… I did not want the label to smear so I used my old but trusty HP Laserjet 6L to print on A4 Transparent laser label material. I wore disposable gloves when sticking the labels on to avoid finger prints. Trouble was, the black printing was not dense enough to produce the depth of "ink" to show up enough against background of the honey. The printer works at a maximum of 600dpi and I don't think this is dense enough - light appeared to be coming through the larger areas of print - text and graphics. Even modern laser printers don't seem to print at much more than 600 dpi. I could not find any way of increasing colour density for my printer.
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1/ Your problem has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with "dpi". That would affect the 'graininess' with which tones are rendered on your black and white printer (and the jaggedness of curved lines).
2/ I can't remember the 6L settings, but if it has a "toner economy" mode (or any other eco- or econ- modes), turn them off for now.
3/ It may have to do with the age of the printer, or even the particular toner cartridge you are using. If it won't print good solid blacks on white paper, clean the corona wires, and try with a new (not refilled) toner cartridge, before admitting that the poor old thing can't print a solid black any more.
4/ The "
colour density" comment is also indicating another possible disconnect and misunderstanding. The printer only prints black dots. If you have designed a *colour* layout, the printer will, by necessity, render the colours as patterns of grey, which will not be a solid black. Simple solution is to design the label in black ONLY.
5/ As someone else has said, dark honey does not in any case provide a good background for black print. The simplest solution is to use a white (or other non-transparent) label on dark honey, so as to provide a background that
does contrast with the print.
