[Adama]

Hi everyone.
I've been helping a friend of mine who's starting her own business. I've been doing her business cards, and address labels.
I'm creating them with my PhotoPlus 10 program. Then I export them to my Picures Folder. From there I click on Print and I go through all the regular things like making sure I have the correct printer selected, the size, the format, the speed, etc., etc.


I have an HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-one printer, with brand new HP inks. Her much, much older, simple little printer spits those puppies out amazingly well, clear and dark!

The problem is:

The prints come out fuzzy and pixelated. Yesterday, I wasted 15 very expensive self-adhesive-backed papers because I didn't notice the problem before. X-(

Do you guys have any ideas why this is happening?

Any suggestions as to how to correct it?

[coastie65]

Hey Adama, Have you tried creating them using one of the HP utilities? You're right about blowing the Photo Paper, expensive experimentation. I'm thinking there may be an issue between the PhotoPlus 10 program & HP. Try using one of the HP utilities and print it out on regular paper first and see how it looks. The pixelated thing is troublesome in that it sounds like a resolution thing (low). coastie

[Adama]

> {quote:title=coastie65 wrote:...... }{quote}I'm thinking there may be an issue between the PhotoPlus 10 program & HP. Try using one of the HP utilities and print it out on regular paper first and see how it looks. The pixelated thing is troublesome in that it sounds like a resolution thing (low). coastie
[/quote]


Hi Coastie,

Yeah, I thought about that too Believe me, I tried it every which way to Sunday! And I did experiment and printed a sample on plain paper and it came out fine. A little light and a tad fuzzy, but it was clear. Much better than on the other paper.

The problem happened when I printed on the expensive paper. Maybe the paper is too thick? who knows...... ?:|

As far as resolution is concerned. I made sure, checked and double checked, the Printer Properties, and I made sample prints on Normal, Best and Maximum (whatever.) Of course, the Maximum is really, really s l ooooooo wwwwwwwww, but the print came out awesome. But it uses way too much ink.

Printing on Normal usually gives me great document prints, letters, etc. Like I said before, I think the problem happened because I was printing from the Picture Folder, instead of a document. It may be an incompatibility issue between MSFT Picture folder and HP printers.

[poglatg]

I have (in the distant past) come accross a problem not too disimilar to yours - prints looked ok on paper, but screwed up on sticky labels. The solution was found by running maintenence on the printer (cleaning cycle whatever) and then using the highest print quality.

Th amount of ink bleed on standard paper is quite high compared with photo paper and the like, so when the ink spreads on the normal paper it actually looks better as the inks merge and create those lovely colours.

I also found that any problems with the ink nozel were enhanced ten fold on the stickys.

[rgreen4]

When you printed the test on plain paper, were you printing from the appliction or the printer folder?

Can you save it in the applications native format and then print it each time from that.

What is the surface of the labels and business cards like compared to photo paper?

Photo paper is very slick and smooth so inkjets print very clearly. If the paper is very porus, the ink "bleeds" a bit before it dries and so looks fuzzy. Clear printing is a combination of paper density, coating and the resolution of the printer. I have had trouble at times printing clearly on some labels with inkjets, that is why when I got a chance to get a reasonably priced color laserjet I did so. Photos on photo paper, the inkjet (my AIO) still wins hands down, but on labels, envelopes and standard paper my color laserjet does the best job.

The last time I printed business cards, I used Avery 5376 micro perfed cards, but the box states on the front - For Laser Printers Only, as it is a pebbly and pourous paper surface.

[coastie65]

Hey Adama, As you probably remember, I have a Photosmart C5180 All-in-One. Usually. like you I keep my stuff in "My Pictures". When I go to do a print operation, the pictuers or whatever is then exported to an HP utility for printing. There has been some other good suggestions made that you can try as well that may help. I haven't tried to print on that type of media as I've had no reason to, but have used 6"x4" Photo Paper with great results. I know this is probably driving you nutz, but it will get solved. coastie

[Adama]

Hi RGreen,
Actually it wasn't photo paper, but rather a self-adhesive-backed paper that my friend purchased a couple of months ago, when she was doing another project.

From reading all of you guy's comments I'm starting to think that maybe it's not my printer, but a paper problem, since the paper seems rather thick and porous.

However - and this is puzzling to me - when she prints from her little, old, old HP printer, these things come out great, using the same special paper. And to top it off, everything she prints from that old things comes out like a winner!

[rgreen4]

Ah - porous and inkjet don't mix well - remember the ink is wet when it hits the paper, and the darker the image the wetter the ink. That is why on inkjet printers that duplex automatically have a pause before they pull the paper back in to print the other side.

