Sharp AR-M450N+ booklet printing problems

[sgpm]

I've been trying to print a letter size booklet on an AR-M450N with the saddle stitch finisher (FN7) using Microsoft Publisher but the PCL6 and PCL5 drivers won't do it right or at all (options are disabled). Only the 2-Sided (Book) option outputs what is expected but that option won't let you do folding and stitching.

I tried the Tile-pamphlet option but that only likes A3 paper size for output. I also tried custom sizes (5.5" x 8.5" which is half letter) and the invoice size which is identical with no luck - no folding/stitching option nor the ability to select different 1st page.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Gregory

[OMD-227]

Sound like the finisher option isnt configured properly in the driver. Open the drivers properties window, run the Auto Configuration button under the Configuration Tab. This will update your driver to the correct machine configuration & allow you to select the Booklet function as they will not be disabled.

[sgpm]

Sound like the finisher option isnt configured properly in the driver...

Unfortunately that did not fix the problem. The option for making booklets (Tile-Pamphlet) is/was enabled. The problem is that it only works with letter size pages and it prints them on ledger. However, I found a workaround by selecting invoice (5.5" x 8.5") in the application and replacing the ledger size paper (Tray 2) with letter - it would not let me choose LCT or Tray 1 (both have letter size paper).

Thanks anyway,
Greg

[mtech]

Do you mean letter-r? The FN7 will only saddle stitch Letter-R, Legal or Ledger. It will not saddle stitch letter size paper from tray 1.

[sgpm]

mtech,

You are right it is called letter-r, which means that you cannot use a different first page (from a different drawer) to make a booklet as only Tray 2 will take those sizes. Do I understand that right? Is there an accessory (perhaps a different kind of tray) that will enable this feature?

Thanks a lot for your help - this is a great forum,
Gregory

[DavePo]

You would need a desk unit model AR-D14 this would have two more drawers to set for the same size paper. Sounds like you may have AR-D13 LCT

[mtech]

Why do you want to take paper from more than one draw during a job. It sounds like you are trying to add a cover sheet to a book. If the machine only has two draws you may want to try loading cover stock in the bypass tray. I am not sure if this would work, but it might be worth looking into. Good luck.

[DavePo]

You can't put a bypass on a machine with a FN7.

[sgpm]

Why do you want to take paper from more than one draw during a job. It sounds like you are trying to add a cover sheet to a book. If the machine only has two draws you may want to try loading cover stock in the bypass tray. I am not sure if this would work, but it might be worth looking into. Good luck.

That is exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. The cover will be printed on a color printer first and then added into one of the other two drawers (the machine has three - LCT type). Unfortunately only one of them takes Letter-R so it won't work (no bypass tray either).

DavePro,

I manually set the Input Tray Options to the 3 Tray Desk (AR-D14?) (I have the LCT like you suspected) just to make sure that the driver allows you to use the different 1-st page option. Well, it doesn't. It still disables that feature as conflicting with Pamphlet style printing - btw I did set all three trays' status to Letter-R. Anything I missed?

Anyway, the only workaround I see at this point is to use the 2-Sided (Book) printing to combine the cover page with blank pages and then feed the stack again as Letter-R to be printed and stitched/folded. Any comments about this approach?


Thank you all for trying to help,
Gregory