PDF pages with color/gray-scale figures print with bold text

Question

When including PDF and JPG images with either color or gray-scale in my pdflatex document everything appears perfect on screen. However, when I try to print on a color printer the text in these pages comes out bold and slightly out of focus. Pages with images that contain only black and white elements print out fine.

I am currently using MiKTeX 2.9 pdfTeX-1.40.12 but had this problem with earlier versions as well. I am including figures in the usual way:

\begin{figure}[tb]
  \centerline{\includegraphics[width=9cm]{intro/figsIntro/Fig1.jpg}}
  \caption[Caption]{Caption}
  \label{fig:1}
\end{figure}

Any help with this issue will be greatly appreciated!

In my preamble I have the following:

\documentclass[twoside,11pt]{report}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{setspace}
\onehalfspacing
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} 
\usepackage{flafter} 
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{txfonts}
\usepackage{upgreek}

\usepackage{fouriernc}

\renewcommand{\sfdefault}{Myriad-LF}
\input glyphtounicode
\pdfgentounicode=1

\usepackage{courier} 
\usepackage{textcomp} 

\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{apacite}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[british]{babel}

\setcounter{tocdepth}{2} 
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{3}
\pagestyle{headings} 

\usepackage{booktabs}  
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable}
\usepackage{rotating}

\usepackage{subfigure}

\usepackage[titles, subfigure]{tocloft}
\setlength{\cftfignumwidth}{2em}
\setlength{\cfttabnumwidth}{2em}

\numberwithin{figure}{chapter}
\numberwithin{table}{chapter}

\usepackage[font={small},format=plain,labelfont=sf,up,bf,labelsep=space,textfont=rm]{caption}

\setlength{\captionmargin}{17pt}

\usepackage[tracking=smallcaps]{microtype}

\usepackage{titlesec}

%%-----Bold sf Headings------%%

\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\Large\scshape\centering}{\MakeUppercase{\scshape{\chaptertitlename\ }}  \textnormal{\thechapter}}{20pt}{\Huge}
\titleformat{\section}
{\sffamily \Large \bfseries}{\thesection}{1em}{}
\titleformat{\subsection}
{\sffamily\large\bfseries}{\thesubsection}{1em}{}
\titleformat{\subsubsection}
{\sffamily\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesubsubsection}{1em}{}
\titleformat{\paragraph}[runin]
{\sffamily\normalsize\bfseries}{\theparagraph}{1em}{}
\titleformat{\subparagraph}[runin]
{\rmfamily\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesubparagraph}{1em}{}
\titlespacing*{\chapter} {0pt}{50pt}{40pt}
\titlespacing*{\section} {0pt}{3.5ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{2.3ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\subsection} {0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1.5ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\subsubsection}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1.5ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\paragraph} {0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1em}
\titlespacing*{\subparagraph} {\parindent}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1em}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\usepackage[pdftex,a4paper]{geometry} 

%%TwoSide: 
\setlength{\textwidth}{13.6cm}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{1.66cm} 
\setlength{\evensidemargin}{0.66cm} 
\setlength{\textheight}{22.0cm}
\setlength{\topmargin}{0cm}
\setlength{\headsep}{1.66cm}
\setlength{\footnotesep}{0.6cm}
\setlength{\footnotesep}{0.6cm}

\usepackage{fancyvrb} %% For matlab
\usepackage{color} %% For matlab
% definition of matlab colors: 

%% LandScape %%
\usepackage{lscape}

%--------------------DOCUMENT-----------------------%%

\begin{document}

\pagenumbering{arabic}

\include{chapter1/cha1} 

\end{document}

Answer 1

Perhaps your problem is a printer-driver one. Perhaps your driver is "smart" enough to detect the kind of content in the page and change the way it renders the page.

Or, if the page is only black text, the printer uses black ink, but if the page contains colours, then the printer uses CMYK to print the text, causing the effect you see.

You can test my hypothesis by printing other pdfs which contain colour photos.