Issues with printer alignment - urgent! - Maestro Label Designer

Welcome to our forum! If you are an existing Online Labels user please Sign In. If you are a new user please Register.

OnlineLabels.com Forum » Software & Tools » Maestro Label Designer » Issues with printer alignment - urgent!

2 Pages12 »

Post Reply

Issues with printer alignment - urgent!

Previous Topic Next Topic

makerycookies

#1 Posted : 7/23/2016 1:03:03 AM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 2

Location: NJ

Hello,

We are small business owners, and we've run into an issue with our labels printing incorrectly. We've wasted a lot of labels trying to correct this issue unfortunately, and to make matters worse, we called Online Labels, and the person we spoke to was rather unhelpful. We really need someone to walk us through this and correct the problem. We plan on being Online Label customers for many years because our business is growing rapidly right now, but obviously, if we can't figure out how to fix this then we may have to move on. I noticed that there is someone on here who seems to be very helpful - is there any way possible that someone can call me? I would prefer to speak with someone over the phone if possible. Thank you.

Dustin

edowney

#2 Posted : 7/23/2016 8:15:02 AM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

I'm not trying to hijack your post but I'm experiencing the same issue according to the title of this post and I think two posts with the exact same title would be really confusing.

I purchased OL7425WG labels to be used on a Cannon MX922 inkjet printer and I'm using Maestro to create my PDF pages of labels. It's a very nice web app - very impressed! So initially I resized my labels to be exactly the size of the label and centered it on the label area with Maestro. Everything looked great. Downloaded the PDF, opened it, made sure it had Actual Size clicked on and printed. Nothing was exactly centered on the label! I went through 10% of my labels so far running tests. I'm to the point where I'm drawing circles and printing on plain paper in order to save the labels and my ink (then holding up against a label sheet with the labels removed).

I went through the printer alignment test (which is a great idea guys - kudos) but according to the test my printer is lined up. I do only throw one sheet in the printer at a time because my printer was picking up multiple sheets. When I started doing my plain paper tests I had a full stack of paper in the printer so I don't think that's the issue.

Anything people can suggest would be great appreciated!

I will say I'm very impressed with the quality of these labels, the quality of Maestro and the speed at which you guys shipped my labels to me - they showed up two days after I ordered them which is great but I tend to not notice when my inventory of stuff is running low ;)

WWW

Sarkismet

#3 Posted : 7/23/2016 1:05:12 PM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 1

Location: Lockhart, Texas

I'm having the scaling issues as well. I have Adobe 1.5 (Acrobat 6.x) version PDF documents with the labels I made on Maestro but they do not print correctly to the OL1185BK brown kraft labels of which I have purchased and received a relative bajillion. It seems the top and bottom margins are too snug because the two middle rows are positioned ok but the top row is too low and cuts off the bottom of the label and the bottom row is too high and cuts off the top of the label. The scaling advice I found on the website doesn't seem to apply since there is no option around "rotate and center" etc. in the version of Acrobat that I have. My sense is that ended some time ago. I have a new ink jet printer Epson XP-830 but I can't think of any way to remedy this issue other than to change the margins on a PDF (not realistic). There is a margin option in Maestro but it only includes the top margin. How can I print these labels. I have put enough work into this at this point to stick with it and don't see how I can export my maestro design and hand it over to a printer and make this their headache. Secondly, the labels I ordered a bajillion of aren't really suitable for my product because it is a food product and the label smears pretty bad when the bottle gets used in a kitchen. Is there some way I can print something that stands up to moisture better on an ink jet printer? Would a laser jet be any better? Do I need to order a bajillion labels of the same shape in a different material?

dcarmany

#4 Posted : 7/24/2016 6:58:19 PM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: makerycookies

Hello,

We are small business owners, and we've run into an issue with our labels printing incorrectly. We've wasted a lot of labels trying to correct this issue unfortunately, and to make matters worse, we called Online Labels, and the person we spoke to was rather unhelpful. We really need someone to walk us through this and correct the problem. We plan on being Online Label customers for many years because our business is growing rapidly right now, but obviously, if we can't figure out how to fix this then we may have to move on. I noticed that there is someone on here who seems to be very helpful - is there any way possible that someone can call me? I would prefer to speak with someone over the phone if possible. Thank you.

