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Low resolution text when printed from Photoshop

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 29, 2023
6 replies
5931 views

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!

macOS

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer mglush

I think Jane may have hit on the answer. You mentioned that you were having trouble with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat files with this printer. They all utilize PostScript technology. Pages and Word do not. A printer that cannont interpret PostScript will try to render the image (usually in low resolution) to approximate the look of what is being sent to print. I think the issue is with the printer not having PostScript turned on or active, and not with the Adobe apps, and this is what is causing the prints to come out low rez.

I would suggest contacting your Xerox printer support and have them check to see if this printer can handle PostScript type files.

Michelle

Remus MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi everyone,

I managed to fix the issue, @jane-e and @mglush were right, the PostScript was the issue.

I contacted again the Xerox customer service and after an hour of testing the issue was solved as follows:

go to System preferences - Printers & Scanners - add a new printer, select from the top menu the Global sign called IP - in the Address tab write the IP address of the printer - in the Protocol tab select LPD and in the bottom tab Use select Generic PostScript Printer and then add.

The positive side is I can print high-quality text from Photoshop/Illustrator, however, the quality of the text is not exactly the same as printed from Microsoft Word but is very close, I am happy.

Unfortunately, there is a negative side, the paper size menu from the print settings is not there anymore for Illustrator, and has limited paper sizes (5) and custom size disabled for Photoshop, usually, I have around 15 options and custom sizes available. I think I have to work around and find the best way of printing for my needs.

Thank you all for the information, time and suggestions, you helped me a lot, thank you again.

mglush

Community Expert

On behalf of the team here, you are very welcome! We are glad to hear that you were able to work with Xerox to get it fixed.

Michelle

mglush

Correct answer

Community Expert

I think Jane may have hit on the answer. You mentioned that you were having trouble with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat files with this printer. They all utilize PostScript technology. Pages and Word do not. A printer that cannont interpret PostScript will try to render the image (usually in low resolution) to approximate the look of what is being sent to print. I think the issue is with the printer not having PostScript turned on or active, and not with the Adobe apps, and this is what is causing the prints to come out low rez.

I would suggest contacting your Xerox printer support and have them check to see if this printer can handle PostScript type files.

Michelle

Remus MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you, I will ask and get back with an answer. I mentioned above that are some options for PostScript in the printer settings but not sure what mean.

mglush

Community Expert

Make sure PostScript is active, and if need be, post a photo of the options so we can help.

davescm

Community Expert

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 MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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.

Remus MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

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.

mglush

Community Expert

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 MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

Community Expert

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 MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

Community Expert

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 MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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.

D Fosse

Community Expert

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 MCAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

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