Scanning and then printing so it looks right

[Jim Chad]

When I scan a page into a PDF, Adobe 7 prints it wrong. It always moves it to the edge of the page

high and right. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

[masteff]

Well, you're doing two steps so the problem could be in either one.

Scanning: Since it's shifted up and right, makes me wonder if you're getting it lined up correctly on the scanner. I presume you've looked at the edges around the glass and found where it shows to line up a letter size document (many have an arrow in one corner to show where the top left corner should be or there might be marks with "LTR" to show where the edges should line up). After you've scanned something, open the pdf in Adobe Reader and then change the zoom to "fit window". Does the document look okay there or is it out of place? Move the paper on the scanner and try again to see what change that makes. You might need to open the scanner software and check the settings. One thing that comes to mind is "crop/trim margins". Unfortunately it differs from software to software so you might have to do trial-and-error or if all else fails look in the help documentation.

Printing: If it looks okay onscreen in Adobe, then on the menu click File / Print. In the dialog box, look at "page scaling" and "auto-rotate and center". Mine are set to "reduce to printer margins" and auto-rotate is checked. Also make sure it's selecting the right paper size and source. You might also click File / Printer Setup and go into properties to make sure the problems not coming from some other printer property.

[Jim Chad]

Thanks. I have found a combination of settings that works.

Now my question is: How can I tell it to print darker?

When I use Adobe Pro - 7 it prints lighter than when I scan as a JPG and print in paint.

[masteff]

That would be in your scanner setup (I looked in Adobe and confirmed it doesn't have a darkness setting). For example, I have a Cannon scanner and it's software has separate settings for photos (jpg) and documents (pdf). Which makes sense, what's good for one, isn't necessarily good for the other.

So best I can do is direct you to your scanner software. I'm not sure what the setting will look like in your software. It may be a lighter/darker adjustment or it may be choices between "black and white"/"gray scale"/"color" ("black and white" will have highest contrast and likely print the darkest). You might also try a higher level of dpi; this will make the file size bigger but will give better detail and might print better.

Also, my scanner came w/ more than one software utility. I've noticed that one offers different scanner setting options than another does. So if I needed more control on how the scan came out, I could open the one software and let it control the scanner (but I'm usually lazy and just push the button on the scanner and go w/ what comes out).

Hope that puts you on the right path to figuring it out.