Dustin

Dustin - I am sorry to hear about the issues that you are experiencing. I am surprised to hear that one of our service reps wasn't helpful. We definitely want to work with you until you have resolved the issue. I am happy to have a more experienced / senior representative get in contact with you.

After reviewing your account, I see you purchased several items from us a few years ago. I did a quick review of your most recent design in Maestro Label Designer and the first issue I noticed is that you your image is almost the exact size of the label. It is critical that have an image that has some bleed built into it to allow for some movement. Here is a quick article on adding bleed.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Support/Maestro/AlignmentGuide/Printer-Bleed.aspx

Let me know if this information helps. If not - can you provide a few more specific details on the issue that you are experiencing so I can have the appropriate person contact you? Is the issue impacting multiple products? How much is it off?

If not, let me know more details and I can select the appropriate person to contact you to work on the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

Edited by user Sunday, July 24, 2016 7:11:57 PM(EST) | Reason: Made an error in my initial response

WWW

dcarmany

#5 Posted : 7/24/2016 7:47:27 PM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: edowney

I'm not trying to hijack your post but I'm experiencing the same issue according to the title of this post and I think two posts with the exact same title would be really confusing.

I purchased OL7425WG labels to be used on a Cannon MX922 inkjet printer and I'm using Maestro to create my PDF pages of labels. It's a very nice web app - very impressed! So initially I resized my labels to be exactly the size of the label and centered it on the label area with Maestro. Everything looked great. Downloaded the PDF, opened it, made sure it had Actual Size clicked on and printed. Nothing was exactly centered on the label! I went through 10% of my labels so far running tests. I'm to the point where I'm drawing circles and printing on plain paper in order to save the labels and my ink (then holding up against a label sheet with the labels removed).

I went through the printer alignment test (which is a great idea guys - kudos) but according to the test my printer is lined up. I do only throw one sheet in the printer at a time because my printer was picking up multiple sheets. When I started doing my plain paper tests I had a full stack of paper in the printer so I don't think that's the issue.

Anything people can suggest would be great appreciated!

I will say I'm very impressed with the quality of these labels, the quality of Maestro and the speed at which you guys shipped my labels to me - they showed up two days after I ordered them which is great but I tend to not notice when my inventory of stuff is running low ;)

Edowney - Thanks for all the nice comments. I am glad to hear you like Maestro Label Designer and our product. It is hard to exactly pinpoint the issue from your explanation, but I will offer this advice after doing a quick review of your Maestro Label Designer account,

I do notice that many of your designs don't have any bleed so they effectively allow for no movement. There is always going to be some slight movement when printing on to the labels so it is critical that you allow for some movement in your design since there can be slight variation in our sheet cut and movement when your printer feeds the sheet. Like I mentioned in my previous response to Dustin, it is important that you create a design that allows for some movement by adding bleed. I also recommend against creating thin borders that are very close to the edge of labels since it will accentuate slight imperfections in the centering of your labels. Here is a link to our guide on how to add bleed to your designs.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Support/Maestro/AlignmentGuide/Printer-Bleed.aspx

I am happy to provide more feedback / help if you believe this isn't the issue. Let me know. I'm sure we can figure out the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

makerycookies

#6 Posted : 7/24/2016 10:33:42 PM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 2

Location: NJ

Originally Posted by: dcarmany

Originally Posted by: makerycookies

Hello,

We are small business owners, and we've run into an issue with our labels printing incorrectly. We've wasted a lot of labels trying to correct this issue unfortunately, and to make matters worse, we called Online Labels, and the person we spoke to was rather unhelpful. We really need someone to walk us through this and correct the problem. We plan on being Online Label customers for many years because our business is growing rapidly right now, but obviously, if we can't figure out how to fix this then we may have to move on. I noticed that there is someone on here who seems to be very helpful - is there any way possible that someone can call me? I would prefer to speak with someone over the phone if possible. Thank you.

Dustin

Dustin - I am sorry to hear about the issues that you are experiencing. I am surprised to hear that one of our service reps wasn't helpful. We definitely want to work with you until you have resolved the issue. I am happy to have a more experienced / senior representative get in contact with you.

