A method of compensating for misalignment of a print engine of an image forming apparatus, which includes: (a) forwarding a request from a host computer having a printer driver to an image forming apparatus for reference data of a printable area of the print engine; (b) sending the reference data of the printable area of the print engine to the printer driver; (c) comparing the reference data of the printable area of the print engine to an ideal reference data of the printable area of a print job; and (d) if the reference data of the printable area of the print engine is different than the ideal reference data of the printable area of the print job, generating a new reference data of the printable area of the printable area to adjust for the difference in printable area between the ideal reference data of the printable area of the print job and the reference data of the printable area of the print engine.