If everything on the check — the date, payee line, amount — is shifted higher than it should be, this is almost always a vertical offset issue, and it's one of the easier alignment problems to fix.
Likely causes
- Your check software's top margin is set smaller than your printer's actual unprintable area.
- The check stock isn't pushed all the way to the back of the paper tray, so the printer starts printing earlier on the page than expected.
- A page size mismatch — if your software thinks it's printing to a slightly taller page than what's loaded, everything shifts up relative to the physical paper.
How to fix it
- Push the check stock firmly to the back and side guides of the paper tray so it feeds consistently.
- Print a test check on plain paper and measure the distance from the top edge to a known reference point, like the date line.
- Compare that measurement to where the same point should land on your real check stock, and adjust your software's top margin or vertical offset by the difference.
- Reprint the test and re-measure — small adjustments usually get it within printable tolerance in one or two passes.
If your software offers a vertical offset or nudge setting specifically for printing (separate from the check template itself), use that rather than editing the template — it keeps the fix specific to this printer without affecting other printers you might use later.