Printing photos at home offers a convenient and personalized way to preserve your cherished memories. Many modern printers are equipped with a specialized feature designed to enhance this process: the photo tray. This dedicated tray is engineered to handle photo paper, ensuring optimal feeding and print quality. If you’re looking to achieve professional-looking photo prints from the comfort of your home, understanding how to properly utilize your printer’s photo tray is key. This guide will walk you through the simple steps to load photo paper and adjust your print settings, specifically focusing on using the photo tray for exceptional results.
Step 1: Preparing Your Printer and Photo Paper for Photo Tray Printing
The first step to successful photo printing is correctly loading your photo paper into the dedicated photo tray. This ensures that your printer picks up the paper accurately and avoids misfeeds or jams, common issues when using standard paper trays for thicker photo paper.
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Power On Your Printer: Begin by ensuring your printer is turned on. Wait until it is in an idle state before proceeding to the next step.
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Locate and Open the Photo Tray: The photo tray is typically located inside the main input tray. Gently pull the photo tray outwards to open it fully. In some printer models, you might need to remove the output tray first to access the photo tray.
Alt text: Opening the photo paper tray located inside the main input tray of a printer.
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Adjust the Paper Width Guides: Locate the paper width guides within the photo tray. Slide these guides to their outermost positions. This will provide ample space to load your photo paper.
Alt text: Sliding the paper width guides to the edges of the photo tray to prepare for loading photo paper.
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Load Photo Paper Correctly: Place your stack of photo paper into the tray with the short edge facing forward and the printable side facing down. If you are using photo paper with a perforated tab (often found on smaller sizes like 4×6), ensure the perforated tab is closest to you when loading and the print side is downwards.
Alt text: Loading glossy photo paper with the print side facing down into the printer photo paper tray.
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Ensure Proper Paper Depth: Gently slide the photo paper into the tray until it stops. Avoid forcing the paper. Make sure the stack of photo paper is not higher than the top edges of the paper width guides to prevent feeding issues.
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Adjust Paper Width Guides Snugly: Slide the paper width guides inwards until they lightly touch the edges of the photo paper stack. The guides should secure the paper without being too tight, ensuring the photo paper is centered in the tray for even printing.
Alt text: Adjusting the paper width guides in the printer photo tray to securely hold the loaded photo paper.
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Close the Input Tray: If you removed the output tray earlier, reinstall it now. Then, push the input tray back into the printer until it locks securely into place. Your printer is now physically prepared for printing photos using the photo tray.
Step 2: Configuring Print Job Settings for Photo Tray in Windows 10 Photos App
After loading your photo paper, the next crucial step is to configure your print settings to instruct your printer to use the photo tray and optimize for photo paper. If you are using Windows 10, the Photos app provides a straightforward interface to adjust these settings.
Using Windows 10 Photos App for Photo Printing:
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Open Your Photo and Access Print Options: Open the photo you wish to print in the Windows 10 Photos app. Click on the menu icon (often represented by three dots or lines) and then select “Print”. This will open the print settings dialog.
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Specify Photo Tray and Paper Settings: Within the print settings dialog, you will need to adjust several key options to ensure your printer uses the photo tray and prints optimally on photo paper.
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Source: This is the most important setting for using the photo tray. Select “Photo Tray” from the Source dropdown menu. This explicitly tells the printer to draw paper from the dedicated photo tray instead of the main paper tray.
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Paper Size: Choose the correct paper size that matches the photo paper you loaded in the photo tray. Common photo paper sizes include “10x15cm/4x6in” or simply “4x6in”. Ensure this setting aligns with the actual paper size in the tray for proper scaling and printing.
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Type: Select the appropriate paper type to match your photo paper. Options often include “HP Photo Papers” or “Other photo inkjet papers”. Selecting the correct paper type is vital for achieving the best print quality as it informs the printer how to apply ink for optimal results on the specific paper surface.
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Photo size: Choose “Full Page” to print your photo to fill the entire selected paper size.
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Fit: Select “Fill Page” to ensure your photo stretches to cover the entire paper, potentially cropping edges to avoid white borders. Alternatively, you might choose “Fit” to fit the entire image within the paper, which could result in white borders if the image aspect ratio doesn’t perfectly match the paper.
Alt text: Screenshot of Windows 10 Photos app print settings, highlighting Source as Photo Tray, Paper Size as 4x6in, and Type as HP Photo Papers for optimal photo printing.
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Initiate Print Job: After confirming all settings are correct, click “Print”. Your printer should now draw photo paper from the photo tray and produce your photo print with the specified settings.
If you encounter issues and the photo does not print from the photo tray, further troubleshooting steps and information can be found in HP support document: HP ENVY, DeskJet Printers – ‘Out of Paper’ Displays and Printer Does Not Pick Paper. You may also find additional help in this resource: Cannot Print From Photo Tray.
By following these steps, you can effectively utilize your printer’s photo tray to print beautiful, high-quality photos at home. Enjoy bringing your digital memories to life with your photo printer!
