Why is printout fuzzy when printing many tables on one sheet

Using Pages ’09 4.3 and El Capitan on a MacBook Pro, with an HP 200 colour laser printer, I get fuzzy text and tables etc. when printing many tables at once on one page (e.g. 23 tables). The only way I can get a clear printout is by exporting as pdf and then using Adobe Reader to print. The pdf aways looks fine on the screen, but it goes the same degree of fuzziness on the printout if I print it using Preview. Interestingly enough, there is always one column on one table that prints out clearly, whatever I do, and when I print with only six tables on the page only one cell on one table goes fuzzy! I had this problem a few years ago with a Konica Minolta printer and only solved it then by printing a pdf from Adobe Reader, so I don’t think it is a printer problem.

Anyone got any idea what is going on? The work-around is rather laborious.