Adama said:

Hi RGreen,


However - and this is puzzling to me - when she prints from her little, old, old HP printer, these things come out great, using the same special paper. And to top it off, everything she prints from that old things comes out like a winner!

little, old, old HP <What> printer? If it an old 1000 or 1100 series laserjet then it uses toner (dry powder) to adhere to the page and heat to fix it, and it gives a good clear image. I have an old HP 4P Laserjet with a parallel connection (I usually use it these days to test shared printer issues as it's the last direct connect printer in the house) that is as slow as mollasses (4 pages per minute) waiting for a print is like watching paint dry. Of course 10 years ago it was ok, but not against todays 20+ Pages per minute low cost lasers. But - it still prints good.

[Adama]

poglatg said:

I have (in the distant past) come accross a problem not too disimilar to yours - prints looked ok on paper, but screwed up on sticky labels. The solution was found by running maintenence on the printer (cleaning cycle whatever) and then using the highest print quality.

Th amount of ink bleed on standard paper is quite high compared with photo paper and the like, so when the ink spreads on the normal paper it actually looks better as the inks merge and create those lovely colours.


I also found that any problems with the ink nozel were enhanced ten fold on the stickys.

Hi Poglatg,

Thanks for your comment and for sharing your problem and the solution that worked for you.

I've never cleaned the spray nozzles, maybe that's something I need to look at.

[Adama]

I knew you were going to ask me that ! !

It's an old HP Deskjet 3520 printer. It has traveled with her all over California, up to Oregon and back, and through more house-moves/moving than I care to count.

And it still works like a charm.

[rgreen4]

So much for my inkjet vs small laser theory. Now her's is a deskjet series and your is the photosmart series. Try printing on a test piece of paper in the draft mode versus the normal mode and see if it helps any. The draft mode will put down less ink and should dry faster.

[Adama]

Ok, BRB.

[Adama]

Ok RGreen, I tried what you suggested. My printer doesn't have Draft, only has "Fast Draft."

It printed the labels really, really fast, but the results are yucky. The picture looks washed out and so does the text, and you can really see the jaggedness of the pixelated text.

To be fair and for full comparison, I also printed it on regular paper at the same Fast Draft speed. And I got the same results as with the special, thicker paper.

Sigh.... I have spent way too many hours on this and I think I'm just going to take a breather from this problem for now.

Thanks for your help RGreen, and everyone else too!

[coastie65]

Hi Adama, I have been reading the posts and giving this a good mulling over, even going to my printer manuel to see if anything jumped out. That utility you use, PhotoPlus 10, I still can't shake the feeling that when you create something with that utility, and eventually transfer it to the HP for printing, that there is a conflict. I received a huge package from HP sometime back called HP PRINT EXTRAS WELCOME KIT. It contained some (not much) photo paper, a Tips& Tricks Manuel, and some softwear (Greeting Card Factory Silver). Anyway, HP has some pretty decent utilities in there printer softwear, although probably somewhat spartan compared to PhotoPlus 10, but might be worth a try to create something using the HP stuff and see what shakes out. You know I think I may be getting a headache thinking about this. :^0 Maybe this will help !http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! coastie

[poglatg]

As i said Adama, it was a LOOONG time ago - using a Lexmark if memory serves. There was an opition to do 'printer mainenance' on the software provided. It basically sprayed a shite-load of ink and air through the nozzle. If your software doesn't do that, take the cartridge out of the head, and soak the head in Isopropal Alcohol. Use pure stuff if you can get your hands on it (I confess I um ahem 'aquired' some from my local Uni's science labs), as you don't want to stuff your printer head.

[coastie65]

You're right. The Lexmark would self clean the nozzles if they got plugged up. These HP's won't do that. Good suggestion about the alcohol though. I'd have an easier time finding pure straight grain alcohol then pure isopropyl :^0 as all I see is 10%. coastie

[Adama]

Hi Coastie,

Yeah, I remember getting something like that when I first got my Photosmart printer. There were a few photo papers included in the package, and instructions for making CD skins.

IDK why, but I've always stayed away from the HP photo programs. I used to have Picasa, and it didn't resize nor edit pictures the way I wanted them to. That's why I went to a real Photo editing program like PP10.

That way I can remake things like my siggies, etc. For example, my new red sig, I got the texture (background) and then I added Kakashi's picture and all the other different layers/elements to it. That's something I could never have done with Picasa.

[Adama]

I'm glad that your solution worked for you. It would be great if the HP printers had that function to self-clean their nozzles too.

[Adama]

Anyway, love your Genie, Coastie. Do you mind if I copy it?

[rgreen4]

One of the reasons that HP printers don't have a process to clean their nozzles is that most of their inkjets have the nozzles as part of the ink cartridge, so when you change the cartridge you change the nozzles with it. Most other brands and those HP's that use the 02 series of ink cartridges, have the nozzles as part of the printer. Also the HP cartridges when parked while not printing cover the nozzles with a pad.

If you think your nozzles are clogging, take a Q-tip, soak the end in rubbing alcohol and clean the brass strip on the bottom where the nozzles are.