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Suddenly prints images in reverse or negative or polarized

I've never witnessed an issue like this before. Suddenly my machine is printing graphics with colors inverted, like a photo negative. It doesn't always happen, which is blowing my mind.


If I open an image in Preview.app and print, it prints in reverse. If I open, say, this url the "Inc" logo prints in reverse, but text is black on white. If I print some other Web page, it prints normally.


Has anyone else ever experienced something like this? This is near impossible to troubleshoot. I've removed and re-added the printer and that didn't work.

It's an HP LaserJet 1020 on Snow Leopard.


I've tried the same printer with a different machine, prints correctly. I've tried swapping printers, and the afflicted machine still prints in reverse. I've restarted my machine. I've applied all software updates. I've tried printing from Acrobat Pro instead of preview, same problem.


Again, it used to work flawlessly, now this madness.


Has anyone else witnessed this behavior? I feel ill.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 2, 2011 1:43 PM

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Posted on Jun 3, 2011 8:18 AM

Pahu, thanks for taking the time to reply. Next time you're in Denver, Coloardo, USA, contact me and I'll buy you a beer.


I too realized it may be a ColorSync related issue. However, in the print dialog, under "Color Matching" the option ColorSync was selected and the "Vendor Matching" option was disabled. This was with my new Samsung ML-2525W printer. I then chose to "Reset printing system..." per the KB article you mentioned.


However, after resetting the printing system and re-adding the printer, the troublesome images would still print incorrectly. But you mentioned the gutenprint driver, which got me thinking, perhaps if using the Gutenprint driver I might be able to select the "Vendor Matching" color profile.


I changed the driver to the Samsung ML-2550 Gutenprint driver, checked the color options and saw that "Vendor Matching" was selected by default, and tried printing. The printer output is now correct!😢


Thanks for your time and for sharing your ideas.

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Jun 3, 2011 8:18 AM in response to PAHU

Pahu, thanks for taking the time to reply. Next time you're in Denver, Coloardo, USA, contact me and I'll buy you a beer.


I too realized it may be a ColorSync related issue. However, in the print dialog, under "Color Matching" the option ColorSync was selected and the "Vendor Matching" option was disabled. This was with my new Samsung ML-2525W printer. I then chose to "Reset printing system..." per the KB article you mentioned.


However, after resetting the printing system and re-adding the printer, the troublesome images would still print incorrectly. But you mentioned the gutenprint driver, which got me thinking, perhaps if using the Gutenprint driver I might be able to select the "Vendor Matching" color profile.


I changed the driver to the Samsung ML-2550 Gutenprint driver, checked the color options and saw that "Vendor Matching" was selected by default, and tried printing. The printer output is now correct!😢


Thanks for your time and for sharing your ideas.

Reply

Jun 2, 2011 5:36 PM in response to Yong Bakos

I have seen this occur with some printers using the Gutenprint driver. In all cases it has been a result of the printer driver not matching the printer model as the colour profile for the printer is incorrect.


So in your case, while I would expect that you are using the LJ1020 driver from HP rather than the Gutenprint driver, you could still have a colour management issue. The first thing to check is the Color Matching menu in the print dialog. If it is set to ColorSync change it to In Printer, if it is available. The other thing to check is that no preset is selected when printing, as this may be associated with a colour profile not for this printer.


If the above does not help then you could try a reset of the printing system. Note that this will remove all your print queues from Print & Fax so they will need to be readded after the reset. The operation is explained towards to the bottom of this KB article.

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Suddenly prints images in reverse or negative or polarized

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