High Quality Printing Problems in PowerPoint 2007

[Tim McGreger]

I have set up a relatively simple 28 page presentation in PowerPoint 2007
that utilizes both one of the design themes that the program ships with, and
I am utilizing some of the picture formatting tools to give the presentation
some punch. The file size on disk is just over 2 megabytes. When I try to
print it out in high quality, the OKI C9400 postscript printer cannot print
it. I also have the same problem ehtn trying to create a PDF. The only way
I can get high quality output is to print to the OKI one page at a time,
which, to print the 28 pages, takes approximately 3.5 hours (which seems
absurd to me). Can someone tell me what the problem is here?

 

[Tim McGreger]

Thanks for responding. See below for details you requested...

: > In article

It'd help if you mentioned which one so others can try to replicate the > problem.
"Paper"

I am utilizing some of the picture formatting tools to give the presentation
some punch.
Which ones specifically?

Outer Glow

The file size on disk is just over 2 megabytes. When I try to >
print it out in high quality, the OKI C9400 postscript printer cannot print >
it. I also have the same problem when trying to create a PDF. >

Again, specifics would help. Does the printer give you any error message or > produce an error page? Is it true PS or a clone? Whose software do you use to > produce the PDF? Have you tried the free PDF add-in from MS? >

No error message, it just stops spooling and does nothing. Also, as I
mentioned, the file size on disk is only 2 megabytes, but when I print to the
printer with High Quality marked in the print dialog box, it spools to over
1.5 GB (which seems rather large). Yes, I have tried both the free add-in as
well as the PDFmaker that comes along with Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.1,
and I have tried print to the AdodePDF printer as well. The PDF creation will
work, but it takes forever, and the inner shadows on the text that the theme
designates gets very pixelated. When I print to the OKI directly from
PowerPoint one page at a time, it takes over seven minutes to get a page out,
but the resolution of the image looks much better (the shadow is a lot
cleaner).

Thanks for any help that you can give me. If you need another level of
detail, please let me know what it is, and I will be happy to give it to you.>

 

[Tim McGreger]

Thanks. Snippage applied to save wading through all the debris ...

Theme: "Paper"
Picture formatting tools applied: Outer Glow

When printing:

OK, to lay one misconception aside: the size of the PPT file and the size of the spool file have only the
slightest relationship. Effects like picture fills make for very large print files and glows/soft shadows and
the like, especially when applied over pictures, can REALLY inflate the spool file.

Converting the whole slide to a bitmap and printing that can sometimes help, but otherwise, the fundamental
problem is that PPT's trying to print effects that can't really be expressed in Postscript, so it has to resort
to tricks, but the tricks make output file sizes balloon and print times start to require geological
measurement systems. Think eras, not hours. <g>

If your printer offers a non-PS (PCL or the like) mode, try that.


Also, as I
the 28 pages, takes approximately 3.5 hours (which seems absurd to me). Can someone tell me what the problem is
here? > >

-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

I understand that the file size may not be the same as the spooling size, but it just seems that almost 2 GBs for a 2 megabyte file is a little excessive. I have tried a PCL driver, but the resolution of the print suffers quite a bit. I admit that the PCL driver allows it to print, but the quality still is not equal to the postscript print that takes so long to print. I upgraded to 2007 specifically for the graphic enhancements that it offers. If I am not going to be able to utilize those graphics and effects and print them, I lose the whole reason for the upgrade.

Thanks again for all of your help on this issue...

Tim

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

Tim, does it work any better if you print just part of the presentation at
once? I am thinking that while it might be a little harder on you, it might
make it possible for the printer to handle the job....

--
Kathy Jacobs, Microsoft MVP OneNote and PowerPoint
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint
Get PowerPoint and OneNote information at www.onppt.com

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