I am using Brother MDF-9450CDN. For some reason, the colour printing quality has always been awful. I have tried every setting possible and downloaded the newest version of driver from the official site. Can someone please point me to the right direction? Thank you!
MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Most likely, you're using the wrong output (printer) profile, or none at all.
For the MFC-9450CDN (there is no MDF-9450CDN model), the drivers from Brother install a fair number of profiles. If OS X automatically detected this multi-purpose device and installed its own drivers, then no profiles would have been installed.
If OS X setup this printer, go to Brother's site, download the full drivers for your printer and install them. Just get the Printer Driver download.
Once installed, it will put these profiles into the /Library/Printers/Brother/Profiles/ folder:
broch05_PL_Fi_CMYK.icm
broch05_PL_Fi_IG_OFF.icm
broch05_PL_NM_CMYK.icm
broch05_PL_NM_IG_OFF.icm
broch06_PL_Fi_cmyk.icm
broch06_PL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch06_PL_Fi.icm
broch06_PL_NM_cmyk.icm
broch06_PL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch06_PL_NM.icm
broch08_PL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch08_PL_Fi.icm
broch08_PL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch08_PL_NM.icm
broch10_GL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch10_GL_Fi.icm
broch10_GL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch10_GL_NM.icm
broch10_PL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch10_PL_Fi.icm
broch10_PL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch10_PL_NM.icm
broch12_GL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch12_GL_Fi.icm
broch12_GL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch12_GL_NM.icm
broch12_PL_Fi_IG_ON.icm
broch12_PL_Fi.icm
broch12_PL_NM_IG_ON.icm
broch12_PL_NM.icm
The real problem then is figuring out which of these apply to your model printer; if any. Most were made for plain paper. Those would be any that start with brochxx_PL. Glossy paper profiles are the brochxx_GL items. For instance, profile broch06_PL_NM_IG_ON.icm will appear in your list of profiles choices named as:
Brother/L06A/Plain Paper/Normal/IG=ON
Hmm. Okay, what's that supposed to mean? What's an L06A? What's IG=ON?
Since output profiles are very specific to the model printer they were created on, and the paper used, none of these may be of much help. You'll have to contact Brother and ask which of these are intended for your model printer.
The printer color model is CMYK. Your screen view is Adobe RGB, sRGB, or now, even possibly Display P3 — which are richer color presentation for displays. RGB offers more colors than are supported in the CMYK color model, and your printer is performing an RGB to CMYK (subtractive) conversion. See this article.
You can test this color model differential by opening the printable image/artwork in Preview, inspecting the color model to confirm it is RGB, and then notice how the image dims slightly when you choose View menu : Soft Proof With Profile : Generic CMYK Profile.
If your entire document/artwork/image were done in the CMYK color model, then what you see on screen is what you will get when you print. See Kurt Lang's response to you regarding the detective work on using the correct printer profile for your printer and paper type. You may still need to contact Brother to get a definitive answer.
Is the Preview also poor color?
Do you mean the preview in the printing dialogue? The colour looks perfectly fine, no problem at all.
Thank you very much for your reply. I'll have a look at the article and do some testing later this week.
Thank you so much for taking your time to reply my question. I'll try best to get in touch with Brother to see what I can do make a difference in colour printing.
How to fix the poor colour printing issue on Yosemite 10.10.5?
