printing problem

[Bunf]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

hi,

I have a problem with printing out my powerpoint presentations. often they have strange black lines or black boxes in them, the lines especially on the borders of pictures. after trying around a bit I found out that this was mainly to do with .png files, but even now after replacing all the .pngs with .jpgs I still sometimes get the lines and boxes, even if I export the presentation to pdf. any idea what might be causing this and how I can get rid of it?

thanks a lot!

 

[CyberTaz]

Is this something you've just started experiencing in Snow Leopard or did it
also occur with whatever OS version you were previously using? If it
happened before SL what version of OS X were you using?

Is Office 2008 fully updated? SP2 (12.2.0) plus the 12.2.1 interim update is
the current level.

Can you be more specific than "often"? Does this happen consistently with
one or more specific files? Does it happen randomly with various files? Is
it specific images regardless of file?

Exactly what do you mean by "black boxes"? How big are they? Are they solid
black or hollow? Do they appear where images *should* be, do they appear in
the images, or are they random elements?

How are you putting the images into your files? What is the source of the
images... Do you know what program was used to create them?

Issues of this nature can be very difficult to resolve without detailed,
accurate & complete descriptive information.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Bunf]

it has happened before installing snow leopard, before that I was using leopard in the latest version.

office is fully updated.

it happens pretty randomly in various files. as mentioned, I thought the problem was mainly with .pngs, but after replacing them all, it still remained with some jpgs.

as an example I could send you some scans of the printed pages. describing it: the images are there, but (mostly) on the top border there is a black line. on another slide where I put a picture in covering the whole slide the whole top half is black.

I import images properly through the "insert picture" option. I usually create them myself in photoshop.

colleagues using windows who want to print out the files that I made for them on mac also have the same problem....

so far, the only workaround I have (only just now) found is saving the files as pdfs and then printing them with the "print as picture" option activated...

thanks!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

hi,

I have a problem with printing out my powerpoint presentations. often

they have strange black lines or black boxes in them, the lines
especially on the borders of pictures. after trying around a bit I found
out that this was mainly to do with .png files, but even now after
replacing all the .pngs with .jpgs I still sometimes get the lines and
boxes, even if I export the presentation to pdf. any idea what might be
causing this and how I can get rid of it?

Open the images in Photoshop (since you mention later that you have it)

Zoom WAY in and look at the edges of the image.

Sometimes a single-pixel line of black or dark color at the edge of an
image will be invisible when the picture's inserted into PPT but because
of the way PPT antialiases images, it becomes much more prominent when
printed.

The fix is to crop out the extra pixels or simply flood fill them with
white instead of black. I'd crop ...

 

[Bunf]

thanks for you suggestion steve, but the picture files themselves are ok and it's not only borders, one example I have is of a .png file with transparency where the whole background is filled black instead of letting what's beneath shine through. this issue mostly with pngs though, with jpgs it's mostly a border on the top of the picture.

thanks

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

thanks for you suggestion steve, but the picture files themselves are ok and it's not

only borders, one example I have is of a .png file with transparency where the whole
background is filled black instead of letting what's beneath shine through. this issue
mostly with pngs though, with jpgs it's mostly a border on the top of the picture.
Is there any chance that the png has a color profile embedded?

I haven't run across this myself but have heard from others that images with embedded
profiles can cause problems in PPT.

If the images were created or edited in Photoshop, there's a chance that they have
embedded profiles.

Here's a bit more info about that:

Transparent areas of graphics turn black
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00627.htm

 

[Bunf]

that's a very good tip, thanks. will try this and get back to you if it worked.

thanks a lot!