printing 420mm by 210mm on an A4 printer

[John]

I was pleased to discover that I could use my HP Deskjet 6122 (A4)
printer to print an A4 image on paper measuring 420 x 210 mm - ie, A4
width, A3 length.

My reason for doing this was to make my own dustjackets for books that
I make - the jacket has to be A3 (420mm) in length. I print a
fraction of my design (say, full A4 size at one end of the paper and
then reverse the paper, set up the remainder of the required image,
invert it and then print to complete the 420mm image.

Success depends on not getting paper jams - the 6122 does this fine
without problems.

Now - the question - I'd like to do the same kind of thing with an A4
colour laser printer.

Does anyone know enough about colour laser printer feed mechanisms to
be able to tell me whether my method can be used?

 

[Peter]

I was pleased to discover that I could use my HP Deskjet 6122 (A4)
printer to print an A4 image on paper measuring 420 x 210 mm - ie, A4
width, A3 length.

My reason for doing this was to make my own dustjackets for books that
I make - the jacket has to be A3 (420mm) in length. I print a
fraction of my design (say, full A4 size at one end of the paper and
then reverse the paper, set up the remainder of the required image,
invert it and then print to complete the 420mm image.

Success depends on not getting paper jams - the 6122 does this fine
without problems.

Now - the question - I'd like to do the same kind of thing with an A4
colour laser printer.

Does anyone know enough about colour laser printer feed mechanisms to
be able to tell me whether my method can be used?

Not strictly a colour laser printer but a colour LED printer, have a look
at the Oki C5200n or C5400n, they will do banner printing.

They will print on paper up to 420mm x 1200mm, one sheet at a time through
the manual feed tray.

I don't know if you are doing edge to edge printing with the Deskjet but
you won't get this with the colour laser/LED printer, to my knowledge.

LED printing explained from Oki's point of view:
http://tinyurl.com/6nj66

Peter
http://www.printerbase.co.uk/

 

[John]

Not strictly a colour laser printer but a colour LED printer, have a look
at the Oki C5200n or C5400n, they will do banner printing.

They will print on paper up to 420mm x 1200mm, one sheet at a time through
the manual feed tray.

I don't know if you are doing edge to edge printing with the Deskjet but
you won't get this with the colour laser/LED printer, to my knowledge.

LED printing explained from Oki's point of view:
http://tinyurl.com/6nj66

Peter
http://www.printerbase.co.uk/

Thanks Peter

However, your suggestion looks, from the max printable size, to be an
A3, not A4 printer - a huge difference in price keeps me from that
option. I have, in fact, picked up two A3 printers which will print
banner - that is more demanding as a different form of printing is
required - all I ask of the printer is that it prints the standard A4
image but does so on what is, in effect, an elongated sheet of A4. I
am simply asking for a feed mechanism which ejects when it comes to
the end of printing the image - no matter how much paper remains
unprinted - well, in my case, no more than 420mm total.

I suspect that the only people who can answer here will be folks who
know something about feed mechanisms.

I should add that information I have had from local distributors is
all negative (Epson and HP) - but not with a reasoned statement -
rather, just a dogmatic 'no' in such a way that I sense that they have
never tried the experiment, can't be bothered to really research it
and simply want me to buy an A3 printer.

 

[Peter]

Thanks Peter

However, your suggestion looks, from the max printable size, to be an
A3, not A4 printer - a huge difference in price keeps me from that
option. I have, in fact, picked up two A3 printers which will print
banner - that is more demanding as a different form of printing is
required - all I ask of the printer is that it prints the standard A4
image but does so on what is, in effect, an elongated sheet of A4. I
am simply asking for a feed mechanism which ejects when it comes to
the end of printing the image - no matter how much paper remains
unprinted - well, in my case, no more than 420mm total.

I suspect that the only people who can answer here will be folks who
know something about feed mechanisms.

I should add that information I have had from local distributors is
all negative (Epson and HP) - but not with a reasoned statement -
rather, just a dogmatic 'no' in such a way that I sense that they have
never tried the experiment, can't be bothered to really research it
and simply want me to buy an A3 printer.

John,

I got my figures muddled, the Oki will print on paper up to 210mm x 1200mm,
essentially very long A4 paper.
The C5200/C5400 are A4 printers, with C5200n costing under £500 incl. VAT.

Most other colour lasers will complain of paper jams if you try to use any
longer type of paper, when the paper is fed into the printer the printer
knows what length of paper to expect and when the end of the paper is not
sensed the printer will assume the paper has jammed and stop the printing
process leaving the paper stuck in the middle of the printer.

Peter
http://www.printerbase.co.uk/

 

[John]

I got my figures muddled, the Oki will print on paper up to 210mm x 1200mm,
essentially very long A4 paper.
The C5200/C5400 are A4 printers, with C5200n costing under £500 incl. VAT.

Most other colour lasers will complain of paper jams if you try to use any
longer type of paper, when the paper is fed into the printer the printer
knows what length of paper to expect and when the end of the paper is not
sensed the printer will assume the paper has jammed and stop the printing
process leaving the paper stuck in the middle of the printer.

Now that is the first good sense that I've been told since the start
of this little 'quest'

My project is to print and bind a5 books (long walk descriptions, for
family and friends) which are a combination of landscape photos and
text. The present problem arises when making jackets for the books.

Hence, I shall be looking for good, but not outstanding text, the best
photo-rendering that present laser tech can manage and the long paper
facility.

I'll have a look for reviews of the photo capability of the OKIs.

Many thanks for excellent help.

 

[Timothy Lee]

I'll have a look for reviews of the photo capability of the OKIs.

There was a review within the last six months or so in either PCPlus or
PCPro, of the A4 OKI with the bannery type ability.

 

[John]

There was a review within the last six months or so in either PCPlus or
PCPro, of the A4 OKI with the bannery type ability.

Yes, I've looked at that - the OKIs will deal with 1200 mm x 210 mm -
and print over that length in one operation.

I must admit that I hadn't come across LED printers before and have
read the OKI guff on the subject - they only describe the advantages
of course but it certainly produces a huge reduction in weight if not
in bulk (20KG instead of 32KG).

Its not clear whey it doesn't produce a reduction in cost as well as
weight but I suppose that this is because there is no competition at
the moment.