Print looks nothing like the doc

[NM MSDK]

Hi,

I have worked out a few pages within InDesign, im working on manuals.

But when i print those pages it looks nothing like what my InDesign file shows me.

It looks like there is a greyscale shader applied on some of the darker surfaces from my doc, what gives it a reallystrange look.

But my settings on the printer, on my printer driver, and on my I.D. all have "full color" moe selected.

I use InDesign 2025, my OS is Windows and i use the latsest version of Windows.

The printer is a brand new Kyocera taskalfa 2554ci, wich is about 3 days old so im not to familliar with it.

Anyone know what to do?

Thanks!

-Nick

[Scott Falkner]

More information would help. What version of InDesign are you using? What OS? What printer do you have? Can you show a scan or photo of the printout and a screen grab of the document showing the problem area?

[NM MSDK]

Apologies, i put the intormation you requested in my original message.

I dont know if i can share my prints, since its kind of confidential information, but the other info are above!

-NM

[Peter Spier]

I'm presumiong you are printing diorect from InDesign. Does it print better if you export to PDF and print that?

Do you by chance have Simulate Paper Color checked off in the Color Management pane of the print dialog? That will often add a background tint to everything, otherwise you might be suffering from YDB (see InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Eliminating YDB (Yucky Discolored Box) Syndrome ).

As Scott says, more info would help a lot.

[Luke Jennings3]

Printing from a pdf using Acrobat or Reader is recommend, export to one of the PDF/X settings.

Try using the print setting "Simulate Overprint" (under Output), sometimes that helps.

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

This is mentioned in prior replies, but: do the faults show up in a PDF export? If so, they are inherent to ID and may well be any of the settings (such as 'Simulate Paper Color') noted. If the PDF is a clear representation of your document, the fault lies with your printer, print driver and print settings. (And while you're there, print the PDF to see if it produces a better result, as also noted.)

[NM MSDK · Accepted solution]

Yes, the problem did not lay with ID after all.

My PDF's looked the same as my ID doc, but prints still looked terrible. After having mechanics from the printer manufacturer over and spending hours researching it, it turned out it was one stupid small setting.

This new printer, in combination with the setting "full color" and using the extended color pallete i used gave this deformation. Not when i put the printer setting to "combine/auto" the results come back acceptable, still not great, but acceptable,

Thanks everyone for the amazing replies, and when i have problems in the future i will look to this post for advice!

-Nick