After reviewing your account, I see you purchased several items from us a few years ago. I did a quick review of your most recent design in Maestro Label Designer and the first issue I noticed is that you your image is almost the exact size of the label. It is critical that have an image that has some bleed built into it to allow for some movement. Here is a quick article on adding bleed.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Support/Maestro/AlignmentGuide/Printer-Bleed.aspx

Let me know if this information helps. If not - can you provide a few more specific details on the issue that you are experiencing so I can have the appropriate person contact you? Is the issue impacting multiple products? How much is it off?

If not, let me know more details and I can select the appropriate person to contact you to work on the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for your reply. We have created a second label which allows for more bleed. However, even though this one prints without added white background space, it is never symmetrical. And each and every label is different. For the 3" circle labels, we have 6 per sheet, and each label is uncentered and differs from the one next to it. The same thing happens for our ingredient labels, which are 2" circles. We ordered these labels less than 2 years ago. We had so much trouble with them that we had to buy pre-made labels for awhile, and now that we're using a new printer, we really want to make this work. I would definitely appreciate it if someone could call me and help walk me through this. I will go through my labels on Maestro now and remove any that we're not using so that it'll be more organized when the representative looks through everything.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

Dustin

dcarmany

#7 Posted : 7/25/2016 11:21:54 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: makerycookies

[quote=dcarmany;102969][quote=makerycookies;102965]

Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for your reply. We have created a second label which allows for more bleed. However, even though this one prints without added white background space, it is never symmetrical. And each and every label is different. For the 3" circle labels, we have 6 per sheet, and each label is uncentered and differs from the one next to it. The same thing happens for our ingredient labels, which are 2" circles. We ordered these labels less than 2 years ago. We had so much trouble with them that we had to buy pre-made labels for awhile, and now that we're using a new printer, we really want to make this work. I would definitely appreciate it if someone could call me and help walk me through this. I will go through my labels on Maestro now and remove any that we're not using so that it'll be more organized when the representative looks through everything.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

Dustin

Dustin - Thanks for the information. I have forwarded your account information and a copy of this forum post over to our customer service manager. He is going to attempt to contact you using the phone number on your account within the next few hours.

I am happy to get involved in helping if he isn't able to resolve your issue. Thanks for your business.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

edowney

#8 Posted : 7/25/2016 11:46:10 AM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

Originally Posted by: dcarmany

Originally Posted by: edowney

I'm not trying to hijack your post but I'm experiencing the same issue according to the title of this post and I think two posts with the exact same title would be really confusing.

I purchased OL7425WG labels to be used on a Cannon MX922 inkjet printer and I'm using Maestro to create my PDF pages of labels. It's a very nice web app - very impressed! So initially I resized my labels to be exactly the size of the label and centered it on the label area with Maestro. Everything looked great. Downloaded the PDF, opened it, made sure it had Actual Size clicked on and printed. Nothing was exactly centered on the label! I went through 10% of my labels so far running tests. I'm to the point where I'm drawing circles and printing on plain paper in order to save the labels and my ink (then holding up against a label sheet with the labels removed).

I went through the printer alignment test (which is a great idea guys - kudos) but according to the test my printer is lined up. I do only throw one sheet in the printer at a time because my printer was picking up multiple sheets. When I started doing my plain paper tests I had a full stack of paper in the printer so I don't think that's the issue.

Anything people can suggest would be great appreciated!

I will say I'm very impressed with the quality of these labels, the quality of Maestro and the speed at which you guys shipped my labels to me - they showed up two days after I ordered them which is great but I tend to not notice when my inventory of stuff is running low ;)

Edowney - Thanks for all the nice comments. I am glad to hear you like Maestro Label Designer and our product. It is hard to exactly pinpoint the issue from your explanation, but I will offer this advice after doing a quick review of your Maestro Label Designer account,

I do notice that many of your designs don't have any bleed so they effectively allow for no movement. There is always going to be some slight movement when printing on to the labels so it is critical that you allow for some movement in your design since there can be slight variation in our sheet cut and movement when your printer feeds the sheet. Like I mentioned in my previous response to Dustin, it is important that you create a design that allows for some movement by adding bleed. I also recommend against creating thin borders that are very close to the edge of labels since it will accentuate slight imperfections in the centering of your labels. Here is a link to our guide on how to add bleed to your designs.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Support/Maestro/AlignmentGuide/Printer-Bleed.aspx

I am happy to provide more feedback / help if you believe this isn't the issue. Let me know. I'm sure we can figure out the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

Ok, I see what you're saying. So while I have a 3.9375" circle it's really more like a 3.75" circle? Sad face...I really need 4" to be honest but I figured I could get away with 3.9" but ~3.75" might be pushing it.

