The printer does not accept the paper size.
This is happening more lately with newer all-in-one printers. Sometimes our ‘cheat’ templates work as a solution for this, but more likely, you need to make one adjustment to your printer driver software. It’s an adjustment we cannot send you in the template.
Paper is too thick/stiff
- Use the hand-feed option.
- Your printer most likely has a back door. Opening this will straighten out your paper path and allow thicker papers to pass.
- Your printer driver software has paper type and thickness settings. There are thousands of printers, so we cannot be specific, but when you tell it to print, look for a button for “properties.” Somewhere in there you should find a drop-down menu for different thicknesses of paper and envelopes. These settings will help your printer accept thicker papers, and may also help with quality, if that is suffering.
- Some simpler inkjet printers have a lever or knob on one side that sets it to thick and thin. The lever may simply have a plus (+) or minus (-) sign on it.
The printer doesn’t seem to be grabbing the paper quick enough.
Don’t be afraid to apply light pressure to the back edge of the paper to help your printer pick it up. This can happen with our pearlescent papers as they have a slicker surface making it more difficult for the rollers to pick up. Slipping rollers could cause your type to register incorrectly.
The paper is picking up roller marks.
This can happen especially with older printers. One thing that can solve this is the same as above, apply light pressure to the back edge of the paper to help your printer take the paper up. Sometimes this happens because the rollers are aging and glazed. We cannot fix this and you have to try another printer.
The toner or ink is sticking to the back of the card on top of it and chipping off.
If this is a laser writer, this could be happening because stacking the paper immediately can retain the very high heat from your laser writer and the toner is transferring through heat.
If this is an inkjet it is because the paper is not absorbing ink quickly enough.
In either case, do not stack your paper immediately Spread it out for a few minutes and test it before stacking.
Can a commercial printer do this for me?
You can take your job to a commercial printer, but you’re better off having us print for you. Copy centers usually won’t want to touch a paper they don’t have experience with. You may have better luck with an offset or local job printer (NOT A PHOTOCOPY SHOP). The only problem is that they may want more overage (extra paper for waste) than the standard 10% we supplied you. If you have us print for you, it is less complicated and any errors happen in house and you only see the final product as you want it without being in the middle between us and your printer.
Can my new color laser handle the thick paper? It seems to have trouble.
This is a new problem for us. As color lasers become less expensive, more people have access to them and many of them do not seem to handle our thickest papers. When you get a sample, test it in your hand-feed.
My printer does not accept the custom sizes of your templates.
This is rare, but has been occurring lately, especially with some all-in-one printers hooked to system Apple computers. The work around to this is for me to send you a special template made to trick your printer into thinking it is printing on standard size paper. Just e-mail me.
All programs are in a folded paper format. When you fold a sheet of paper once, it gives you four pages. Often you will only want to print your information on one side, which is two pages of information, your Wedding Party on the left and your Ceremony information on the right. If you print two sides (four pages) you would want a title page printed on the front and your personal notes or a thank you on the back. When there is too much information to fit, you will have to add another sheet, giving you eight pages.
When you have eight or more pages, it can be confusing keeping your layout straight. When you are having InviteSite print for you, there is no worry about this, but when you are printing yourself, use this trick as your guide. Take two or more sheets of scrap paper and fold them together. Then, number each panel and you will have a physical reference as to how your pages must relate to one another in your layout. Below is an illustration of a two-sheet program layout.
