A possible solution for incorrect envelope printing

Jan 13, '06 06:18:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

A certain common printer configuration can cause improper rendering of envelopes from Address Book and Microsoft Word. I use an HP LaserJet 4L on a Linux CUPS server as a network printer, and my default config for this would not render envelopes with correct rotation; no matter what settings I tried in the various print dialogs, and no matter what other online tips I tried, the address information would print in portrait fashion instead of being correctly rotated 90 degrees (landscape) to correspond to a manually-fed envelope.

The good news is, I discovered the problem and corrected it. In summary, one must skip the CUPS printer driver and utilize one of your OS X printer drivers.

The wrong way to set up your printer is what I did first: to simply use the Default Browser in Printer Setup Utility to find my network printer. Because all other printing functions seemed to work just fine, it took me a while to realize that something might be amiss.

The correct way to set up your printer is to choose 'IP Printer' in Printer Setup Utility. Then complete the form as follows:

Using these settings, my envelopes began printing correctly. I have the 'broken' driver and this correct driver installed, and I can alternate between the improper and correct printing behaviors simply by switching between the two.

Naturally, this may be simply my combination of CUPS, Linux, HP LaserJet, and OS X ... many of you may have no problems at all. I suspect, however, that there might be others out there whose native CUPS drivers are not printing correctly, and if so I encourage you to try the technique above to determine if the OS X printer driver solves your problems.

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