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Do various print drivers effect display and print of documents in Word?

We have multiple users on Office Word products.  While I've standardize on one printer for all new purchases, we have many different printer still in the field.  Do print drivers and printers effect how pages display and get laid out? 

I would think that if the document uses "Times New Roman 10" that every printer would print the document the same way.  But I've read that it does not and that in a large document, lines may move to a prior or next page.

Is this true?  How can large companies have everyone on the same printer so this is not an issue?

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Most definitely, the way in which a document is laid out can be affected by different Printer Drivers, even though the same physical printer may be used.  In fact a common source of printing problems in Word is a miss-match between the Word version and the printer driver, especially in the case of HP printers.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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As Doug says, different printer drivers do affect the layout. And that can even be the case where different drivers are used for the same printer, as can occur if some users have Win 7, others Win 8 and yet others on a Mac, because each OS might use a different driver.

In situations where it's important everyone works with the same layout and they're not all using the same printers and drivers, you may need to distribute the document in PDF format.

Cheers
Paul Edstein
(Fmr MS MVP - Word)

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Last updated October 5, 2021 Views 516 Applies to: