DIY Planner - printing on 3x5 cards - Comments

Printer Driver Issue

ygor — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 20:07:48 -0400

In my experience, if the printer/printer-driver has a custom paper size feature, then printing onto index cards is no problem.
When you have equipment that was not meant to print on cards and you try a work-around, that is when things get ... interesting.
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"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

Hi, I've had success with

maryc — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:15:35 -0400

Hi, I've had success with this problem, not with a Mac but with a PC. I just use a full page in my word processing program and set the margins in until the only available area is the same as my little card. You have to adjust the top margin to nearly zero and make sure to bring the bottom margin up a LOT so you won't run off the end of the card with your text or graphic. Then set your font, bold, etc. and go! The printer then accommodates the centering feature of your paper guides. It works the same for greeting cards with blank insides, Christmas cards, off-size envelopes, everything! Hope this helps.

Printing on a Lexmark X-85

sporter — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:25:17 -0400

I print on 3x5 cards now a lot even though I was scared to try it. I still feed them in one at a time to avoid any jamming. I have a Lexmark X-85. Hope that helps!

sporter
"To fly, we must have resistance."

That worked for me too. What

Rollafool — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:14:59 -0400

That worked for me too. What I did for 3x5 cards was to define the custom page as 8.5" wide by 5" tall, and then set the left margin to 2.75" which centers the 3x5 area. For different size cards, of course use the appropriate measure (e.g., for 4x6 portrait the left margin would be 2.25").

Cheers,
rf

Custom paper size

shris — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:21:09 -0400

Hi.

You have to create a custom paper size. Go into the printing preferences, click the "Paper" tab, and click the "Custom" button. Give the size a name, set the dimensions, and click Save.

My laserjet always assumes the paper is centered, but you have to use the correct paper size when you're setting up your print job. If it thinks you're using a letter size sheet, it will print your image at the top left, rather than in the middle.

So when you're in OOo or Word or Excel or whatever you use, you have to use Page Setup to define the page as your custom size, and when you go to print, you have to set the custom size again. Then it will come out right for you.

shris

Hi Shris I too have a

Treo — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:50:38 -0400

Hi Shris
I too have a laserjet 1200 and am desperate to print to 6x4 cards. The problem I am having is that the HP does not seem to understand that the cards are in the middle of the feeder and seems to assume everything is on the left of the feeder. This means prints are cut off. I've also found that I cannot print to cards using the HP driver but have to set it to a generic postscript. I am using a Mac+Word by the way.

I'd be very grateful if you could share your settings for getting it to work on an HP.

Thanks

Samsung ML-1710

Rollafool — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:45:04 -0400

I use a Samsung ML-1710 b&w laser printer. It has a front feeder with a centering slider that goes down to envelope size, so I can feed single 3x5s and 4x6s through there. The tray also has sliders for when I need to print a whole stack of cards.

You can pop the back open so that the cards come out before going through the last 180-degree turn, which gives them less of a curl.

I think these are probably pretty standard features for mid-range laser printers, so you should shop around.

Cheers,
rf

Brother + Canon

Studio717 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:29:04 -0400

I have a Brother HL-1435 b&w laser that does 3x5s just fine. I do have to hand feed them, but otherwise it's easy. Depending on the template, I sometimes fiddle with the margins to make them come out as large as possible. Mostly I just use the 'fit to margins' option.

I also have a little portable i80 printer from Canon that does a great job of color 3x5s (it's an inkjet printer). The biggest problem is that, since it's a portable, the carts are really really small and therefore a tad costly. Still nice for the occasional indulgence in a color index card.

PIxmas

jonglass — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:04:11 -0400

The Canon Pixmas look very interesting. The cheap price and rave reviews make them sound like a smart choice.

While there is no such thing as a perfect printer, IMO, the Pixma series gets as close as you can. ;-) I have an iP3000 and an MP170, and love them both! In fact, my coworker was so impressed with how mine worked when he saw them in action, that he bought one, and has been more satisfied with it than any other printer he's owned--and he's had a bunch. ;-)

I remember when I bought my IP3000. I had gone to Office Max to get carts for my ancient Epson. Before I bought the carts, I looked at printers. Paid for my carts ($75) and while driving home, realized that the Pixma had cost a mere $79. Turned around, went back, got my money back, and went home with the Pixma, fully intending to use it for the few months I was in the States, and leave it behind when we came back to Poland. In the end, though, I sacrificed some clothes and other essential items to bring that printer back with me, I love it so much!

