Printing Decals, Unwanted Grayish Background, HP P1102w Laserjet

[davent]

Hello

We just got a new in box, HP p1102w monochrome laserjet printer. When trying to print decals or even on paper for that matter, there is a grayish cast over the entire sheet that renders the decal useless.

I've tried:

1. Updated all drivers and firmware.
2. Using the lightest media/paper setting.
3. Adjusted print density to lightest setting.
4. Run the clean function from the software a number of times.
5. Tried a couple different brands of Laserjet decal paper.

All to no avail, still get the grayish cast over the whole printout.  Am i missing anything, any other tricks out there that might remedy this? I have another, dying HP printer that printed fine in the past but will only print properly now, on ordinary paper so i know it's possible to get the results i was expecting, a clear background. Bum printer, bum cartridge? Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks you!
dave

[Earthscum]

Not kidding or making general assumptions that you don't know how to print stuff, check your background to make sure that it is absolutely white. I deal with this in a daily basis... even an RGB of 255-255-250 will start to show gray. It's in how close your printer is trying to match the white. If that doesn't work, try selecting all the white and delete, save as PNG or GIF that supports transparency, and print that.

Basically, it's 99% of the time that your white is off just a touch, and your printer recognizes it as a printable color. Due to the printer's gamut output (the range of shades it can work within), it assumes it to be the lightest shade it can print... which is noticable to our eye, and quite a bit darker than the actual color/shade it was trying to emulate.

[davent]

Hi Dave,

Not sure how to go about checking any of that but... for designing decals i'm using the same CAD program i've used for years and had no previous similar problems. With the CAD software the design is suppose to be taking place on a clear background and not white, which i could do, i'll take a look and see if maybe there's something amiss there. When using an inkjet printer and printing the same decal the gray cast isn't there. Even when printing out from the printers software the Self Test/Device Configuration page there is the gray cast.  Would that still mean i've got something screwed up on my end?

Thanks
dave

edit: I was wrong, the background is White but the settings were OK;  RGB,  255-255-255 and then Hue-Saturation-Value,  0-0-255

[Earthscum]

one thing I may suggest is saving it to a different format and printing from a different program. I've had some strange things happen in the past with printers, one being that the program may not recognize parts of a newer driver, and doesn't warn you in any way... just prints funky.

Also, before you print from a different format, double check the background to make sure it didn't try to process the white into something nearing grey. I have to do this often when I import images into vector programs. Also, I get touchy printing (similar to what you are getting, but also with blacks NOT being true black) in CorelDraw... I wouldn't recommend that program to my worst enemy.

Gimp works just as well as Corel, especially if you don't have Photoshop (my, and many other Graphic Artists' recommendation! Photoshop and Illustrator when possible!). If ya need a vector program, InkScape works quite well. If ya gotta use crap, may as well be free! Both programs work more like Corel than Adobe products.

[davent]

Thank you Dave for the suggestions. I've none of that software so looks like i'm first off to explore the crap pile! Found a few more levels of menus in my CAD program and playing with a few of those controls, changing default settings, is yielding  big improvements.

Thanks again!
dave