This is a topic that is a periodic thorn in my side – solving printing issues. At Intrigue, we do a lot of color laser proofs in-house so we can check our layouts. Seeing it onscreen and seeing it on paper are very different experiences. Whether verifying the color or graphics, there’s always something about seeing the design on paper that is more appealing than viewing it onscreen. And it makes proofreading a bit easier as well.
However, if you print as much or as often as we do, inevitably problems will occur. It’s just the nature of printing – something will get out of whack over time. It’s just a matter of what the problem is and how serious it is to fix.
On some occasions, the problem is not as bad as it might seem. Paper jams can happen for any number of known or unknown reasons. Not usually difficult to troubleshoot and fix, but very annoying – especially when they happen in the midst of a large print job. Nothing like hitting “Print” on the computer and taking a break while your 150 page catalog is fired off to the printer – only to discover minutes later that printing has halted due to a paper misfeed. When you get back and find nothing in the paper output tray, it’s really an unpleasant moment.
However, there are other printing issues that can be severely aggravating. These are the issues that occur for no apparent reason, and even worse – appear to have no quick solution. These might include streaking or banding of the graphics. Or perhaps, an entire image may be missing when you’re staring right at it in the file on screen.
To troubleshoot these issues, I usually start by figuring out whether the problem is on the printer’s end, or at the computer’s end. Sometimes you just can’t tell at first so I begin by putting on my detective’s “hat” and hunt for clues. Usually there’s some trial and error and “process of elimination” involved. That usually helps to solve postscript related problems. Those can be very frustrating! We’ve had issues with images printing incorrectly and I’ve traced the source of the problem back to the Photoshop clipping path. Always nice when you can say “Aha! I’ve found it!”
When it’s actually the printer misbehaving, we call in the big guns – the company that services our printer. It’s actually a combo color copier/scanner/printer – not your average desktop inkjet. This one costs as much as a good used sedan. Thankfully, our service contract covers us for most issues so no headaches from looking at a service bill. But even so, sometimes even the experts are stumped. When that happens, they will sometimes just throw new parts at the machine and hope the “gremlins” are removed. Not always pretty, but usually effective. And if it’s all covered, then you can relax and enjoy the bonus.