Printing & tips

Printing off my artwork using my PDF reader(s)

Most straightforward part of the whole process, printing it off ready to craft with and ‘Create some Magic’ right?…. Or is it?

How do I access the artwork like they do on the TV?

When you open you freshly unzipped crafting kit, whether on Windows using the ‘Autorun’ function, or on other platform using the ‘Autoplay’ folder then ‘Docs’, if you are anything like us, you’ll be fizzing with excitement to get going!

What do I do to print off what I see on the ‘pdf’

The programs we use to handle our ‘pdf’ are many, so we’ll keep this as narrow as possible. Many of us use our internet browsers, [Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera], to handle our pdf’s, so the ‘print’ button is generally on the toolbar, and, fortunately, are the similar functions on the leading pdf readers out there;

So, do I just hit ‘print’ when the printer menu comes up?

You can, but for best quality we advise you follow the following settings:

·        We find the best setting for ‘Paper Medium’ on the printer is ‘Matte Photo’; this gives the best balance to give true colour

·        Similarly, the best setting for print quality is naturally the highest setting, therefore ‘Best’ or ‘High Quality’ is recommended

·        In modern times, and it will be explained more in the lower portion of this document, the choice of paper is absolutely a consideration now, where previously it was accepted the printer was the only factor. A quality smooth finish paper, such as Lynda Chapman’s Paper Emporium products are best.

Why is the colour on the screen not the same as the colour I just printed?

OK so this is asking a lot of different questions, so hold on tight and read on:

1.    Is your current ink-jet printer in good working order and is the ink relatively new. Printers need to be maintained like cars. When did you last deep clean the heads? Go to the settings page and clean the heads and check the print head alignment.

2.    Ink is like fossil fuel and will go off, (I bet you didn’t know that either). Ink has a really good shelf life but will start to lose pigmentation and after about 24-36 months, can separate leading to printer head clogging. Ensure you use your printer on a regular basis and then the ink will be naturally refreshed in a timely manner

3.    Now we know our printer is in as good condition as possible, let’s ensure our printing program is set correctly. Dependant on your printer software and which program you are using, you generally will be able to access ‘advanced’ settings or ‘Printer properties’ at some point during your print progress. Remember you DO NOT print through the Autorun program, it is the program that handles your pdf documents on your PC, that determines the printer settings; (eg Adobe, FoxIt). Effectively you need to ensure the following:

a.     The printer is set to highest quality. If it’s set to draft or normal, (or Eco), it will use less ink to print the artwork which directly affects the richness of colour reproduction

b.    Ensure you set the print medium, (paper type), to Matte Photo. This tells the printer that the finished product needs to be photo quality, but not gloss, [although the gloss aspect is determined by the cardstock, it affect the amount of ink the printer sprays through the jets], see more below

c.     On a physical note, it would be ideal loading the paper/card immediately before you print, this reduced the risk of any dust, random papercuts, dirt or pet hair laying or being stuck on the paper, and potentially clogging the head mechanism, or preventing the ink adhering to the paper/card. Similarly ensure the exit slot is clear and allows the paper/card to exit freely and not curl or fall to the floor

4.    Remember printers are technology, and like all technology are not designed to last forever. The ‘standard’ moves on, so your 5 year old printer is more likely obsolete in tech terms. The dpi, (dots per inch) will likely be much higher in an equivalent range printer now than it was 5 years ago, and although ‘budget’ printers today may be of an equivalent standard to yours, it has more modern and more efficient components. IF and I repeat IF you decide to upgrade, do your research first to get the best deal. New technologies like Eco tanks have become really popular, and in a way have changed the game. Again, as tech has changed as has consumer demand, so you may wish to consider an A3 model. This may, (dependant on models), allow A3, A4 and 12x12 printing. In addition, you also may have the option on standard inkjets to ‘prepay’ or subscribe to ink delivery; make sure you know what you are signing up to, especially if you are not a heavy printer user. Plenty of food for though.

5.    The technologies and the physical make-up of the colour palette on the two represented by two mediums and are dealing with different primary colour bases eg;

a.     Your PC monitor may be an RGB, [Red Green Blue], and are dealing with light; indeed the ‘L’ in your LED TV, or smart device screen stands for ‘Light’

b.    Your printer is either basing it’s print format from 3 base colours Cyan Magenta and Yellow, [CMY]; and is complimented/toned by Black [CMYK] – Even higher end printer that use the Pantone or Hex system CYMKOG [Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Orange, Green]. Both of these printing systems are dealing with ink/pigmentation, not light.

6.    As briefly touched on above, paper medium is absolutely critical for this purpose. Yes, we were told years back when we bought a new printer it is the printer that matters, BUT the technology in paper has changed as well, in fact the whole paper making industry has changed beyond recognition. Listen to the professional crafters and take your decision on your choice. Without going into the ins and outs of absorbency, or porous versus density, suffice to say paper isn’t just paper anymore, and with that in mind we do suggest a high quality smooth, matte finish paper, available from your leading crafty brand suppliers. Clearly we would advise using paper media from Lynda Chapman’s Paper Emporium; Lynda and her business partner has gone out of their way to source the best paper and card quality at an affordable price. You know Lynda wouldn’t put her name to a product that she would not use herself.

I have printer issue, can you help?

Try these options:

·         Switch off and on again

·         Switch PC off, Switch printer off, Switch WiFi router, (and any repeaters/access points), off. Turn on router, turn on printer, turn on PC – I won’t bore you with the details of the electronic handshake between router and devices, but it is possible for the router to get confused, and assign the printer and (eg) the smart TV or your mobile the same ‘network address’, hence resulting in an error. When you switch the router off, wait 20 seconds then back on, it clears it’s ‘cache’ (the virtual memory), and forces the router to reassign ALL smart/WiFi devices, hence why switching off and on can resolve these issues

·         Uninstall printer and/or driver from PC. Download the latest driver software from the Printer manufacturer, install, switch off PC and printer, switch on PC and printer

·         From the printer settings menu, check on the latest firmware version, and update if necessary. Switch off printer, switch on printer

·         Check the manufacturers website and see if it has a ‘help’ ‘support’ or ‘forum’ section and see if someone else had/has the same issue.

·         Use your favourite search engine and type your printer brand/model and ‘not connecting’ and see if there is anyone else posting about the issue on the web