Is there a solution to not being able to print fedex in half sheet format 8.5"x11" yet? Is it me?

[siamjane8]

Ever since they added fedex to the new label "flow", I have not been able to correctly print a label. I can buy it but when it is sent to the print page as a pdf- it is in the vertical orientation ( like reading a book). I need it to be sent over in a half sheet horizontal position to print two labels per page.  To be clear, This is how I have it set up on the new label printer flow and that is how it was set up through the classic label page and worked for 18 years.  Also realize that it currently works as it should on the new label page with USPS labels.   It has bean nearly a year since it has worked and I have heard many different stories from CSR's. Last one thought that my adobe was not updated.... just verified that it is..... still no change.    I just want to know if this is truly an ongoing issue with ebay or am I a complete idiot.   I also have confirmed with at least 12 other people that they have the same issue. I am at my wits end with this inconvenience.   Any thoughts would be appreciated- Thanks

[anthology-of-treasures]

I don't print FedEx labels. I use USPS, but the principle would be the same.

Ebay's old label system has the problem of including additional unwanted text and graphics. For more than a decade I've used a custom "Action" in Adobe Acrobat Pro to batch crop any labels that I save to a default folder on my Macintosh. The Action saves a cropped version of the original label and adds a suffix to the end of file name so the original label is not overwritten. I could also use PhotoMill X on my Mac to do this.

I didn't rely on eBay to solve the problem as they are not know for fixing anything. eBay's customer's service will typically read from a script.

You might want to explore a bulk or batch image editing application that includes cropping, rotation and resizing. The idea would be to save your labels to default folder using names such as 1.pdf, 2.pdf, 3.pdf and so on. You then use this application to crop, rotate, resize and otherwise alter the original labels into a format suitable for printing. The app should allow you the option of saving the altered labels as new files with a slightly different name so the original ones are not overwritten. This is so you have those original label files to work with if the process is not quite right the first time you use it.

I would stay away from iWaterMark Pro if you are on a Macintosh as it has a bug whereas it will suddenly stop completing a batch of images. I think it may have a memory leak. I can't suggest any app if you are on Windows or Linux.

[richard1rst]

 Here is your workaround:

When you click "print label" you are brought to the new format page headlined "Print your shipping label"

In the upper right corner of that page it will say :  "go back to classic label printing". Click that and it will take you back to the previous format which does/can print FedEx in the proper orientation.

DO NOT enter any info on the NEW page - go back to old before you fill in any information. You may wind up with 2 labels with different track numbers,.

[siamjane8]

Thanks fro the reply. It does sound like an interesting workaround but I am looking to simplify my shipping process.  I just do not understand how a company as big as ebay can continue to ignore its customers.  One rep said that I should pay for a third party shipping company to ship for me!? Really.... that's the solution?  How hard can it be to fix your programming errors? And this is the company that wants to manage our money with managed payments! You have got to be kidding me.  That being said- I am still open to the idea that the problem is on my end.... that a change that they made is not compatible ... but then you should be required to let me know what that is so that I can make the change.....I do not want to turn this into a rant- just want a simple problem to be fixed so that I can continue on with my life-----doesn't anyone at ebay monitor these boards anymore? I am asking for a solution 

[siamjane8]

Wish I could do that but ebay has completely shut down the classic label page for me in this area. I was able to do that for about 8 months after the new one showed up but it is gone for good now.

[anthology-of-treasures]

The problem with Classic labels is:

A. eBay adds unwanted graphics & text to the bottom and right of each label.

B. A single label is down loaded as a 8.5" x 11" pdf.

In order to print two labels per 8.5" x 11" sheet we need to crop out the unwanted portion of each pdf. We want to get rid of not only the unwanted graphics and text but the unwanted white space.

Here are two Classic shipping labels I downloaded from eBay to a default folder I use to save such labels.

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro always running so I click on its icon in the Dock to bring it to the front of the Finder.

I selct a command form the menu...

Select File > Action Wizard > Crop USPS

Crop USPS is a custom action I created in Acrobat. It saves duplicate copies of each label which are cropped. A entire folder of labels is batch cropped in a seconds. These two would be done in less than 1 second.

Now my default folder has two cropped versions of the labels.

I select those and open then my default PDF applicaiton Preview.

I open up the print dialog and instruct it to print two labels per sheet.

This all takes a few seconds to initiate. If I had a 100 labels to print it would take the same amount of time to intiate the process, with the batch cropping taking an extra 10 seconds due to the number of labels.

You simply need to find a application that will take eBay's default FedEx pdf files and automatically do one or more of the following:

1. Crop out unwanted areas.

2. Resize.

3. Rotate.

4. Change the aspect ratio.

5. Otherwise alter the pdfs into a format you can use.

Bulk image watermarking applications typically offer all those features.

If I had waited for eBay to fix the issue I would have been manually cropping labels for more than a decade rather than having a application do all the work for me.

[lightlily_arts]

When I go to print Fedex labels  I have to go to Print Preview in my browser and change the orientation to landscape.  Remember to change it back after printing.

[anthology-of-treasures]

On a Mac the default image application is Preview.

The print dialog window would offer two main options.

1. Manually altering the settings in the print dialog window each time you print a label. There is nothing to remember to reset as your changes are not saved. Your changes are only used for the current print job since saving them as global setting would affect all printing jobs from Preview, including those that are not related to shipping labels.

2. Manually altering the print dialog window settings one time for your labels and saving this as new preset. The next time you print a label simply choose this preset and all changes will be made for you automatically. You can thus setup different presets for different types of labels and media.

I don't print FedEx labels. I am stilling Classic labels. If anyone has saved a FedEx label as a pdf using eBay's new label system I'd be interested in having an example messaged to me. You may have to export it as a 300 dpi png to send it via eBay's message system depending upon it eBay allows pdfs to be sent or not.

[nanbosnan]

I've had the same problem and simply changing the orientation prior to printing won't work. What I've done is to change the setting for the printing to 85% of the size. It's not a perfect fix, but it works for now.