Colour printing: Fonts are blurred. B/W printing: Fonts are sharp

[Sukramutu]

I have a printing problem and do not know what the cause is.

Initial situation:
- Affinity Publisher 2.2.1
- macOS Ventura 13.5.2
- Printer Ricoh NRG IM C300

Problem:
- When I print the document in colour, the fonts are blurred.
- When I print the same document in black and white, the fonts are sharp.
(See photo)

What could be the problem?
I am happy for any advice.

Thank you very much!
 

[Hangman]

Hi @Sukramutu and welcome to the forums,

Are you able to upload your Affinity Publisher document so we can take a look at what may be causing the issue you're seeing?

[Sukramutu]

14 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Sukramutu and welcome to the forums,

Are you able to upload your Affinity Publisher document so we can take a look at what may be causing the issue you're seeing?

Original Publisher document attached now.

Muster für Druckertest.afpub

[Sukramutu]

The problem occurs with Affinity Publisher as well as with Apple Pages.

This seems to indicate a printer driver problem.

 

[Hangman]

Hi @Sukramutu,

So your 'black' text is a CMYK mix... I suspect that subsequently when you are printing your file there is a small amount of misregistration between the four colours which results in the appearance of 'blurred'' and 'thicker' looking text'... If you are able to view the print under a loupe you will likely see the issue...

As a test, if you change your text so it appears as K100, i.e., C:0, M:0, Y:0, K100 and then print in colour do you still see the same issue?

[Sukramutu]

13 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Sukramutu,

So your 'black' text is a CMYK mix... I suspect that subsequently when you are printing your file there is a small amount of misregistration between the four colours which results in the appearance of 'blurred'' and 'thicker' looking text'... If you are able to view the print under a loupe you will likely see the issue...

As a test, if you change your text so it appears as K100, i.e., C:0, M:0, Y:0, K100 and then print in colour do you still see the same issue?

 

Many thanks, Hangman
Just changed the text "color" to 0/0/0/100. But still blured fonts. See pictures (Print out from Publisher with font black).

But! Now hear this. If I change the font color to black in Apple Pages, then the Apple Pages document is printed fine.  

[Sukramutu]

Now picture of printout from Apple Pages. This one is fine.

[Sukramutu]

Is this Publisher Setting maybe a problem?

[Hangman]

Interesting, could you also upload your Apple Pages document as well so I can take a look…

We have a power cut here right now so unsure when I’ll be able to reply…

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, Sukramutu said:

 

Is this Publisher Setting maybe a problem?

 

The Generic CMYK setting shouldn’t make any difference but a simple test would be to convert a copy of your file to an alternative profile and make another test print…

[Sukramutu]

1 minute ago, Hangman said:

The Generic CMYK setting shouldn’t make any difference but a simple test would be to convert a copy of your file to an alternative profile and make another test print…

I changed this setting to color format "RGB/32 (HDR)" and profil "iMac (kalibriert) Linear". But this does not help.

[Hangman]

1 hour ago, Sukramutu said:

I changed this setting to color format "RGB/32 (HDR)" and profil "iMac (kalibriert) Linear". But this does not help.

This doesn't surprise me... how did you bring your file into Apple Pages, was this via a PDF or was it originally an Apple Pages document?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Sukramutu said:

This one is fine.

It still looks blurred to me, but perhaps that's due to the zoom level, or what the forum does to images.

[stokerg]

Hi @Sukramutu,

I've printed your afpub file on a Canon and Samsung printer here in the office and the text prints out fine each time.

On 10/19/2023 at 7:53 PM, Hangman said:

This doesn't surprise me... how did you bring your file into Apple Pages, was this via a PDF or was it originally an Apple Pages document?

It would be good to know the answer to this question but from everything so far, it does sound like a driver issue.

[Sukramutu]

Dear all,

Many thanks for hints and help.

In the meantime, I have updated to macSO 14 Sonoma.
But without success for my printing problem.

I recreated the Publisher document in the photo. The lower text paragraph is with 50% opacity.
On the left of the picture the printout in colour and on the right of the picture the same document printed in b/w.

But where does the difference in the display of the upper text paragraph come from?
This paragraph has the colour CMYK 0/0/0/100.

Also two photos of the printer options.
 

[Hangman]

Hi @Sukramutu,

A couple of things to try, which may or may not make any difference...

I note from your print settings that the CMYK simulation profile is set to Euroscale but your Publisher document uses Generic CMYK.

1. If you convert your Publisher document to Euroscale (the assumption being the print driver is using Euroscale Coated v2) in the Colour Tab of the Document Setup window and after doing so, select your text and change it to K100. Then see if that makes any difference to the text on output.
    
2. Alternatively, with your default Publisher Document using the Generic CMYK profile, again select the text and change it to K100 and if it's an option switch CMYK simulation off in the Print settings and see what, if any effect that has.
    
3. Take your original Publisher document using the Generic CMYK profile, again select the text and change it to K100, then export it as a PDF with:

• The Colour Space set to As Document
• The Profile set to Use Document Profile
• Then print the PDF file

Let us know if any of those options make any difference...

Could you also upload the PDF file once you've created it...