WWW

dcarmany

#9 Posted : 7/25/2016 11:47:28 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: Sarkismet

I'm having the scaling issues as well. I have Adobe 1.5 (Acrobat 6.x) version PDF documents with the labels I made on Maestro but they do not print correctly to the OL1185BK brown kraft labels of which I have purchased and received a relative bajillion. It seems the top and bottom margins are too snug because the two middle rows are positioned ok but the top row is too low and cuts off the bottom of the label and the bottom row is too high and cuts off the top of the label. The scaling advice I found on the website doesn't seem to apply since there is no option around "rotate and center" etc. in the version of Acrobat that I have. My sense is that ended some time ago. I have a new ink jet printer Epson XP-830 but I can't think of any way to remedy this issue other than to change the margins on a PDF (not realistic). There is a margin option in Maestro but it only includes the top margin. How can I print these labels. I have put enough work into this at this point to stick with it and don't see how I can export my maestro design and hand it over to a printer and make this their headache. Secondly, the labels I ordered a bajillion of aren't really suitable for my product because it is a food product and the label smears pretty bad when the bottle gets used in a kitchen. Is there some way I can print something that stands up to moisture better on an ink jet printer? Would a laser jet be any better? Do I need to order a bajillion labels of the same shape in a different material?

Sarkismet - Based on your description of your printing issue, I am pretty confident that this is a page scaling issue. Auto rotate and center won't have any impact on the page scaling. Page scaling is a different option. It will normally say something like Fit to Page in your settings when you print. It is critical this is unchecked since your PDF viewer will typically squeeze everything down if you tell it to Fit to Page. It needs to be unchecked since you need to make sure that you are printing the PDF at 100% scale.

Depending on your exact version of Acrobat, the exact wording for this setting may be different. For example, in my version of Acrobat Reader, the setting says "Actual Size" and it is checked off because I want to print at Actual Size (100%).

I also see users often using the built-in PDF viewer of their browser rather than Adobe Reader. Just because you have Adobe Reader installed on your machine does not mean that it is set as the default PDF viewer in your browsers. It is critical whatever PDF viewer you using that you are printing at 100%.

Let me know if you see this setting in your PDF viewer and let me know what it says and whether it is checked or not. That will help me to trouble shoot the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

dcarmany

#10 Posted : 7/26/2016 8:19:36 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: edowney

Originally Posted by: dcarmany

Originally Posted by: edowney

I'm not trying to hijack your post but I'm experiencing the same issue according to the title of this post and I think two posts with the exact same title would be really confusing.

I purchased OL7425WG labels to be used on a Cannon MX922 inkjet printer and I'm using Maestro to create my PDF pages of labels. It's a very nice web app - very impressed! So initially I resized my labels to be exactly the size of the label and centered it on the label area with Maestro. Everything looked great. Downloaded the PDF, opened it, made sure it had Actual Size clicked on and printed. Nothing was exactly centered on the label! I went through 10% of my labels so far running tests. I'm to the point where I'm drawing circles and printing on plain paper in order to save the labels and my ink (then holding up against a label sheet with the labels removed).

I went through the printer alignment test (which is a great idea guys - kudos) but according to the test my printer is lined up. I do only throw one sheet in the printer at a time because my printer was picking up multiple sheets. When I started doing my plain paper tests I had a full stack of paper in the printer so I don't think that's the issue.

Anything people can suggest would be great appreciated!

I will say I'm very impressed with the quality of these labels, the quality of Maestro and the speed at which you guys shipped my labels to me - they showed up two days after I ordered them which is great but I tend to not notice when my inventory of stuff is running low ;)

Edowney - Thanks for all the nice comments. I am glad to hear you like Maestro Label Designer and our product. It is hard to exactly pinpoint the issue from your explanation, but I will offer this advice after doing a quick review of your Maestro Label Designer account,

