How do you print borderless at 100% without the printer scaling the file?

[Yr Blues]

I use InDesign and can put any amount of bleed I want in the application.

When I print with the "borderless" option, the printer (Epson XP-340) is scaling it up as though it thinks I don't have any bleeds and it's adding it for me. My prints have to be 100% accurate for what I do.

Thanks.

 

[organicCPU]

I had the same experience with an Epson Stylus Photo R300. With the borderless function it always used to scale the page a bit, no matter of bleeding or the settings I chose. I guess it's part of the Epson printer driver to do such a scaling. If borderless function was turned off and setting up a borderless paper, it used to print 100% original size as far as it could, but not borderless. However, I've found that it wasn't possible to get 100% full-sized borderless prints without cutting the paper afterwards. If I needed full-size borderless for self-made prints, I just scaled the fonts in the layout some percents down (2 to 10%, e.g. 11.5pt instead of 12pt) to get more suitable results and accepted the slightly larger images in most cases.

 

[Yr Blues]

I had the same experience with an Epson Stylus Photo R300. With the borderless function it always used to scale the page a bit, no matter of bleeding or the settings I chose. I guess it's part of the Epson printer driver to do such a scaling. If borderless function was turned off and setting up a borderless paper, it used to print 100% original size as far as it could, but not borderless. However, I've found that it wasn't possible to get 100% full-sized borderless prints without cutting the paper afterwards. If I needed full-size borderless for self-made prints, I just scaled the fonts in the layout some percents down (2 to 10%, e.g. 11.5pt instead of 12pt) to get more suitable results and accepted the slightly larger images in most cases.

I figured so. Just e-mailed Epson to see if they knew the exact percent scaling they use so I can compensate.

 

[organicCPU]

I'm curious what Epson will tell. As I was experimenting with different scaling parameters, I've reached the point, when the scaling seemed to be almost fine, but then resulting in very small partially white borders lopsidedly on the top and bottom of a page. At least the R300 wasn't able to reliable feed in the paper absolutely straight. The pitch of these white edges were always slightly different. Bleeding didn't help either. That's why I decided that the printer can't be used for unscaled full-sized presentational prints. Another reason for my decision was the fact that especially typography suffered from a lot of dot gain compared to offset printing, making a roman font almost appearing bold, even on special coated paper. I guess these kind of inkjet printers are fine for daily office needs, but are far from proof printing inkjets.

 

[Yr Blues]

I'm curious what Epson will tell. As I was experimenting with different scaling parameters, I've reached the point, when the scaling seemed to be almost fine, but then resulting in very small partially white borders lopsidedly on the top and bottom of a page. At least the R300 wasn't able to reliable feed in the paper absolutely straight. The pitch of these white edges were always slightly different. Bleeding didn't help either. That's why I decided that the printer can't be used for unscaled full-sized presentational prints. Another reason for my decision was the fact that especially typography suffered from a lot of dot gain compared to offset printing, making a roman font almost appearing bold, even on special coated paper. I guess these kind of inkjet printers are fine for daily office needs, but are far from proof printing inkjets.

Don't you just hate how hard it is to get the simplest answers from companies?

And you would think that any 1440 dpi inkjet printer could render vector images precisely, but we're still far from that.

 

[dwig]

...
And you would think that any 1440 dpi inkjet printer could render vector images precisely, but we're still far from that.

That's not the issue at all. The printed can do just that.

Your problem arrises from the limited options in the printer driver. They are limited because only a very small number of users would understand the missing option you want.

Because it is impossible for the printer to feed each and every sheet perfectly, a bleed is necessary for printing borderless. The printer driver only offers borderless when doing its own upscaling to create a bleed. When printing unscaled, the driver creates a small border area to mask to slight imprecision in the paper feed. The 3rd option of printing unmasked and unscaled isn't offered as few users would accept the slight border produced by the variance in the paper feed. They would complain about "flaws" in the printer instead of acknowledging the limitations and providing their own bleed. You might find that function in some high-end driver targeting the professional market, but you won't find it in stock driver for printers designed for the everyday user.

 

[organicCPU]

I really do understand how frustrating it is to get no problem solving in-depth answers from technical support and own some great device solely limited by software

I'd even expect some drawbacks with 4-sided borderless printing, e.g. on the Epson SureColor P800 with a more professional driver. The latest top-notch Epson models provide a built-in cutter and a feature called BorderFree for roll media. I guess that's 2-sided borderless printing plus cutting: https://epson.com/prepress-proofing-printers

For my own printouts I've completely switched to a small color laser printer. Not perfect either, but it fits most of my common needs. Whatever I can't print satisfactory in terms of size, material, quality or efficiency, I definitely consider as a job for a professional service provider.

 

[Yr Blues]

For my own printouts I've completely switched to a small color laser printer. Not perfect either, but it fits most of my common needs. Whatever I can't print satisfactory in terms of size, material, quality or efficiency, I definitely consider as a job for a professional service provider.

Which one did you get? I might need one for vector graphics like fonts and Illustrator.

 

[organicCPU]

Which one did you get?

About 6 years ago I bought a Lexmark C546 for duplex printing and additional paper tray. I'm not affiliated to Lexmark and probably other companies offer great products, too. Like I said it's not perfect in the sense of a professional graphics printer, but it fits most of my needs. It offers the Blue Angel certificate and a toner cartridge return program.
Earlier this year the printer started to print yellow stripes, because of a defective imaging unit. As my printing volume is quite low and didn't reach the unit's expectation, I unexpectedly got a free exchange so many years later.

You especially asked for printing fonts and vector graphics. There are still noticeable differences between fonts you print on the C546 compared to an offset press, but these differences are much smaller compared to a common inkjet printer. Maybe you should ask some local dealers for making a test print of something you already printed professionally to compare the differences. If I need professional low volume single page laser prints on paper, I usually work with print shops that print on a Xerox iGen 4 or 5. No offset quality there either, but with a good RIP and on quality paper, almost close to common offset quality.