Printer woes (labels) and recommendations

[Paintguru]

I purchased the Brother HL3170CDW color laser in 2013 when I first started out making labels for my products. I took a break for a while, but am back and tried to make a fresh batch of new labels. I noticed that the colors from this batch were a poor match to the screen color and just blah overall. In addition, compared to labels that I see on other products, mine appeared faded and simply not "vivid". Looking back at labels that I printed in 2014, even those appeared the same way and I just didn't know any better (which I think rules out bad toner/drums). To see if it was a "cheap printer" issue, I printed the same label on a business color printer here at my real job and low and behold, it has great color and is 1000x better.

Now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not printing 1000s of labels, but I hate to spend $0.70 per sheet of labels at Staples or FedEx. I know plenty on here print their own, just curious what people use and what their expectations are for the print quality of the labels that they use.

 

[SaltedFig]

It is possible to adjust printer color saturation (and other settings), which might help get a better look to your labels.

Links from the Brother support website:

Adjust the settings in the printer driver

Calibrate to improve color density

 

[Paintguru]

I did try that, but Windows 10 appears different from the menus shown there. I tried the "vivid" print setting to no avail as well. All toner saving settings on the printer are turned off too. I'll check again tonight.

 

[SaltedFig]

Edited (again) ...

Did you get to the individual custom settings for the colors (from the adjust color settings link?).

Seems weird - it sounds like your printer is in some sort of economy mode, even tho it says it's normal.

Maybe try downloading and re-installing the driver?

 

[Paintguru]

Edited (again) ...

Did you get to the individual custom settings for the colors (from the adjust color settings link?).

Seems weird - it sounds like your printer is in some sort of economy mode, even tho it says it's normal.

Maybe try downloading and re-installing the driver?

Yeah I will look for the Brother thing you posted pre-edit and also try reinstalling the download. I agree that it looks like it is conserving toner, just not sure why!

 

[Paintguru]

Well I updated everything (driver, firmware, etc.) and now I got the correct view of the Brother driver screen. Still no improvement in print quality.

Actually, tweaking the color profile and cranking up the saturation to max and playing with a few of the other sliders did help enough to make it look somewhat better. I think I can live with it. Thanks for the help SF.

 

[SaltedFig]

I'm sorry I wasn't of more help to you Chris. The last thing I can think of is that there's a physical problem with the printer drum or toner - they do mention taking the cartridges out and shaking the toner gently (if it's packed down, it doesn't really deteriorate), and that faint pages can be caused by a drum unit being loaded into the machine incorrectly. So that's the old take it apart, give it a knock and put it all back together again approach, but maybe?

On their troubleshooting page Colors are light or faint on the whole page they do say that you can contact them by phone. Nothing to lose at this stage ... it still might be something really simple ... (fingers crossed)

[FONT=&quot]Phone [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Best for help with:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Wireless installation and troubleshooting[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Software and drivers[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Printing, copying, scanning, faxing issues and errors[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1-877-BROTHER (877-276-8437)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Available Monday -Friday 9AM – 9PM EST[/FONT]

 

[Paintguru]

Yeah I did all that initially. Again, for now, I think I'm happy with it. I can tweak the colors a bit more if necessary.

 

[dixiedragon]

Have you cleaned the print heads? It might be worthwhile to try a local computer shop to get it cleaned.

ETA: Also, did you buy laser labels? Maybe you accidentally bought inkjet labels?