Crisp text when printing?

[allygot]

Sorry if this is a very basic question.

I am trying to print high quality from illustrator. (so I can make a professional looking instruction booklet) When I print from Word I get absolute precise edges on the text. From illustrator I can always see the dots that constitute the text no matter how much I rasterize / flatten transparency to a high DPI.

I am using a brand new Brother B&W laser printer (HL5240)

Advice would be much appreciated!

 

[jimoblak]

Rasterization causes those dots. Don't rasterize. Illustrator should be able to output vector art.

The Brother printer may be at fault since it is not PostScript capable and may be misinterpreting the vector data from Illustrator.

 

[allygot]

Thanks jimoblack. Tried without rasterizing and it was just the same.

If my printer is not PS capable can you recommend a way to get the same quality of print as I can in Word?

Thanks again

 

[jimoblak]

I had a Brother printer at home many years ago and if I recall correctly, there was not much that could be done. Check the printer settings that they are at the highest dpi. I think an 'economy' mode may drop dpi down. You might also try to 'print as image' from Adobe Reader's print dialog options. This passes the rasterization off to Reader instead of your print driver.