Why is the page alignment bad when printed, good on screen?

[JST]

I have a folder layout with three panels across one US 8 1/2 x 11 page, landscape, 1/4" gutters/borders.

On screen, it shows up as perfectly aligned and centered.

When printed out from PDF as a check print, it is too wide, it seems OK on the left gutter, but is almost bleeding over on the right. The two inside gutters are also shifted over from where they should be. But it is not an overall scale factor issue, since the top and bottom spacing is correct.   Only the width scale or width positioning is off, and it is off quite a bit, not quite the full 1/4" gutter, but most of it.  I know there is a slight error inherent in the copier style printers, so that money cannot be easily copied or printed, but this is more than that amount of error.

On screen (I am using inch units)  the center column starts just left of the 4" ruler mark, and the right column is barely left of the 7.5" mark, which would be correct. the left and right gutter look correct.

This is very difficult to diagnose, since it looks fine and shows no alignment issues on-screen.  I don't know if it is an issue with the output or the printer.   I printed the check prints from PDF output at a regular quick printing place, which I have used before and never have seen the issue,  printed on the same machine which I have used before.

 

[JST]

This may have to be put down to the actual printer, but I would prefer it to be more definite.   I did export as PDF with printer's marks, and they appeared to all be correct.

But I have a hard time believing in a printer that stretches the print a quarter inch in one direction only.  I have never seen such a thing before, and I have used that same printer several times.

[Joachim_L]

Could you post a screenshot of your printer dialogue?

[JST]

Of what?

I exported to PDF, and took the PDF to the printer on a thumb drive.    The PDF export panel you mean?

[Joachim_L]

Sorry, misunderstanding. So maybe a photo of the output and the created PDF could help? My English is a bit rusty, so I cannot imagine / understand what is going wrong here.

[DWright]

Hi @JST,

Is it possible for your to post a screen shot of your document margin settings and do you have facing pages enabled.