MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

[sandmanmac]

A colleague of mine has asked my advice on a problem with an MP C3000 that prints very bold or Bleeding characters in quite random areas of many, but not all, PDF documents. I'm at a loss, so I'll ask the real experts here. He was apparently using PCL6C and I suggested that could have something to do with it, but PCL5C didn't change. I've attached a copy of a sample document that he scanned and sent to me (the streaks that appear are not parts of the problem).
What chance that it could be a firmware issue?

Here's his note to me:
There should be no bold(bleeding) items on the page, you can notice there is bolding or bleeding along with normal print. this is originally a PDF doc. that was emailed to my client. when it is printed on the MPC3000 this is what you get, but if you print it on their backup Lexmark printer it comes out normal (no bolding or bleeding) anywhere. It has been suggested that there was cutting and pasting on the doc. on the computer screen the document looks normal

Any ideas?Bleeding.pdf

Thanks as usual!

[redneckstylin]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

are you talking about the letters being bold?

imo id attempt the blk pcu...............what its rotations and copy count on it?

[sandmanmac]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

are you talking about the letters being bold?

imo id attempt the blk pcu...............what its rotations and copy count on it?

Yea, the letters. I'm pretty sure it's not the PCU though, because it ONLY happens with some PDF's (not all), and no other file types, and only printing - copy mode is fine

[femaster]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

I don't see specific letters being bold or not, to me it looks like most of the document is bold and only certain words in the document were printed normal (not bold). To me, this looks like whatever font was used on those certain words, the copier is not understanding, and is substituting it's own internal font in place of it.

What I would do is have them print the PDF as a "graphic" or "image", instead of a standard document. NOTE: I am using Foxit Reader at the moment, and I don't see the 'print as an image' option, but I'm pretty certain that that is an option in Adobe Reader somewhere in the print dialog box. See if that makes a difference. If it does, then I'm thinking that it's a font substitution problem, most likely caused by the copy and paste you were mentioning.

Another possibility would be making a change in the print driver. I don't have a full fledged copier near me at the moment, but in the driver for my small Ricoh color printer there is a setting for TrueType fonts that can be changed. Mine is listed under Print Quality, but I'm sure it's different in the copier print drivers. Under my printers' driver, there are two choices, 'Download as TrueType' and 'Download as Bit-image'. Experiment with settings a bit and things might clear up. If there is a way to turn off font substitution, try that as well.

[sandmanmac]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

Thanks Femaster...that makes a lot of sense.
I've passed along your suggestions to my buddy.
However it turns out, it seems obvious to me now, that it's not a problem with the machine itself, but rather a conflict between the machine and some of their Documents and/or how they were produced.

Thanks for the advice

[teebee1234]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

I concur with femaster, it is a font issue. Does the mfp have the PS option, if so use the PS driver. Otherwise, in the print quality tab of the PCL driver you will find a couple of functions you might try changing. If you change the Graphics mode to Vector you will then find the option in True Type mode (on the same page) to 'print as Graphic', 'download as True Type' and 'download as bit image'. If you leave the Graphics mode as Raster, then you remove the 'print as Graphic' choice. You may also want to try using the RPCS driver, I think it has a broader range of PS fonts available.

[sandmanmac]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

I concur with femaster, it is a font issue. Does the mfp have the PS option, if so use the PS driver. Otherwise, in the print quality tab of the PCL driver you will find a couple of functions you might try changing. If you change the Graphics mode to Vector you will then find the option in True Type mode (on the same page) to 'print as Graphic', 'download as True Type' and 'download as bit image'. If you leave the Graphics mode as Raster, then you remove the 'print as Graphic' choice. You may also want to try using the RPCS driver, I think it has a broader range of PS fonts available.

Thanks, I've passed that along too. Never thought of PS, and I don't know if it has it. It's funny you mentioned RPCS, because in the past when I personally have had any sort of "glitchy" printing, I've often solved it by removing that RPCS driver, but hey, it can't hurt to try.

[teebee1234]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

The RPCS is flaky if shared from a server but seems to work much better when set up on an individual workstation. The most recent issue I had was at a law firm, and when printing out some court documents, one particular line of text would come out bolded. They didn't have a PS option. so I installed the RPCS and that took care of it. Unfortunately it probably won't work in some cases but as suggested earlier, printing as a graphic or saving the pdf in a 'flattened' state (if built using layers) would probably eliminate most issues. But most end users don't want to mess with that stuff, just want to print and go. The only real option then is to install the PS card.

[sandmanmac]

Re: MP C3000 Bold / Bleeding

Solved!
Thanks to Teebee and Femaster. I went to the client with my friend, and installed a PS3 card and drivers. VOILA! All characters now print properly. Very interesting stuff