I can't imagine my ever doing that for another printer!

-Jon

HP LaserJet 6L

Janine — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:02:21 -0400

I also have an HP A516 photo printer. The smallest size it will do is 3.5x5 and I can't fake it out; this printer is smart enough to know when the paper is too small. I can print 3x5 pages on 4x6 index cards, though. The print quality is not so great. This printer was meant to print on photo paper, and the ink bleeds a bit on plain old index cards. It's slow, too. It will do in a crisis, but I prefer to use it to print spiffy covers (like the hPDA iPhone cover that Rollafool made!).

I also have an HP LaserJet 6L printer with maxed-out memory (9mb). It has run like a champ from day 1, and I've lugged it all over the country to print in unfriendly terrain. It will print 3x5 index cards; I load them in the envelope feeder, easy peasy. I'd be using it right now except my sister has "borrowed" that printer and left her Lexmark 6200 in its place.

Booo! The 6200 was a bear to set up, and it doesn't feed paper (even letter size) correctly. When I've exhausted these inkjet cartridges I'm going to buy a new inkjet printer. I like the way inkjet ink soaks into the paper. The toner from my 6L sits on top of the paper, and the toner will actually scrape off or rub off in extreme circumstances. Plus, I like the idea of printing in color! :-)

I'm thinking of replacing the Lexmark with another printer/scanner combo when it's time to buy new ink. The Canon Pixmas look very interesting. The cheap price and rave reviews make them sound like a smart choice.

Constructing a feeder?

CathMac — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:03:22 -0400

I had wondered if there was a way to extend or build up the right "wall" (for lack of a better term) of my printer tray so the cards would feed through properly, with no margin. I think I could come up with some sort of removeable wall extension for the tray but I have no idea how to keep the cards stable through the feeding process. When I hand feed them I have to hold them until I sense that the feeder has grabbed them tightly enough.

Did you have that problem and if so how does the feeder you constructed fix that?
~Cath

Index card feeder guide

charon — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:17:20 -0400

I made a feeder guide for my 3x5 cards once since I didn't like the idea of hand feeding them to my Epson C65. Worked like a charm! :)

Epson R220 works like a champ

Mark — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:36:55 -0400

After some experimentation, I was able to get any of the templates to print on a 3x5 card without clipping. I haven't been able to get true edge-to-edge even with borderless printing enabled, but by resizing the templates to 96% in Photoshop, they print perfectly!

Also, the smallest size that the printer dialog says I can go is 3.5 x 5, but I selected 4x6 and ran the cards through anyway. The printer doesn't know what size paper you have, and these only print in the "top left corner" of a full sheet anyway, so you could select 8.5 x 11 if you wanted and it wouldn't matter.

Canon Pixma ip1600

cdiem — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:22:01 -0400

I got a Canon Pixma 1600 for $17.95 at Fry's when they were selling them out to make room for the 1700. It works great on index cards, and I got one for my office and one for home so I can print these puppies wherever I am!

Canon Pixma IP 3000

bob watson — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:56:48 -0400

I too bought the Pixma IP 3000, and on the Merlin Mann review/recommendation, and it's functioned flawlessly for 2 years on the 3x5s. Yes, Canon no longer makes it, but if I were looking now I would look at Pixma inkjets first.

printing on 3x5 cards

emoore — Fri, 2 Mar 2007 11:31:20 -0500

How does anyone print onto a 3x5 card? I have a pack of Oxford white index cards that are 3 to a page in 8.5x11 format but they were pricey and there is a lot of waste of card stock along the sides once you punch them out. Does anyone actually print directly onto 3x5 cards? What kind of printer are you using? Any printers that couldn't do it? Any printer that can? Before I go playing around with various printers I thought I would search the collective wisdom here. Thanks.

D*I*Y Planner - printing on 3x5 cards - Comments