I do notice that many of your designs don't have any bleed so they effectively allow for no movement. There is always going to be some slight movement when printing on to the labels so it is critical that you allow for some movement in your design since there can be slight variation in our sheet cut and movement when your printer feeds the sheet. Like I mentioned in my previous response to Dustin, it is important that you create a design that allows for some movement by adding bleed. I also recommend against creating thin borders that are very close to the edge of labels since it will accentuate slight imperfections in the centering of your labels. Here is a link to our guide on how to add bleed to your designs.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/Support/Maestro/AlignmentGuide/Printer-Bleed.aspx

I am happy to provide more feedback / help if you believe this isn't the issue. Let me know. I'm sure we can figure out the issue.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

Ok, I see what you're saying. So while I have a 3.9375" circle it's really more like a 3.75" circle? Sad face...I really need 4" to be honest but I figured I could get away with 3.9" but ~3.75" might be pushing it.

edowney - Unfortunately, we do not recommend running text close to the edge so this does limit how much of the label you can utilize for copy / images. That being said, we do have a 4" circle available as a special order item. The pricing is a lot higher though since this product is not a stock item. You can check out the item at the link below.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/OL3275.htm

Let me know if I can help in any way. Thanks for your business.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

dcarmany

#11 Posted : 7/26/2016 10:00:08 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: Sarkismet

I'm having the scaling issues as well. I have Adobe 1.5 (Acrobat 6.x) version PDF documents with the labels I made on Maestro but they do not print correctly to the OL1185BK brown kraft labels of which I have purchased and received a relative bajillion. It seems the top and bottom margins are too snug because the two middle rows are positioned ok but the top row is too low and cuts off the bottom of the label and the bottom row is too high and cuts off the top of the label. The scaling advice I found on the website doesn't seem to apply since there is no option around "rotate and center" etc. in the version of Acrobat that I have. My sense is that ended some time ago. I have a new ink jet printer Epson XP-830 but I can't think of any way to remedy this issue other than to change the margins on a PDF (not realistic). There is a margin option in Maestro but it only includes the top margin. How can I print these labels. I have put enough work into this at this point to stick with it and don't see how I can export my maestro design and hand it over to a printer and make this their headache. Secondly, the labels I ordered a bajillion of aren't really suitable for my product because it is a food product and the label smears pretty bad when the bottle gets used in a kitchen. Is there some way I can print something that stands up to moisture better on an ink jet printer? Would a laser jet be any better? Do I need to order a bajillion labels of the same shape in a different material?

Sarkismet - I just realized that I only responded to your formatting issue in my response and didn't answer your question in regards to the label smearing. I checked your account and I see you purchased our brown kraft label material. That material isn't intended to be waterproof. Your ink will smear if exposed to moisture or water if you don't put some type of over coating onto the labels after printing them. If you were to switch to laser printing this would resolve that issue. Another option is to use some type of over coat spray on the labels after printing onto them or you could purchase a clear gloss label and put it over the top of the label. If you decide to go the spray route, we would typically recommend Krylon Preserve It. You can read an article on the topic at the link below.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/articles/krylon-weatherproof-waterproof-label-overcoat-spray.htm

This spray has a strong smell so it may not be a good option on a food product. You would probably need to try it to decide if it will fit your needs or not.

We also offer white labels for inkjet printing that are considered waterproof and will not smudge / smear when touched with a wet hand. The product code is OL1185WJ. You can check it out at the link below.

http://www.onlinelabels.com/products/OL1185wj.htm

I hope this information is helpful. Let me know if I can offer any additional help.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

edowney

#12 Posted : 7/31/2016 9:05:29 PM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

Hi, Eric here :) So is the fact that the labels location aren't 100% accurate as I would expect a function of an issue with printers? Are they unable to guarantee a 100% accurate location for printing? I admit I am talking about 1/16th's of an inch but it does make a difference. I thought the brand new Canon MX922 was a fairly top of the line ink jet printer. If print accuracy is in fact a printer issue are there printers out there that can print more accurately?

WWW

dcarmany

#13 Posted : 7/31/2016 9:30:03 PM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: edowney

Hi, Eric here :) So is the fact that the labels location aren't 100% accurate as I would expect a function of an issue with printers? Are they unable to guarantee a 100% accurate location for printing? I admit I am talking about 1/16th's of an inch but it does make a difference. I thought the brand new Canon MX922 was a fairly top of the line ink jet printer. If print accuracy is in fact a printer issue are there printers out there that can print more accurately?

