Printer Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting printers involves identifying, diagnosing, and resolving issues that prevent the printer from functioning correctly. This process typically includes checking for common problems like paper jams, connectivity issues, low ink or toner levels, misaligned print heads, driver or software issues, and error messages. Here's a comprehensive guide to setting up and troubleshooting printers for live badge printing on event days.

What is the difference between the RGB and CMYK color space and why does it matter?

GB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue, that are used in monitors, television screens, digital cameras and scanners. CMYK refers to the primary colors of pigment: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These are the inks used on the press in “4-color process printing”, commonly referred to as “full color printing”.

How well will my job match what I see on my monitor?

Most people are surprised at how well their job matches what they see. But because of wide differences in monitor calibration and the different technologies used, some printed colors may not exactly match the colors on a your specific monitor. We do our best to make your job look good. See our design hints page for a more technical description.

Will you match a sample I print out on my own printer, or a previously printed sample?

Part of the way we offer fast turnaround and low pricing is by printing to a “pleasing color” standard, using standard ink densities. Therefore, there is no guarantee that your finished piece will approximate your printed sample. This is due in part to the widely varying results from different output devices including inkjet and laser printers, continuous tone proofing devices, high-resolution film-based proofs, and different than true offset lithography. Even from one commercial printing firm to another, there can be significant differences in results. In particular, inkjet and laser prints are known to look substantially different than true offset lithography.

Do I need to impose my business cards 8-up or 10-up if they will be printed more than 1 to a sheet?

No, send us a single layout of your job unimposed, we will handle any imposition needed on our end.

How should I take pictures with my digital camera?

Digital cameras are wonderful tools that allow us to capture our images in many different ways. The camera is designed to actually take three pictures; one in red, one in green and the other in blue (similar to the way a projection TV works). It then combines the colors together and saves the image onto the picture card. It is very important to make sure that the camera is set to the highest quality setting possible. This means that if you can only save one image on the picture card instead of 12, 64 or 128 images, then this is good! You want to create the best quality picture that the camera can make. This will mean large file sizes and slow downloads from the camera itself, but it will get you the best possible results from your camera. Remember, images should be at 300dpi in their final size in the layout!

Where can I get more information on file and image resolution?

Our Resolution page has a comprehensive explanation of resolution and tips on how to properly prepare images to achieve the best quality printing.