Printing greeting cards 2 up-half of page is fuzzy. HELP??

[Petra]

Greetings!
I make greeting cards for pet owners.
When I print them out (2 up on the page), the second card looks fuzzy and
not as crisp as the first card.
The cards only have a printed back and a front, they are not printed inside.
To try to describe this a little better, the templates for greeting cards in
publisher have 4 sides, and you would fold the page in quarters. Normally, it
would be 1 card per page. Because I don't print all 4 sides, I have made them
the exact same image on pages 1 and 3, 2 and 4.
(Front of first card being "page 1" back of first card being "page 2" front
of 2nd card being "page 3" Back of second card being "page 4".
I tried to insert a tiff for a vet clinic that they sent me, so I could
personalize the card for them. This made things even worse. The first page
looks good, the back of page 2 looks good. (they wanted the tiff on the front
and the back)
Pages 3 and 4 look awful! It is exactly the same TIFF! What can I do. This
is serious, they need the cards asap, and I am completely at a loss.
Please, someone, help me!

Thanks so much.
Petra

 

[Mary Sauer]

Use a different setup and see if that works for you.

Page setup, folded card, tent card. Input width 5.5, Height 4.25. Landscape. Insert
a page. Publisher will automatically reverse what ever you put on the second page.

Do you have an Photo editing program? If not, import the tif into Paint and save it
as a .bmp or .jpg. Not all .tif's are created equal.

 

[Mary Sauer]

In addition to the card setup, are you copying/pasting the images? Use the insert
image rather than copying and pasting.

 

[Petra]

Hello again,

Ok, I tried that, but did not bother going all the way with it, as this
would mean I can only print one up on a page, which is a HUGE waste of paper.
Can you think of anything else? By the way, when I send it to my printing
company, they also have Publisher, and it turns out a little better at their
end, but not much.

Thanks for ANY and ALL help.

Petra

 

[Petra]

Hi Mary,
Yes I am insering the images. Still not working.

Petra

 

[Mary Sauer]

If you set the page up correctly you will get two to a page. What version Publisher?

 

[Petra]

I am using 2002 Publisher.
I tried to save the tiff for the vet logo in bmp and jpeg, as you
instructed. Then, I inserted the jpegs into the cards. Still, pages 3 and 4
look horrible. Page 1 and 2 are fine. (Front and back). That is using my old
2 up method by the way.
Here's another thing. I have over 170 cards already done, and they print out
ok at the printer, although I can tell that something is not quite right on
pages 3 and 4.
I don't want to re-do that many cards. I can ofcourse start the new
formatting that you mentioned with any new cards I make. Some of the cards
are portait, some are landscape. I just don't understand why the 2nd set on
the same page is fuzzy. I have now tried 3 different printers, it can't be
the printers.
I am getting desperate. If I could send you the file, can you print it out,
or somehow take a look at the inner workings to see what I might be doing
wrong?
Bless your heart for trying to help me....

Petra

 

[Mary Sauer]

Sure, send me the file...
gsauer at columbus dot rr dot com

 

[Mary Sauer]

Petra sent me her file... I printed it locally and it looked fine. Either her problem
is a driver issue or it is because the image is being rotated.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Another update, I returned the file as a PDF; she related it printed correctly; it
also printed correctly when submitted it to her commercial printer.