Eric - I'm sure there are some printers that have a more consistent feed mechanism, but I don't have any data on that available so I really can't comment. I know we use laser printers in our office and they seem to be relatively consistent. My opinion for what it is worth is that you may be able to get some of the labels to look good, but overall having a design that requires that level of precision will likely result in a lot of frustration and wasted label sheets.

If you do require that level of precision, there are variety of factors that you will want to watch closely when printing on the label sheets to reduce waste and improve the quality of your printing.

#1 - It is critical that the sheets are tight in the tray. Place your sheets properly into the printer tray. Stack them neatly and even.

#2 - Make sure your print rollers are clean. Here is an article on the MX922's print rollers that I found on Canon's website. - https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART143819

#3 - There can sometimes be a slight variation in our sheet cut. In some cases, there may be slight variation in the top / bottom and left / right margins on our sheets. This will normally be a very small variation, but it is usually consistent through the entire pack. Check the margins on our sheets with a ruler and if there is variation, you will need to adjust for it on your design. Also - keep a close eye on always stacking the sheets the same direction in the printer.

I hope this information is helpful. Let me know if I can offer any additional help.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

1 user thanked dcarmany for this useful post: edowney

edowney

#14 Posted : 7/31/2016 9:58:48 PM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

Originally Posted by: dcarmany

Originally Posted by: edowney

Hi, Eric here :) So is the fact that the labels location aren't 100% accurate as I would expect a function of an issue with printers? Are they unable to guarantee a 100% accurate location for printing? I admit I am talking about 1/16th's of an inch but it does make a difference. I thought the brand new Canon MX922 was a fairly top of the line ink jet printer. If print accuracy is in fact a printer issue are there printers out there that can print more accurately?

Eric - I'm sure there are some printers that have a more consistent feed mechanism, but I don't have any data on that available so I really can't comment. I know we use laser printers in our office and they seem to be relatively consistent. My opinion for what it is worth is that you may be able to get some of the labels to look good, but overall having a design that requires that level of precision will likely result in a lot of frustration and wasted label sheets.

If you do require that level of precision, there are variety of factors that you will want to watch closely when printing on the label sheets to reduce waste and improve the quality of your printing.

#1 - It is critical that the sheets are tight in the tray. Place your sheets properly into the printer tray. Stack them neatly and even.

#2 - Make sure your print rollers are clean. Here is an article on the MX922's print rollers that I found on Canon's website. - https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART143819

#3 - There can sometimes be a slight variation in our sheet cut. In some cases, there may be slight variation in the top / bottom and left / right margins on our sheets. This will normally be a very small variation, but it is usually consistent through the entire pack. Check the margins on our sheets with a ruler and if there is variation, you will need to adjust for it on your design. Also - keep a close eye on always stacking the sheets the same direction in the printer.

I hope this information is helpful. Let me know if I can offer any additional help.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

Dave,

Wow! Answering a tech question on a Sunday night? Now that's dedication! I appreciate your information specific to my printer - that's a huge help. I'll definitely follow your advice.

WWW

edowney

#15 Posted : 8/3/2016 10:44:40 AM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

So I came up with a solution to the dilemma of how to align your labels with 100% accuracy. Hope you all know how to use Photoshop :)

Step 1: Peel off all the labels off of one sheet
Step 2: Scan the sheet
Step 3: Pull the scan into Photoshop (or illustrator - I'm still a newb with illustrator though)
Step 4: Create a layer with the correctly sized versions of your label. In my case I had to make 4 3.9375" circles.
Step 5: Move the label outlines to the empty spots on the scan.
Step 6: You can now Create a single layer with the label outlines and save it for future reference
Step 7: Drag and drop your images that will become your labels on to the artboard.
Step 8: Move and resize as appropriate over the label outlines.
Step 9: Save as a PDF for reuse

I still added about 1/16" of bleed but my first run of labels came out perfect. As mentioned earlier the labels may be cut differently for each pack of labels so I'll have to redo this process once in awhile but I can live with that to guarantee a perfect print.

