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L
Lefawn5C28
Participant
July 18, 2021
Question

Fonts/Design look good in AI but print blurry/pixelated

  • July 18, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 4694 views

No matter what I try, my text and images are printing blurry/pixelated. I toggled on anti-alias and no change. Made sure the dpi is 300. The text is just a preset font.The image is a purchased png. I have taken all the advice I've been given and still no change. The image and text look good in AI and the preview on my Mac. They look good when I put them in photoshop. Please help.

 
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4 replies

P
Papermakery
Participant
January 9, 2023

I had the same problem just now - blurry / blotchy printer output when printing from Illustrator to a Laser printer. Used Jacob's suggestion to try PDF and that worked perfectly. I'm using a Graphtec CE7000 so I need to print via PDF before sending artwork to the cutter. Happy to do that 👍

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 9, 2023

Thank you very much for sharing, papermakery.

 

The non PostScript (emulating) printer (driver) issue is (too) little known.

 

P
Papermakery
Participant
January 10, 2023

Frustrated was an understatement 😂 I nearly went down the path of converting my artwork to the native design app that come with my cutter. I have thousands of files... Can't thank you enough - i'm not sure I would have thought of trying PDF! Thanks so much 🙂 Linda

Mike_Gondek10189183
Community Expert
Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
Community Expert
July 18, 2021

How are you checking the dpi is 300 dpi???

 

If you set your type as live editable type

Illustrator does not have a document dpi setting as it always sends at maximum quality. There is a raster effects setting, but not the same as in photoshop where you set the amount of pixels for the entire document.  If the printer you are sending to does not have postscript, then Jacob's advice will solve your issue. Print the pdf from acrobat not illustrator to get around the printer not having postscript. 

 

If you placed an image of type at 300 dpi and scaled it larger

Well then your image does not have enough pixels

 

If you need more help, please provide us information about your file construction and printer, as the scenarios are vast of what this could be, but that will narrow down for us what your issue is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 18, 2021

LeFawn,

 

What happens if you save as PDF (to keep vector Type/artwork instead of exporting to some raster format) and print from that?

 

L
Lefawn5C28Author
Participant
July 18, 2021

The photo is what the image looks like once printed.

 

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