Expert: Amy - 4/23/2009

Question
Hi,

I'm trying to print a design to my HP B9180, a non postcript printer, and the
print quality of the colors isn't good. I've tried printing from a pdf, I've
installed a fake postscript printer as my default printer, but still the colors
are dull. I am using an HP paper. Ghostscript has me very confused, I can't
figure out what it is exactly or how to implement it. I came across one
comment that suggested you print as a pdf document from Acrobat
specifically. Could you please spell it out for me in the simplest way
possible? I am still a beginner at all this and I'm just getting myself more and
more confused the more I try to read up on everything. Is there software or
hardware I should be buying to get Illustrator and my printer to match up
better?

Thanks, Elizabeth

Answer
Hi Elizabeth,

I don't use Ghostscript, so I can't help with that. You shouldn't have to print from a PDF, either.

I have some ideas about getting better color from your color printer straight from Illustrator.

1) The document color mode of your Illustrator document must be CMYK. This will be closer to printed results. Other people will argue that it's fine to work in RGB. Sure it is, unless you use a lot of out-of-gamut colors. These are colors that your inkjet can't possibly create using the inks it has. Lime green, for example.

2) Turn off all of the HP's fancy color fixing. Open the HP's driver, turn off any balancing/exposure/color mode red eye reduction that you can find.

3) In your Illustrator document, eliminate the Color Profile. I think the location of the menu item moved from CS2 to CS3, in CS3, it's under Edit > Assign Profile > []Don't Color Manage this Document.

4) Then, when you choose print, there's a menu item in the left side of the Print Dialog called "Color Management." Choose "Let Illustrator Determine Colors" and then play with the Printer Profile chosen to see which one gets you the best colors.

Let me know if you get better results with this method! I know it works for my HP5650. Write me at AmyLynPace@yahoo.com

-Amy