WWW

dcarmany

#16 Posted : 8/3/2016 11:01:16 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: edowney

So I came up with a solution to the dilemma of how to align your labels with 100% accuracy. Hope you all know how to use Photoshop :)

Step 1: Peel off all the labels off of one sheet
Step 2: Scan the sheet
Step 3: Pull the scan into Photoshop (or illustrator - I'm still a newb with illustrator though)
Step 4: Create a layer with the correctly sized versions of your label. In my case I had to make 4 3.9375" circles.
Step 5: Move the label outlines to the empty spots on the scan.
Step 6: You can now Create a single layer with the label outlines and save it for future reference
Step 7: Drag and drop your images that will become your labels on to the artboard.
Step 8: Move and resize as appropriate over the label outlines.
Step 9: Save as a PDF for reuse

I still added about 1/16" of bleed but my first run of labels came out perfect. As mentioned earlier the labels may be cut differently for each pack of labels so I'll have to redo this process once in awhile but I can live with that to guarantee a perfect print.

Edowney - Thanks for the recommendation. I do have some concerns about that method though. I don't think it is fail-proof and it essentially does the same thing as measuring how much the print is off and then making adjustments to the top / bottom & left / right margins (which is what we typically recommend that users do in Maestro Label Designer using our alignment tools).

Your recommended method will help to locate / adjust for inconsistencies in our sheet cut, but it won't help when the sheet actually feeds through the printer inconsistently or if our sheet cut slightly varies sheet to sheet. If it is working then that shows me that you printer is actually staying pretty consistent on its feed. Adding the bleed will significantly help. If you can extend the bleed to 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch over the edge then I think you will probably be in great shape.

Thanks again for the recommendation. Let us know if we can offer any additional help or advice.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

edowney

#17 Posted : 8/3/2016 1:10:16 PM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 6

Location: Elkton, MD

Thanks: 1 times

oh, yeah, if there's drift in the cut between sheets I'm hosed. I'm going under the assumption that the pack of labels in my box were part of the same run and they will have the same margins. I actually think there's some variance in the space between the four circular labels on my sheet though as I had to play with them to get it just right. I can only afford about 1/16" of bleed unfortunately. My graphics has text that runs along the curve. I guess I'll know for sure after I go through some more sheets...

WWW

dcarmany

#18 Posted : 8/3/2016 1:33:34 PM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: edowney

oh, yeah, if there's drift in the cut between sheets I'm hosed. I'm going under the assumption that the pack of labels in my box were part of the same run and they will have the same margins. I actually think there's some variance in the space between the four circular labels on my sheet though as I had to play with them to get it just right. I can only afford about 1/16" of bleed unfortunately. My graphics has text that runs along the curve. I guess I'll know for sure after I go through some more sheets...

Due to our production method for that item, there should be no differences in the vertical or horizontal gap between the labels. That is locked in due to the way that our tooling works. Where they may be some slight variation will be the spacing in the top / bottom margin (top of the sheet to top of the top labels and bottom of sheet to bottom of the bottom labels). This same issue can happen on the left / right margin too (left margin of the sheet to the left side of the labels on the left side of the sheet and right margin of sheet to right side of the labels on right side of sheet).

I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

Gaylene

#19 Posted : 9/1/2016 8:01:56 AM(EST)

Rank: New User

Posts: 1

Location: South Carolina

I have been using On Line Labels and Mastro designer for several years. In July, every design I have saved was out of alignment. I've wasted many sheets trying to get things lined up. There must be something that has happened at Mastro's end; I'm using the same PC and printer and have not changed the labels!

dcarmany

#20 Posted : 9/1/2016 8:59:04 AM(EST)

Rank: Label King

Posts: 770

Location: Sanford

Was thanked: 46 time(s) in 45 post(s)

Originally Posted by: Gaylene

I have been using On Line Labels and Mastro designer for several years. In July, every design I have saved was out of alignment. I've wasted many sheets trying to get things lined up. There must be something that has happened at Mastro's end; I'm using the same PC and printer and have not changed the labels!

Gaylene - Sorry to hear about the issues that you are experiencing. I am going to turn this information over to our technical team for review, but I need to get some additional information from you first.

What browser version (e.g. Chrome, Firefox) and OS (operating system - Mac, Windows) are you using? Do you notice the designs are out of alignment on screen or just when you create / print the PDF? Are you using Adobe Reader or the built-in PDF viewer in your browser?

Let me know so we can further investigate the issue.

Dave C.
OnlineLabels.com

WWW

Forum Jump

Online Labels Forum

Issues with printer alignment - urgent!