Hello,

I have just discovered how to make a full size wall poster from a standard photo/image. The only problem is, when I print to standard A4 paper, there is always a 5mm border which has to be trimmed off resulting in the image never perfectly lining up when the pages are taped together. The only way I know to do an A4 borderless print is to use A4 Photo Paper. This is not very cost effective.

Is it safe to put a standard sheet of A4 paper in the printer (Canon iP5000) and tell it that it is a piece of A4 Photo Paper or am I just asking for trouble?

Thanks,

Shazz.

Re: Borderless Printing On Standard A4 Paper

Shazz,

The only downside is that you'll probably use more ink than is necessary for 'plain' paper.

I would consider getting some heavy 'Inkjet' paper which would not be so prone to bleeding and also give you a sharper image.

Re: Borderless Printing On Standard A4 Paper

You can, but it will load up the ink, take longer to dry and will likely look a bit wrinkly, but lay it flat and let it dry and all should be well.

Chris B

Re: Borderless Printing On Standard A4 Paper

Hi I use Epson printers but I presume that your Canon must have a section were it will let you in the printer setup tell it to do border less printing. Mind you it will also probably also warn you that as you as you say using plain paper that the print job my not be as good at the edge of the page. I think I have experimented on a smaller page to do what you are asking and told the printer that the paper was gloss or matt photo paper. I am also sure when I did this that the ink was more than required as it was set to print on photo paper and it bled through the plain paper and the page was very limp. You have nothing to loose so give it a go.

Cheers,

Yendale

Re: Borderless Printing On Standard A4 Paper

If you tell the printer that it's loaded with photo paper it will adjust the output from the colour cartridges to give you the best "photo quality." In the ip5000 software options you can choose from several output qualities. Go into the Canon EasyPrint Toolbox and explore the options. There's a free poster printing software at http://rapidshare.com/files/96320010/PosteRazor.exe which works very well.

Re: Borderless Printing On Standard A4 Paper

Shazz,

I think it would be 'safe' to do what you propose (i.e. it shouldn't hurt your printer), but the results you get will probably be very disappointing (wrong colours and/or density, ink bleed, etc).

If you're really serious about borderless printing you might be better off getting a decent photo-quality printer (an Epson, which will do borderless on plain paper), preferably one of the models that has a roll-feeder so you can do a frieze/banner up to 3 metres long on a single roll (33cm wide), and/or one that will do A3+ (or bigger) prints if it's just posters you want.

I'm sure there would be plenty of good Epson models going for a song on eBay or similar. Regards, Daniel