Poor print quality

[Aristarxos]

Hello,

 

I just tried to print something that I have prepared from the latest version of AD 1.6.1. While on the screen the design looks good, when I am printing it, the quality of the fonts is very poor. They look sort of "pixelised" or out of "focus" if I am allowed to say. When I am using to print from any other application, the quality of the same font, or any other fonts looks as it is expected to be. Definitely, it is not a printer problem. Am I missing something or is it a bug?

 

Best regards,

A.

 

Ps. This is an image of the print page.

 

[firstdefence]

What are your document settings? so, font size, document dpi etc?

 

Ive just created a Affinity Designer (ADe) document for print with dpi set at 300 and the print is fine.

 

This is from a HP Officejet Pro 8620

 

[Aristarxos]

Dear firstdefence,

 

Thanks for your answer.

Document settings are as follows:

Page dimension A4;

DPI 300

Font size 12

Font type, opentype pro

Printer, HP Laserjet 500 color M551

Color format RGB/8

Color profile, sRGB IEC61966-2.1

 

Out of curiosity, I removed all vectors and printed the same AD file with just the text.

The font now prints as expected.

All images (the above and the one following) are from the same page that contains both text and vectors (many brushes, color gradients).

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Best regards,

A

 

 

[firstdefence]

could you attach the offending document or an edited version of it to see if I when I print the text is affected?

 

[Aristarxos]

Hi first defence,

 

Here is an edited AD version of the affected file. Just messed up the figures and changed font.

In addition, I added a photo showing that the problem appears on this file too; left with figures, right just the text.

 

Many thanks,

A.

 

[Callum]

I have tried printing your test file but it appears fine for me if you create a blank file with just some text on does it still print incorrectly?

 

C

[firstdefence]

As Callum it prints fine, I have the printer set to Plain Paper (Best) but even on Plain Paper (Draft) it prints fine.

 

 

The Text on the left page is Plain Paper (Best) and the one on the right is Plain Paper (Draft) ignore the colours I have cheapo cartridges in while my Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS) is awaiting new chips after HP decided to surreptitiously update my firmware and block my CISS, little gits.

 

 

[firstdefence]

I wonder if because the document has images as well as text there isn't a settings disparity between text only and Text and Images within the printer settings?

 

 

[Aristarxos]

OK.

Image1 is from AD printed on the HP M551. Text is ok, except this minuscule shift of the lower part of font to the left. It can be seen in the large font size of word HELLO.

Image 2 is from Word on the same HP M551 printer. A bit out of focus but the text is normal.

Interestingly, when I am printing to HP M551 from Illustrator (without changing anything to the printer) the printing quality is as expected (not shown).

 

Image3, left part is from the HP M551, while right part from a Canon 8500C. On the Canon, even with Figures text appears to be normal. Colours on figures are different, but might be a settings issue, I don't know.

 

What parameters do you I should check on the HP M551 printer. Even paper type I choose to print, the result is always the same. I will see if there is anything to update as well.

Thanks for your help,

A.

[Callum]

Please could you try going to File > Print and change the dropdown towards the bottom left to Open in Preview to see if it does the same?

 

Thanks

C

[Aristarxos]

Hi,

 

Sample file is the same as above that contains text and figures.

in the first image, both left and right are from the HP M551. The left image is printed from the "open in Preview", while the right one is a normal print from AD.

Second image is from the Canon 8500C printed from the "open in Preview" as above.

Thanks.

A.

[Callum]

Hi Aristarxos

 

If you export to PDF and then print the PDF does it still look distorted sorry for asking you to print so many things but unfortunately, it is needed to narrow down the cause of the issue.

 

Thanks

Callum

[Aristarxos]

No worries. I can understand the process.

 

Printed both on the HP M551.

Left image exported as PDF and then print.

Right image exported as PNG-24 and then print.

 

Have the impression that it looks a bit better on the PNG, but not as expected.

A.

 

[firstdefence]

Thought I would go a bit lateral and found this page: http://www.hp.com/cpso-support-new/pq/M551/anomaliesindiagnostics.html

[Aristarxos]

Hi,

 

I exported a file created from AD as a PDF, opened it in Illustrator and printed on the HP M551. It looks fine. This is the complete file with text and figures, that in similar situations AD print font is not right.

 

Kind regards,

A.

 

 

[firstdefence]

I don't know why I haven't thought this before but my Printer is an Inkjet printer not a laser printer so the results are going to be different anyway, I don't know what @Callum printer is?

 

It does seem like Affinity Designer (ADe) isn't sending a good document, I don't know enough about how a printer translates information sent to it so without that knowledge I'm stumped. 

 

@Aristarxos Did you take a look at the link I posted?

[Aristarxos]

Yeah, I did the calibration as the document in the link suggests and all the taking out & put the cartridges back in. Calibration was OK. Am I the only with this issue?

What troubles me is that the pdf printed from Illustrator was OK. However, I don't know, if exporting as PDF, removes some things that potentially would make Illustrator print go bad. On the other had, never had issues with the latter not matter what I print. Text stays always crisp.

 

I will check for any firmware updates.

[v_kyr]

Well you have to narrow the problem down here, since the HP + Canon printers you named are both laser printers, they might treat text and graphics due to their printer drivers and font support slightly different. However, if the same drivers do print out the same stuff fine from other apps or don't have that problem with other apps which deal with text and graphics, then I would assume that there is still some sort of difference how AD sends the document data to the printer driver and how that is then interpreted/handled.

 

[Aristarxos]

I got it.

I least for my case, it looks like there is bug.

I could not understand why with the text it prints fine, but with text+figures the result on the text was blurry.

So, I started removing one by one the figures to narrow down the issue.

 

I found out that the problem was an opacity type. All opacities I used were normal and average.

Except one, that I had used the DARKEN opacity. When I changed this opacity to normal... voila...

All systems go.

 

[firstdefence]

Glad you got it sorted and many thanks for letting us know the solution, I was just about to say check the opacities 

[Aristarxos]

Glad to help.

A.