CAD printing problem

[Malcolm_Stewart]

I normally use an Epson R220 printer on a Win XP desktop for printing my images and correspondence. This combo (Epson seahorse inks) works fine.

However I've just tried printing from some old Autosketch .skd files. The originals used both colour and black ink, and I have some excellent A3 prints (Epson 1270) from around 2000, when my OS was probably Win 95 or Win 98.
Tonight's colour prints are dire. (I've run a nozzle check and the nozzles are OK.)
Colours are both shifted and weak. Blue has turned to weak magenta, and fine black print has almost disappeared to the lightest of grey tints. Using the printer driver to print in grey-scale only and all elements of my drawings print clearly, but without the benefit of colour.

(I do have more up-to-date CAD applications, and I've tried transferring my old .skd files via the dxf and dwg routes, but corruption occurred.)

Would I be right in assuming that I have a printer driver problem? Can I kid my WinXP that it should behave like Win98?

[pachinkofan]

One suggestion on the web was to print to .pdf file, then print the .pdf file on the printer.
very last post on the page

G>

[Wheelman]

The print to PDF route is probably not going to work unless it can be transferred to ACAD so you can use the built in converter. (only available from ACAD/LT 2007.)

There are a couple of independent PDF conversion software packages but I haven't found any that work that well, and to be honest haven't looked much since I got LT 2007.

The PDF conversions are also a little bit unpredictable in their results.... Thin line can sometimes plot out thicker, hatching sometimes does weird things etc. Hopfully the updated version on LT2010 will be better.

I seem to remember having similar problems some years ago but can't remember how we fixed it -might have a quick scan of the old manuals later.

[LargeFormat]

Colin is quite right the pdf converter on 2007 is flakey and prints with thick lines. Later versions seem OK.

However, I wonder if this is the problem. I print to an Epson 4800 and have never had a problem with colour. Is there something odd in the stb file in Malcolm's AutoCad and are the appropriate drivers for the OS being used?

[Malcolm_Stewart]

Many thanks G> and others for your suggestions

I'm currently exploring the posts in the linked Autodesk forum page. It's obvious that I'm not alone! Others also have problems with the hairline line width.

I Googled A3 scanning services to start with, but they seem only available for serious/commercial use, with a typical £50 minimum order charge.

One suggestion from the forum, I'd never have thought of using, is PrintPage, but perhaps it's one way to try as it will get a screen image (which I can zoom at will in Autosketch) into Photoshop and that's one place I'm trying to get to.

[LargeFormat]

To avoid thick lines in PDF printing have you checked the "scale line thickness" box?

[JezUK]

CutePDF is the BEST PDF creator for AutoCAD, better than AutoCAD's own.

Far cleaner PDF output and doesn't suffer the same problems re line thickness.

I use LT 2009 and got upgraded to 2010, PDF problems in that version still exist.

A helluva lot of people I know in CAD use CutePDF.