Free PDF printers produce ugly images?

Solution 1:

Not sure about the image quality, but have you tried CutePDF Writer? It's always seemed to work pretty well for me when i didn't have Adobe tools handy.

Edit: changing the transparent CE.gif image to have a solid white background, then re-including it, helped immensely. I used Paint.NET to load the image, add a layer under the CE, fill with white, flatten, then re-save as CEsolid.gif. Insert that into Word and print with CutePDF helps.

Below is a screenshot of a PDF printed from Word with the transparent image next to the same image with a white background.

Also, if you dig through the CutePDF settings, you can set the graphic quality. On the Print dialog, click Properties, Paper/Quality tab, Advanced, then Graphic/Print Quality. Can set up to 4000dpi. Not sure how much that helps in this case, but FYI.

Solution 2:

Your problem is not related to PDF conversion but to image resolution. Word and the like process the image through an anti-aliasing filter before displaying it on the screen. It looks good in Word, although a bit blurry (if you zoom in). This antialiasing thing is a plague in nowadays software: it is meant to the screen, not to the paper you will print on. I suspect the Adobe pseudo-printer to blur stuff a bit when you "print" into it configured with best quality.

http://randomtonull.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/why-does-my-photos-andor-powerpoint-files-looks-ugly-when-printed-or-converted-to-pdf/