Printing from AI to a Laserjet

Hi,

I'm an amateur so please forgive me if this is a silly question. I am using Illustrator to design a brochure for my business, and I am printing to a Brother Laserjet printer. When I print a test page from the machine, it comes out crisp and the text is extremely clear. When I print from Illustrator, however, the text appears a bit pixellated, like it is slightly out of focus. I've tried different media and get the same result.

I think I'm exporting it wrong, but that's my question. I've tried creating outlines, rasterizing the brochure, and flattening it, as well as printing the AI file without doing any of those things, but it looks the same. I've also made sure the output of the printer is set to the highest dpi, and set for the specific media. Should I be printing from a different program, or am I missing something in my exporting of the file to the printer?

Any help would be great!

Thanks,

Pete

Printing from AI to a Laserjet

As a test, try saving the file as a PDF and printing from Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Your Brother might not have true Postscript and using Acrobat is like using a RIP.

Printing from AI to a Laserjet

I am fairly certain it is nt a postscript printer an you are better off printing from Acrobat.

If it is anything like my Lexmark, the printer shipped with an HP compatable driver and I had to download the postscript driver from their web site. Look at specific postscript features for printing if you are using any printer driver that is not postscript those features should be greyed out.

Hi guys,

I saved it as a PDF and printed through Acrobat and it looks much better. Thanks!

I have a couple of other questions that you may be able to help me with.

I realize that my printer can't print to the edge, but what setting will maximize the use of the paper and give me the smallest border?

Also, is there anything else I can do to maximize the print quality? I guess my quesition is, how should I save the file to ensure that my output is crisp and clean. I'm printing brochures and flyers, and generally use Illustrator. There are so many print options, it's a little bewildering for me. Right now I set the dpi to max (on the printer's dialogue box), and I usullay create outlines out of the text.

Thanks again for your help, this forum is great.

Pete

Pete,

I realize that my printer can't print to the edge, but what setting will maximize the use of the paper and give me the smallest border?

That is all decided by the printer (driver)

Also, is there anything else I can do to maximize the print quality? I guess my quesition is, how should I save the file to ensure that my output is crisp and clean. I'm printing brochures and flyers, and generally use Illustrator. There are so many print options, it's a little bewildering for me. Right now I set the dpi to max (on the printer's dialogue box), and I usullay create outlines out of the text.

If you have vector artwork only and save as PDF, you cannot do much more. No need to outline text, it may make things worse.

Thanks a lot Jacob. That is what I needed to know.

I'm so glad I signed up for this forum. The knowledge base here is invaluable to me.

Thanks to all!

For my part you are welcome, Pete.

Concerning outlining, you might have a look here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2235265#2235265

Edit: I used the silly search so the link is to a post. The link to the thread is: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/489055?tstart=60

And the silly timestamp shows when this was edited, not when this post was first posted; that is apparent from the post # (only).

This way we get a mess.

Thanks for the extremely helpful answers everyone! I am printing from Acrobat now and the problem is fixed. I'll also see if there is a driver available for postscript, because the printer does have an HP emulator in it.

Pete

I can not see what Jacob posted at the moment about outlining text but

I would not think it was necessary or desirable in this case.