Low resolution text when printed from Photoshop

[Remus MC]

Hi Everyone,

I have an issue when printing from Photoshop on a laser printer.
I am trying to print a simple text from Photoshop to a Xerox B310 printer and the resolution is low. The document resolution is set to 300dpi, I have the latest version of Photoshop, the printer is a week old and set to the highest printing resolution (2400) and I have an iMac 27 inch 2020, macOS Monterey with the latest update. I tried to print from Illustrator, PDF, Preview and other iMac and still low resolution. The only way the text prints well is from Pages and Word. I have done some research on Google but I couldn't find a solution. For some people, the resolution is good when saving as pdf and print, but not for me. Could you help me please because I run out of ideas?
Thank you!

[D Fosse]

300 ppi means nothing in itself. The question is how many pixels?

Ppi is a measure of pixel density, not pixel size. Pixels per inch. It's only meaningful in relation to a given print size or given pixel dimensions. A file could be 4 pixels at 300 ppi.

[Remus MC]

The document is A4 300ppi if that helps and I understand correctly.

[Remus MC]

I have managed to get the best resolution to the pdf file and the print is ok but not full resolution, the thin lines are interrupted. I tried on Windows too and still had the same issues, it seems the quality is lost between the computer and printer. Unfortunately, the printer doesn't have the capability to be connected to computer through a cable. The wifi connection is strong and high-speed, I don't know what should I try. Can anyone have any other suggestions?

Thank you.

[J E L]

Hi @Remus MC, I'm wondering if you only have text on a document in Photoshop, what happens if you try printing directly from Photoshop to your Xerox printer instead of saving as a PDF and then printing. What font size are you using? Also, check how you have set your Image size and your Photoshop printer settings.

[Remus MC]

Hi @J E L, thank you for your reply. At the moment I have just text on Photoshop/Illustrator in different sizes 16 to 72pt. The image size is as A4, 300dpi/ppi and I printed from Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF, different iMac, PC and the resolution is still reduced. The only times it prints the text perfectly is from Word and Pages. 

[Test Screen Name]

We understand you print at a4 size. So we can check your settings you need to tell us the size in pixels, not just say it's a4.  

[Remus MC]

[jane-e]

@D Fosse wrote:

300 ppi means nothing in itself. The question is how many pixels?

@Remus MC , can you change these measurements to pixels and show a new screenshot?

Jane

[davescm]

That is a standard A4 page Jane (210 x 297mm) with a rounding to get it in whole pixels.

Dave

[Remus MC]

[mglush]

Hi!

If your print comes out of Pages ok, what font are you using? Is it the same font in Photoshop? Did you check to make sure that your fonts are installed in the Library>Fonts folder? Photoshop will render a low rez version of a font to give you an approximation of what it will look like, but to get the full quality you have to have the font installed. It sounds more like a font not being available and Photoshop is trying to make up for the missing font, rahter than printing in low resolution.

Let us know if this fixes the issue?

Michelle

[Remus MC]

Hi @mglush 

Thank you for your reply, the font is activated from Adobe and is the same font on every application but I tested different fonts on different computers and had the same issue. In PDF file the resolution is maximum, if I zoom in max, no resolution issue, but after I print, the resolution on paper is lower. 

[PECourtejoie]

hi, @Remus MC Could you post a close-up picture of the issue? and a similar area of the page printed in Pages?
Are all print settings the same? (color management, paper type, etc.)

[Remus MC]

Hi @PECourtejoie 

All settings, paper type and paper size are the same, the colour for the laser printer is B&W. I even requested an engineer from Xerox to check the printer, and he said is nothing wrong with the printer.

[PECourtejoie]

Thank you, we can see that the print from Photoshop/Acrobat has a halftoning applied. Please post a screenshot of the print settings from both apps.

[Remus MC]

[davescm]

Hi

Photoshop is not ideal for preparing documents with text for printing. The issue stems from the fact that Photoshop converts all elements to an image at the specified resolution (in your case 300ppi) for printing. 300ppi is fine for images but not for crisp, small, text elements.

Ideally you want to separate the images from the text and have the text elements sent to the printer as Postcript, if your printer allows this. That keeps the text in vectors and the printer driver itself converts that text to printed elements at the maximum resolution the printer can handle. That is what InDesign does, and why it is recommended for pages which combine images and text, it handles the text and images separately when it comes to preparing a PDF or sending to a printer.

If you cannot use InDesign, or your printer does not have a Postscript driver, the compromise you could do is increase your document resolution to 600ppi, arrange your page and send that. It will not be as clear as the InDesign & Postscript workflow, but will look better than text within a 300ppi image.

Dave

[Remus MC]

Hi @davescm 

Thank you very much for your informative comment and I will try with 600ppi. Now I understand why sometimes Photoshop is not the best for printing text, but why the same text created in Illustrator, I made the text Outline, saved to high-quality print as pdf has the same printing result?

Thanks.

[davescm]

It is about using the right tools for each job. So as an example I would use:

a. Photoshop for preparing pixel based images, which may be photographs or digital paintings etc

b. Illustrator for preparing vector based images, which could range from graphical elements to full vector illustrations

c. InDesign for assembling the page and adding text elements to the graphical elements from a and b

As for Illustrator, why are you outlining your text before printing?

Are you printing to a Postscript driver for your printer, or an non-Postscript driver?

Dave

[Remus MC]

I outlined the text because helps the edge of the letters to be a little crisper but not as much as printed from Pages.

Regarding Postscript I have little knowledge about it, There are four settings in the machine: Print PS Errors, Minimum line width (set to 1), Lock PS Startup Mode (on) and Wait timeout. To be honest I do not know what these settings mean. 

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Regarding Postscript (sic) I have little knowledge about it,

By @Remus MC

PostScript:registered: (note correct spelling) is a page description language. Before Adobe created PDF technology, we sent our 500-page documents to the print shop as PostScript files.

https://www.adobe.com/products/postscript.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript

Xerox makes some PostScript Level 3 printers. Contact them about your B310.

Jane

[Remus MC]

Thank you Jane.

[PECourtejoie]

In Photoshop, does the text layer still exist as a text layer, or is it converted to pixels?

[Remus MC]

It's a text layer.