What's my best printing option?

[DEL 707]

Just wanted to get peoples opinions on what I should do.

Dusted off my old Mega Drive and Snes games and I want to put them all into UGC's, at the moment, I've got about 30 games, but I've always got an eye out for more.
I tried printing out some covers on my HP printer, but it doesn't seem to do borderless printing and I can't get my hands on legal sized paper. So if I want to do the printing at home, I'm going to need a new printer.
 Can anyone recommend a printer for the job? Cheaper the better, ideally.

We do have a Samsung colour laserjet at work, which I could probably use after work, not so hot on the idea, because I have bit of a lenghty commute, also, even if I pay to use it, I'm sure work will not be happy about me using up all the colour toner.

The 3rd option is of course to go to a print company.

I would like to get a new printer so I can do everything at home, would like to have a play around in photoshop, which is something I've never done before. But I'm worried about print quality.
Cheap inkjet vs laserjet.

[sheep2001]

It's all about the paper.

Cheap inkjet with good paper will 'usually' give better results than laser with regular paper.

Why can't you get legal sized paper?  If it's because you are in Europe, just use a4.

[Blumpkin]

When shopping for a printer I would also look at the cost of ink. I have an HP printer that's old as dust, but it can still print great covers as long as I'm using good paper. But the cost of ink is the bitch.

[DEL 707]

It's all about the paper.

Cheap inkjet with good paper will 'usually' give better results than laser with regular paper.

Why can't you get legal sized paper?  If it's because you are in Europe, just use a4.

I thought, the problem was my printer, I am using A4 paper, but it seems to cut off both the left and right edges.



I tried following the guides, but nothing I can't seem to get it right, reducing the margins below 5mm and printing at 100% size.

[Dr.Agon]

In terms of paper, you could always get A3 and cut it down to legal size, that's what I do.

[sheep2001]

It's all about the paper.

Cheap inkjet with good paper will 'usually' give better results than laser with regular paper.

Why can't you get legal sized paper?  If it's because you are in Europe, just use a4.

I thought, the problem was my printer, I am using A4 paper, but it seems to cut off both the left and right edges.



I tried following the guides, but nothing I can't seem to get it right, reducing the margins below 5mm and printing at 100% size.

Can you show what that looks like in a ugc? Can't really see the problem from that pic.

I myself use a4 with no problems, and pretty sure arseen and others do too.  Perhaps it is due to your printer.

[DEL 707]

I'm being pedantic, but on the left and right side, bits are cut off. On the left size, it's missing the end of the bar code and on the right size, it's missing the "TM" after "Past"
I'm using a HP Deskjet 1510, I've tried printing in paint and photoshop, but I can't seem to get the printer to use all of the paper.

[TAFK]

Does it look OK in preview?

[sheep2001]

I just wanted to see the printed cover in a ugc so I could see exactly how much was being cut off, and whether it was printing to the correct scale.

However,  googling the specs for your printer, I see the print area is
 Print margins: Top: 1.5 mm; Bottom: 14.5 mm; Left: 3.2 mm; Right: 3.2 mm

That's a huge margin on the bottom endge, and seems consistent with the results you are getting.

I guess you could try a photo paper roll?  Cutting down a3 seems like a huge waste, and works out very expensive I would imagine.

[DEL 707]

Well decided to call it quits on my old printer. Went to PC World and picked up a Canon Pixma MX475 and some Kodak gloss photo paper. PC World had a sale on so got £50 off!

Had a little bit of playing around, learnt a harsh lesson in which side up the paper has to be, to avoid getting your hands covered with ink, but I gotta say, I'm really pleased with it.
Slight problem is that the print is slightly too large, even with the white border cut off. Should I reduce the size of the picture?

Also any recommendations on guillotines? Or are they pretty much all the same, had a look at the 1's in PC World, but the cheapest was about 40 quid.

[sheep2001]

sounds like youve got scale to fit page option turned on.  make sure you are printing at 100% - MOST of the files on the site are ready to go with the correct dimensions