Not printing quality on screen

Question

I've been using PS for a long time and have never seen this issue. When I have an image on the screen it is very clear for the document I'm working with. But when I print it the result is terrible. It's not the printer. When I take the same image into Acrobat and print it I get the same quality as what I'm seeing on the screen. Acrobat prints it great, PS prints a completely different thing. I wouldn't be surprised if I clicked a box or something in PS that has changed it to doing this. There are only 2 things I change in the PS print dialog box. Page orientation and the one that says "Scale to fit media". I'm attaching a photo of what the doc looks like on the monitor and what I'm getting from the printer. Any help would be awesome!

NB, colourmanagement · Answer

It's hard to tell about ICC profile accuracy with a black & white doc, but the print is certainly a lot darker.

Screen calibration comes into this of course, if the screen is way bright then printed images will inevitably look darker.

Scale to fit media is not advisable IMO, better to resize in Photoshop and shapen afterwards - plus it looks like you need a good printer ICC profile. I realise you mentioned that Acrobat prints it OK, so to compare properly, you'd need to totally match Acrobat's print settings to those in Photoshop (or vice versa) and output should match.

I suggest test that comparison with this image [print from Acrobat and from Photoshop and compare, if the settings are right it should match] : https://www.colourmanagement.net/downloads/CMnet_Pixl_AdobeRGB_testimage05.zip

IF it doesn’t match you may need to reset Photoshop

Here is some general Adobe [Mac and Win] info on printing problems,

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-printing-problems.html

Simple reset: hold the space bar when you open the print window. It resets the print dialogs

if that doesn’t help -

Perhaps try resetting Photoshop preferences?

(read this entire post before acting please)

Resetting restores Photoshop's internal preferences, which are saved when Photoshop closes.

If they become corrupt then various issues can occur.

Here’s some info on how to do that:

Manually removing preferences files is the most complete method for restoring Photoshop to its default state:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually

The user Library folder is hidden by default on macOS.

To access files in the hidden user Library folder, see here for how to access hidden user library files. https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/access-hidden-user-library-files.html

Unexpected behavior may indicate damaged preferences. Restoring preferences to their default settings is a good idea when trying to troubleshoot unexpected behaviors in Photoshop. check out the video

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#reset_preferences

Learn how to access and modify Photoshop preferences and customize per your frequent workflows

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html

And here’s an earlier forum discussion as an aid to understanding

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/quick-tips-how-to-reset-photoshop-preferences/td-p/12502668

You may want to backup your settings and custom presets, brushes & actions before restoring Photoshop's preferences.

Here is general info about that: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/preferences.html#BackupPhotoshoppreferences

Preferences file locations: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/preference-file-names-locations-photoshop.html

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

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