Fuzzy/grey second layer when printing pdf

Question

I'm having issues printing my work once it has been exported to a PDF from Illustrator and Photoshop.

The file and artboards are set to CMYK colour and 400 dpi. These artboards export well and view sharp and crisp on my screen. However, once printed the final results appear to have a grey second layer/shadow that doesn't appear on the digital PDF. This isn't happening with PDF files from other programs such as Exel or Pages so assume the issue is arising in Illustrator and Photoshop.

I've tried exporting the artwork as text, a path and as a shape but it happens each time. I've also tried printing through both Preview and Adobe Acrobat Reader and this is the result of both. Any help would be appreciated 🙂

Monika Gause · Accepted Answer

Maybe you need to calibrate your printer? This looks like the black channel is shifted.

Maybe when printing from Illustrator or Photoshop, the printer is running color correction.

Maybe it cannot handle CMYK files (files from Office are RGB)

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