A cheque comes out with the text in the wrong place. Almost everyone's first instinct is to start editing the layout, and that is the wrong move roughly two-thirds of the time.
There are three separate causes, they look similar on the paper, and they have nothing to do with each other. Diagnose first.
Step 1: print onto plain paper
Never diagnose on a real cheque leaf. Print onto ordinary A4, then hold the sheet against a genuine cheque up to a window or a lamp. The fields line up visibly, and you have not spent a cheque to find out.
Step 2: identify which of the three you have
| What the test print shows | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Every field shifted the same direction by the same amount | Printer feed offset | Adjust top / left margins |
| Fields wrong relative to each other | Wrong layout, or wrong dimensions | Change layout / fix width and height |
| Text skewed or rotated | Paper not held straight | Tray guides — not a software fix |
The test is whether the relationships between fields are right. If the date is 3 mm left of where it should be and the payee and amount are also 3 mm left, the layout is correct and your printer is feeding slightly off. If the date is 3 mm left but the amount is 5 mm high, the layout is wrong.
Fixing a uniform offset (the common case)
Go to Settings and adjust the top margin and left margin, in millimetres.
- Text too far left → increase the left margin.
- Text too far right → decrease it.
- Text too high → increase the top margin.
- Text too low → decrease it.
Work in half-millimetre steps and reprint. Large jumps overshoot and you end up hunting. Two or three iterations normally lands it.
Write the final values down. If someone reinstalls the software or you move to a new PC, you will want them.
Fixing fields wrong relative to each other
Check these in order, because the cheap checks resolve it most often:
- Is the right layout selected? Open the cheque book and confirm. Many banks share a cheque size — Alinma and Banque Saudi Fransi are both 204 x 90 mm, QNB and HSBC Qatar both 175 x 80 — so the paper fitting proves nothing.
- Is there a second layout for your bank? ADCB, Al Salam, Bank Muscat, China Banking Corporation and Security Bank all have two variants. Switching is faster than editing.
- Are the width and height right? Measure the actual paper with a ruler. Wrong overall dimensions stretch or compress every position at once, which is why this symptom is so often mistaken for a dozen separate field errors.
- Only then move individual fields in the layout editor.
Fixing skew
Skew is a printer problem and no setting corrects it. If text runs at a slight angle, or the angle differs between cheques:
- Bring the tray guides firmly against the paper. Guides left set for A4 let a 175 mm cheque wander.
- Use a manual feed slot if your printer has one — a straighter paper path holds a small leaf better than a deep tray.
- Feed fewer leaves at a time. Overfilled trays misgrip.
- Check the leaves are not curled. Cheques stored folded do not feed straight.
Why boxed date digits are the hardest case
Cheques in India, Pakistan, Bahrain and Singapore print the date into separate boxes, one character each. A single date field absorbs a millimetre of drift invisibly; eight small boxes do not — digits end up on the divisions.
On those cheques, align the date first. Get the left margin right so the date sits centred in its boxes and the rest of the cheque almost always follows.
One printer, one setup
Margins compensate for a specific printer's paper handling. If you print cheques from two printers, the values that suit one will not suit the other — and Windows silently switching your default printer is a common reason alignment "randomly" breaks. See changing the printer.
