Print Colors Inconsistent - HP Color Laserjet CP4525

[nicole_5660]

I have an old HP Color Laserjet CP4525 for printing 8.5 x 11 pieces in my graphic design class. The color is not coming through when printing (I've tried changing the color profile, but I'm not sure what else to do. Is the printer too old to let adobe determine the colors?

[Anubhav M]

Hello @nicole_5660,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, a public link to a sample file after uploading it to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc., screenshots of the print settings used, and photos of the output so we can investigate this further?

Also, try saving your work as a PDF and printing it from a different application, and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Bill Silbert]

When you say that the color is not coming through do you mean that the colors are not accurate or that the results are a monochrome? If you mean that your output is in grayscale you can check that by following the steps shown in the screenshot below. I don't have the same printer as the one you mention but, hopefully, your printer has similar dialog windows. Click on the Setup button in your Print dialog. Then click on Print Settings in the dialog window that appears. The next window should show if the option for printing grayscale has been checked. If so then uncheck it and then try and print. 

[nicole_5660]

The color is not accurate. I've tried changing the "color profile" settings in Illustrator before printing + those still don't replicate the color of the illustrator file as it should be. It is not on the greyscale setting either. Not sure what else to change/check!

Thank you!

[Monika Gause]

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@nicole_5660  schrieb:

as it should be.

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This is defined as what?

What you see on your monitor might or might not be correct (depending on the calibration of that monitor) and also might or might not be reproducable at all.

[Bobby Henderson]

Is your document's color mode RGB or CMYK? Some of the more intense colors in the RGB color model are outside the gamut range limits of CMYK. Some features and effects in Illustrator can be difficult for certain kinds of printers to output accurately if they don't have an Adobe certified PDF print engine.

[nicole_5660]

The file is saved as CMYK.

That makes sense. It's a pretty old HP printer so maybe it's just not cut out for it?

[Monika Gause]

What do you use for comparicon? Older printouts? Or what is on your monitor?

[nicole_5660]

I'm not sure I understand this question.

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

That could be the case. Even a lot of newer desktop and office printers can't interpret PDF-based effects very well. Sometimes updating the print driver can help. Printing a PDF directly from Adobe Acrobat might also solve some problems. But ultimately the printer and its driver is having to emulate certain kinds of effects. My workplace has a big office color laser printer for printing work orders, spreadsheets and other documents. It doesn't do so good at printing artwork from Illustrator. I'll see things like yucky discolored box syndrome on certain objects that have clipping masks and/or transparency effects. We have large format printers that output Illustrator artwork with no problems at all, but the key thing is the RIP applications used to feed data to those printers. They have Adobe certified PDF print engines in them. They understand all that PDF data natively.

[nicole_5660]

Okay, that's helpful! Thank you.