I appreciate the reply, Fred. My question may not have been clear. Before I address that, a note about the images:
In absolute terms, you are correct that neither image is good. That's because they're snapshots made from the printed output, unadjusted, and uploaded to this forum as an attachment. Given those iterations, they are not going to look "good."
My intention for the two images was to show a comparison where the top was representing correct printer output and the bottom showing the issue at hand. I have cropped and re-uploaded to clarify the differences. Compare the circled areas with their respective areas in the top image.
When you set the driver to color matching NONE, you are saying to the driver, "Don't meddle with my image. Just print what you get> I will handle the color."
That is my understanding and it makes sense since the purpose of the test image in my case is to print straight from a known file and eliminate any potential software interference to determine if the printer hardware is working properly.
My question: Why - when in Qimage or Ps the image looks correct and color matching is set to NONE - does the image print poorly? If NONE means don't meddle with my image, shouldn't the printer output be reasonably close to what I see in Qimage or Ps?
Thank you