When I use printers, fax machines, and label makers, I can never tell which direction the paper is supposed to go. Is there an easy way to figure this out?

This may seem like a dumb question, but don’t worry – you would be surprised how often this comes up. The answer is that most printers and fax machines have an icon in the paper tray whose purpose is to indicate which way the paper goes. Learn to spot and interpret this icon, and you will never need to worry about which way the paper goes again.

Here are two examples of this icon:

This icon has two elements that, combined, tell you how to orient the paper. The folded corner indicates which side is the “top” of the sheet – this is the direction in which the paper feeds. If you were dealing with letterhead, this is where the heading would go.

The lines on the paper indicate which side will be printed on – this tells you whether to place the paper face up, or face down.

Knowing these two key features, we can now interpret paper orientation from the two sample icons show above. In both icons, the paper feeds in the same direction – towards the corner fold. In the icon on the left, the printed side should be placed face up. In the icon on the right, the printed side should be placed face down.