Shadow printing!

[Tony10HCP]

When printing from the web or PDF my printer shows a shadow to the left of the text. From Word etc this does not happen and I get good clean print, any suggestions?

[Riddle_Decipher · Accepted solution]

@Tony10HCP

Welcome to the HP Forums,

We'll be with you until it's all sorted.

I needed to know if you've attempted printing using alternate web browsers? or alternate PDF programs?

If not, please do and while you're at it, update the Adobe PDF as well.

If the issue persists, I recommend you run the HP Print and Scan doctor to identify and resolve the issue accordingly: Click here for steps.

Let me know how that pans out

I will have a colleague follow-up on this to ensure it's taken care off, in case you don't respond in the next 24-48hrs,

As I need to know if the issue has been resolved, to get proper sleep at night.

Feel free to give me a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon,

Followed by clicking on 'Accepted as Solution' as it would help the community gain more knowledge and have a great day Ahead!

[Win9]

I, too, am having problems with my Officejet 4500 G510n-z printing a gray shadow below anything black.  I am using Windows 10 (auto-update).  The problem occurs when printing PDF files with Acrobat or Corel, as well as web pages with Chrome with the print properties quality set to "normal" but does not occur withe quality set to "fast draft".    It does not occur with Excel or Word documents if printed with the printer properties set to "normal", but does if that property is set to "best".  I have reinstalled the printer driver (dated in 2015!), aligned the cartridges (HP brand) numerous times and replaced the black cartridge, all to no avail. I do not have the problem when printing to our old Xerox Phaser 6180.  I have also uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe Acrobat DC.  When I print the test page from HP Print and Scan Doctor, all of the alphabetic characters have the shadow below them.  The color bars are all OK, as are the two grey bars, but the black bar is very slightly higher than the rest and has a grey shadow below it.  The vertical lines look OK at first, but close examination shows the black lines to be slightly higher than the others and with the grey shadow below.  The square box with the cross in it has a similar issue, with the black lines a little higher than the blue ones and the shadow below.

[TEJ1602]

@Win9, Welcome to HP Support Community!

If you have already performed the steps from the document Fixing Poor Print Quality and the issue persists, it could be a hardware failure.

Please reach out to the HP Support in your region regarding the service options for your printer.

Hope this helps!

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[Win9]

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I had tried all of the steps in the "Fixing Poor Print Quality" link and, as I mentioned in my first post, changing the print quality setting did resolve the issue, but in a counter-intuitive way.  Decreasing the "print quality" from either "best" to "normal" or "normal" to "fast draft" eliminated the shadows.  If the solution were consistent among programs, I'd simply set the printer default to that setting.  Unfortunately, that's not the case; Acrobat needs the setting to be "Fast Draft" and Word needs it to be set to "Normal".  So, while composing my initial post, I discovered a work around, but it's a work around I hadn't had to use until the past few months (I think it started after a cartridge change).  In light of other similar postings, might a driver update be considered?

[TEJ1602]

@Win9

I appreciate your efforts. You can try a firmware update on the printer. 

Download available firmware updates from the HP website

With the printer on and connected to the computer, go to HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads, and then identify your printer. Look for and install any available firmware updates. For more information, go to Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware.

I would suggest you try the Windows built-in drivers. Follow the steps below:

•    Go to Control Panel - Devices and printers - Click on "Add printer" and follow the on-screen instructions.

•    When the page prompts for the drivers, select "Windows update". The driver list will be updated.

•    Click HP, Hewlett Packard, or Hewlett-Packard in the Manufacturer pane, and then click the name of your printer in the Printers pane.

Refer to this document HP Printers - Installing and Using the Windows Built-in Print Driver for help.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[Win9]

1. There were no firmware updates listed, only drivers and I had already used the most recent one.

2. I followed the instructions for using a Windows driver, but when I clicked on the Windows update button the listings for HP, Hewlett Packard and Hewlett-Packard did not include the HP Officejet 4500.

3. I deleted all of my HP Officejet printers via Settings and then unplugged the USB cable from the printer and then plugged it back in. At that point the laptop recognized the printer and installed it. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

I'll just live with my workaround of changing the print quality in accordance with what I've discovered related to the various programs.

[sandytechy20]

@Win9

This might require remote access of the computer to fix the issue.

I request you to talk to HP support.

They might have multiple options to help you with this.

1. Click on this link - https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true
2. Select the country.
3. Enter the serial of your device.
4. Select the country from the drop-down.
5. Click on "Show Options".
6. Fill the web-form. A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

I hope that helps,

To thank me for my efforts to help you, please mark my post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.