[Sukramutu]

16 hours ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Sukramutu,

A couple of things to try, which may or may not make any difference...

I note from your print settings that the CMYK simulation profile is set to Euroscale but your Publisher document uses Generic CMYK.

1. If you convert your Publisher document to Euroscale (the assumption being the print driver is using Euroscale Coated v2) in the Colour Tab of the Document Setup window and after doing so, select your text and change it to K100. Then see if that makes any difference to the text on output.
    
2. Alternatively, with your default Publisher Document using the Generic CMYK profile, again select the text and change it to K100 and if it's an option switch CMYK simulation off in the Print settings and see what, if any effect that has.
    
3. Take your original Publisher document using the Generic CMYK profile, again select the text and change it to K100, then export it as a PDF with:

• The Colour Space set to As Document
• The Profile set to Use Document Profile
• Then print the PDF file

Let us know if any of those options make any difference...

Could you also upload the PDF file once you've created it...

I am going mad.

I have done all three of your points, but with no better result. 

Here are the printouts as a PDF file.
CMYK 100/0/0/0 seems to be very good.
But CMYK 0/0/0/100 is lousy again. 

Hangman Pt. 3 Exported to PDF.pdf

[Sukramutu]

*** PROBLEM SOLVED ***

Dear all,

many thanks for any help.

I changed now the profil in Publisher and then also changed the font colour to RGB 0/0/0 and now the print is fine. See picture.

Yours
Sukramutu

[Hangman]

Hi @Sukramutu,

I'm glad you've found a solution and you can now make a satisfactory print...

It doesn't really explain why printing using K100 for the black text doesn't work since there is nothing wrong with your file. I'm not familiar with your particular printer but it very much suggests the original issue is down to the way it handles Black when printing in CMYK mode...

[tersmuse]

There is a simple way to avoid "colorful" text.
1. create the document (!!!) as it will be printed (CMYK, Color profile: ISO Coated v2 (ECI))
2. take for text (black) the existing black swatch, it's already 0/0/0/100.

The important thing is this:
A CMYK document can be exported as RGB without any problems. The other direction (RGB to 4c) is a huge problem. Also to change an existing RGB documents settings afterwards does not work. It must be set up / created accordingly from beginning.

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, tersmuse said:

There is a simple way to avoid "colorful" text.
1. create the document (!!!) as it will be printed (CMYK, Color profile: ISO Coated v2 (ECI))
2. take for text (black) the existing black swatch, it's already 0/0/0/100.

That's not really the issue here... the document in question is set up as a CMYK document and uses K100 text but as can be seen from the screengrabs, when printing directly to the printer from Affinity in colour the K100 text is printing differently than when printing in B/W.

It should make no difference... If the text were a CMYK mix then that would make sense but it's not in the later test prints...

[tersmuse]

4 minutes ago, Hangman said:

That's not really the issue here... the document in question is set up as a CMYK document and uses K100 text but as can be seen from the screengrabs, when printing directly to the printer from Affinity in colour the K100 text is printing differently than when printing in B/W.

It should make no difference... If the text were a CMYK mix then that would make sense but it's not in the later test prints...

I know, but in the beginning it was the problem. To help others, text / color management is a constant problem, I added it here.

[Oufti]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:25 PM, Sukramutu said:

I have a printing problem and do not know what the cause is.

Initial situation:
- Affinity Publisher 2.2.1
- macOS Ventura 13.5.2
- Printer Ricoh NRG IM C300

These kind of office printer do color printing, and as such eventually use CMYK, but many times their driver only copes with RGB files, so when sending CMYK files to print, they are first internally converted to RGB before being processed by the printer driver. 

Second cause of problems is that their usual printing language is PCL, not very good for this kind of job, and PostScript or PDF languages are only emulated, or as an option. 

Quote

Langage d'impression	PCL5c, PCL6, PostScript 3 (émulation), PDF Direct (émulation)
Langage d'impression : en option	Adobe® PostScript® 3™, PDF Direct depuis Adobe®

https://www.ricoh.be/fr/produits/materiel-bureautique/imprimantes-multifonctions/im-c300/#Spcifications

In this case, defining black as RGB 0/0/0 would be more efficient than as CMYK 0/0/0/100… It's also easier to print on them from MSWord than from e.g. QuarkXPress…

Weird but true!

With the hardware you have, I would advise you to use if possible the PostScript3 driver instead:

https://support.ricoh.com/bb_v1oi/pub_e/oi_view/0001077/0001077391/view/booklist/int/index_book.htm

 

[Sukramutu]

19 hours ago, tersmuse said:

There is a simple way to avoid "colorful" text.
1. create the document (!!!) as it will be printed (CMYK, Color profile: ISO Coated v2 (ECI))
2. take for text (black) the existing black swatch, it's already 0/0/0/100.

The important thing is this:
A CMYK document can be exported as RGB without any problems. The other direction (RGB to 4c) is a huge problem. Also to change an existing RGB documents settings afterwards does not work. It must be set up / created accordingly from beginning.

Many thanks. But this did not help.

See my "Good and bad example"below.

[Sukramutu]

Good and Bad

Many thanks for any help. Good forum  :-)

Please have a look on my two printing examples with good and bad results.