Microsoft KB Archive/62438

Checking for Misaligned Paper and Printer Margins PSS ID Number: Q62438 Article last modified on 06-20-1990 PSS database name: PSS

Summary:

Misaligned paper, unprintable regions, and preset printer margins can cause many problems for applications trying to set their own margins and page lengths.

The following is a test that can be run from DOS to determine whether or not these problems exist on a printer.

  Make sure the printer is set for a monospaced 10-character-per-inch font and six lines per inch.   Determine the number of characters per line and the number of lines per page by multiplying the width of the paper by 10 and the length by 6. For example, 8.5 x 11 inch paper would be 85 characters per line and 66 lines per page.   From DOS, create a text file with the exact number of characters and lines to fill the paper. Type the following: COPY CON FILENAME.TXT Enter a line of capital Xs using exactly the number of Xs to fill a line, then press ENTER. Repeat this for the number of lines to fill the page. Press CTRL+L to eject the page and then CTRL+Z to end the file.   Send the file to the printer by typing the following, COPY FILENAME.TXT port: where port is the name of the port to which the printer is attached (for example, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, COM2, etc.). 

For sheet-fed paper, the test shows unprintable regions or preset printer margins.

For dot-matrix tractor-fed paper, the text should be flush left against the perforation for correct printing. Adjust the paper and repeat step 4 until the alignment is correct.

Also note that many printers are 80-column printers, and are only capable of printing to 8 inches. This shows on the above test with five characters wrapping around on each line. However, the text should still be aligned flush left to the perforation because centering the text causes the left margin in applications to be 0.25 inches too large.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1990.