Causes and Solutions for Blurry and Jagged Text in a Book

If you are using InDesign to create a book try exporting the file to Adobe Acrobat first and printing from a PDF document rather than straight from InDesign. This can produce better results and PDFs tend to process faster in the printer than native InDesign files.

Export to Adobe PDF first

When exporting to PDF under General use one of the highest settings next to Standard. For example PDF/X-4:2010 can produce superior results for text and graphics as it supports color-managed CMYK, gray, RGB or spot color data, as well as layers and PDF transparency. Also under General next to Compatibility selecting a higher PDF such as Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6) or higher can produce more options and better results than an earlier PDF version.

Jagged text file export

Consider changing the colour of the text

If you’re printing your brochure using a colour laser printer with a mediocre to low resolution if the density of the primary colour used is low, the size of the halftone dot will be small. This produces a greater distance between the separate pixels, and the way that the mixed colour is build up can result in the small halftone dots being more visible. This can produce lower quality results and may be responsible for the blurry and jagged text in your brochure when printed.

Colors on a color laser printer are created by placing cyan, magenta, yellow and black halftone cells close to each other which gives the visual impression of a mixed color. The visibility of these separate halftone dots may vary between different colors, since it depends on the amount of primary colors used and the density of these colors.

Therefore try altering the colour of the text to produce a higher density of separate halftone dots, so the separate dots are not visible. Darker colours are less likely to produce text that is blurry and jagged when printed.

Consider PostScript fonts

PostScript fonts are smooth, detailed, and of high quality. They are best for printing, especially professional-quality printing, such as books or magazines. If you need to print professional-quality print publications, such as glossy magazines or commercial printing, PostScript is a good choice.

Consider professional printing

Printing yourself has the advantage of instant results, more control over the printing process and you have the satisfaction of taking control of the entire process but professional printing tends to produce superior results.

Professional printers have the advantage of the use of higher quality ink and paper use of postscript printers that assist in the the scalability of fonts as well as colour accuracy.

Simon

Designer

Simon Hough

Professional designer and typesetter. If you're interested in me working for you on a book please message me below

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