Gradient Transparency in Publisher 2003

[dhertz]

I'm new at Publisher 2003 and am wondering if I'm doing something wrong. After creating my page of text and graphics I decided I wanted a gradient in the background of the page. I drew a box, filled it with a gradient, and moved it the the back of the document layers. When I printed it, the gradient looked too dark. I went into the "fill" settings for the box and adjusted the transparency for the gradient to make it look "softer" on the page. Now the transparency looks great in Publisher, but when I print it I get the same dark gradient as before. It acts like my printer is ignoring the transparency setting on my gradient. Am I doing something wrong? My printer is an HP Officejet. Even the "print preview" command shows me the original dark gradient. I've tried restarting, saving the document as a different name, etc. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Is the printer PostScript?
Publisher 2003 Does Not Print Transparent Areas
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;829174&Product=pub
HP may have newer drivers for your printer.

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/getting_started.htm
news://msnews.microsoft.com

I'm new at Publisher 2003 and am wondering if I'm doing something wrong. After

creating my page of text and graphics I decided I wanted a gradient in the background
of the page. I drew a box, filled it with a gradient, and moved it the the back of
the document layers. When I printed it, the gradient looked too dark. I went into
the "fill" settings for the box and adjusted the transparency for the gradient to
make it look "softer" on the page. Now the transparency looks great in Publisher,
but when I print it I get the same dark gradient as before. It acts like my printer
is ignoring the transparency setting on my gradient. Am I doing something wrong? My
printer is an HP Officejet. Even the "print preview" command shows me the original
dark gradient. I've tried restarting, saving the document as a different name, etc.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

Now the
transparency looks great in Publisher, but when I print it I get the
same dark gradient as before.

This is a known issue.
For your purposes, I would suggest altering the colours of the gradient,
rather than the transparency.

 

[Cerridwen]

Is the printer PostScript?
Publisher 2003 Does Not Print Transparent Areas
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;829174&Product=pub
HP may have newer drivers for your printer.

Mary,

Whether the printer is PS or not is entirely irrelevant - I have *NEVER*
used a PS printer and it has always been thus - this is a Hercules beetle
and one MS couldn't be bothered to fix - it's the same in 2002 as well.

 

[Mary Sauer]

On the other hand, if one creates a gradient in a Paint program and inserts it into
Publisher it will print properly. I've not had an issue doing it this way. Gradients
aren't all that useful. The Knowledge Base does talk about changing the vector in
Publisher into a raster to get the effect.

 

[Ed Bennett]

After managing to set up OE-QuoteFix on his new PC, Ed reads a message

On the other hand, if one creates a gradient in a Paint program and
inserts it into Publisher it will print properly. I've not had an
issue doing it this way. Gradients aren't all that useful. The
Knowledge Base does talk about changing the vector in Publisher into
a raster to get the effect.

I have had the same trouble with semitransparent PNGs and EPSes.

 

[Tara Pfeifer]

I am having the same problem right now. Unfortunately,
I'm using a picture as the background image and cannot go
in and change the colors on it without changing the
transparency. I have access to Photoshop, is there a way
to change my publisher document to something in Photoshop
to print it properly?

 

[Mary Sauer]

You can create a gradient in Photoshop and import it into Publisher.