, we can't do anything about the change in label to label from either the label manufacturing, or the difference in the way your printer grabs label sheets from time to time. But we can do something about its resolution, hence Printer Calibration. The process of Printer Calibration is really quite easy, and many modern printers don't really need much change. If you are consistently printing off the label, here's how to calibrate your printer: 1. Choose 'Printer Calibration' from the 'File' menu. 2. In the bottom left, click the button that 'Print Calibration Sheet'. 3. A piece of paper will be printed with a grid located where we think it should be located. 4. Follow the steps on the printed sheet to fold the paper. When you enter the 'Offset' numbers, you are telling us where the grid is actually located on your printer. 5. You may have to do this a couple of times to get 'averaged' numbers. Remember, the grid doesn't move each time you print a calibration sheet, only the outline of the labels themselves. 6. When you are done, click 'OK'. Notes: 1. The Expand/Shrink fields are rarely needed. You only need to use these if the first label on the page is hitting dead on target, and by the time it gets down to the last label, it is missing. Before entering values here, get the offsets correct for the first label. 2. Even after successful calibration, you will still miss with some label sheets. This is due to the inaccuracies of label manufacturing, and the mechanical parts rolling the paper through your printer. 3. If the offset numbers are fairly large, chances are there is something else wrong. You should drop us an email to see if we can help..
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