Why is my printer printing blurry PDFs?

D

DellAxim

Gawd
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
Messages
999
I have two printers - a Lexmark something or other, and a portable HP Deskjet 460. Both are roughly the same resolution, the lexmark has 4 colors while the HP has 6.

I'm trying to print a good quality PDF file, and it comes out of the Lexmark just fine. Except I'm running out of ink and I don't want to buy anymore right now. So I'm trying to use the HP - but when I print the same file, all the text comes out blurry, like trying to print a bad jpeg on a really old printer. I have the extra "photo" cartridge installed. Both printers have printed equally nice looking 8x10 photos in the past, and the HP still prints text just fine from something like Word.

Any idea why it's doing this? I checked all the settings I could find and it's set to the highest print quality...
 
you using PCL or PS driver for that HP? if PCL, consider using the PS driver. it was developed by adobe IIRC
 
t00thless said:
you using PCL or PS driver for that HP? if PCL, consider using the PS driver. it was developed by adobe IIRC
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate? Honestly I have no idea what you're talking about...

I went to the trouble of completely recreating the PDF file in very high resolution in photoshop, and tried again printing it as a PSD file. Still the same thing, the text mostly, is very pixelated. On the other hand, the page that prints out when I do a cartridge cleaning has text on it, and it's as crisp as a laser printer.

Both the color and photo color cartridges are brand new. WTF? :confused:
 
DellAxim said:
Can you elaborate? Honestly I have no idea what you're talking about...
Click to expand...
HP uses 2 primary driver 'types'. PCL is Printer Control Language, developed by HP. PS is Post Script, developed by Adobe originally (I believe) but basically maintained now because they have to for compatibility. Post Script is known to have better support for PDF's.

Go to HP's website and click on Drivers and Support, then type in your printer model #. You should see a section to click drivers, then select your OS. You'll then see a list of drivers. PS, PCL5 and PCL6. Grab the most recent PS drivers. Delete your printer and reinstall using the PS drivers.
 
Hmmm...I looked at the drivers for all OS's for my Deskjet 460 and all of them say "PCL3". I don't see any other choices.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top