Post by Andy Pastuszak on Jun 29, 2024 15:05:06 GMT
I have a Brother HL-3170CDW, which I like a great deal.
Today I was experimenting with some pages and printing out A4 pages for my new 30 ring binder.
The big problem I have with the printer is page curl, which is an issue with any laser. The heat from the fuser will often make the pages curl. And printing double sided really exacerbates the problem because you apply a high level of heat to the paper twice.
I tried to play with a few things to see if I could somehow minimize the page curl.
The HL-3170CDW has two emulation modes in it: BRScript3 and PCL. Well, BRScrip3 is a Postscript emulation mode. It lets them add Postscript to the printer without needing to pay any royalties to Adobe.
When I went into printer driver settings, I saw that I was using the "AirPrint" driver (I'm on a Mac).
So, I added the printer back in and manually chose the driver. When I did that, I had the option to choose a BRScript3 driver. I did that, and suddenly I had a few new options available to me:
On my 32 lb A4 paper, this significantly reduced the paper curl I was experiencing. It still curls a little. But not as bad as leaving it set to off.
I tried doing this with some 65 lb. coverstock and it was a disaster. The toner would not stick to the coverstock.
To get the toner to stick to the coverstock, I needed to choose "Improve Toner Fixing." That kept the toner on the paper, but it also curled the coverstock into almost a half-circle.
Some other sites on the Internet say this is also exaggerated by moisture in the paper. So I'm thinking of sticking the paper in an air tight container with some desiccant to see if that might help with the problem.
Time to experiment some more.
I have a lot of time to tinker on Saturday mornings. My wife and kids sleep in and I get up at 7:00 AM.