Printing transparent text boxes over photos

[Bear Pair]

I put together several photos and text boxes on a document where some of the text boxes have partially-transparent fill colors that overlap portions of the photos. Displayed on the screen, it is great; however, when I printed it, the text box fills printed as solid blocks, covering the portion fo the photos they overlapped. Is there a setting I'm missing in order to print with the same transparency effect?

 

[Mary Sauer]

What printer are you using? Do the text boxes print okay if you remove the
"partially" transparent fill?


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

I put together several photos and text boxes on a document where some of the text

boxes have partially-transparent fill colors that overlap portions of the photos.
Displayed on the screen, it is great; however, when I printed it, the text box fills
printed as solid blocks, covering the portion fo the photos they overlapped. Is there
a setting I'm missing in order to print with the same transparency effect?

 

[Bear Pair]

I'm using an Epson C-82, which has normally handled the semi-transparent boxes fine. Of course, when I remove the "fill" the text boxes print OK, but its not the effect I was going for.
--
Terry L. Lampel
Cup of Cold Water
t.lampel.home.att.net

What printer are you using? Do the text boxes print okay if you remove the
"partially" transparent fill?


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

I put together several photos and text boxes on a document where some of the text

boxes have partially-transparent fill colors that overlap portions of the photos.
Displayed on the screen, it is great; however, when I printed it, the text box fills
printed as solid blocks, covering the portion fo the photos they overlapped. Is there
a setting I'm missing in order to print with the same transparency effect?

 

[Mary Sauer]

When did the printer quit handling the transparency? There is a driver for your
printer on the Epson site with a December 2003 timestamp for Windows XP, maybe newer
than what you are using. Could try the custom settings in your Epson such as sRGB. In
Publisher there an option to print line by line with ink jets.


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

I'm using an Epson C-82, which has normally handled the semi-transparent boxes

fine. Of course, when I remove the "fill" the text boxes print OK, but its not the
effect I was going for.

--
Terry L. Lampel
Cup of Cold Water
t.lampel.home.att.net

What printer are you using? Do the text boxes print okay if you remove the
"partially" transparent fill?


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

I put together several photos and text boxes on a document where some of the

text
boxes have partially-transparent fill colors that overlap portions of the photos.
Displayed on the screen, it is great; however, when I printed it, the text box fills
printed as solid blocks, covering the portion fo the photos they overlapped. Is there
a setting I'm missing in order to print with the same transparency effect?

 

[Bear Pair]

Just the past couple of weeks. One other doc prints fine, and I can't see what is different??? The driver for the Epson is the current one from their web site. Its almost as if printer AND the print preview mode is ignoring the transparency setting, and printing as a solid block of fill! Hope you can find a solution!

 

[Mary Sauer]

Delete the text box and make a new one, or copy and paste the whole thing to a new
Publisher document.
If you separate the image from the text box does it print okay?
If it worked before it should work now. You might have some corruption in the file.
What extension is the image? Are you using BorderArt?

Transparent Texture Fill Is Not Printed As Transparent
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;820592&Product=pub2003

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

Just the past couple of weeks. One other doc prints fine, and I can't see what is

different??? The driver for the Epson is the current one from their web site. Its
almost as if printer AND the print preview mode is ignoring the transparency setting,
and printing as a solid block of fill! Hope you can find a solution!

 

[Bear Pair]

Mary, now I'm really stumped! First of all, let me clarify:
As I work on the piece, it appears exactly as I planned:
1 large photo on bottom layer, then 2 smaller photos in opposite corners above the background photo, then there are 5 text boxes of varying size on top of both layers of photos (1 wt NO fill, and 4 wt 45 to 75% transparent fills)
It is the semi-transparent text boxes thath are causing the problem, that is NOT simply a printing problem... Even in the print-preview view, the transparent boxes appear as SOLID fills, with the black text.

I did try your suggestions, re-creating the whole thing again, or trying the text box separately, and with 1 single photo behind... EVERY TIME it does the same thing, showing the text box fill as SOLID, in the print-preview screen, rather than tranparent!

EUREKA: I think I just discovered the problem, and [I believe] it is a Publisher problem, not a settings problem:
I figured out that between 2 different docs that both used the semi-transparent text boxes, the only difference was that my "problem" one uses a 'FILL EFFECT' combination of 2 colors, rather than simply selecting a single color... The one using the single color is fine; the fill effect using 2 colors shows as a solid color block, rather than transparent!

Your turn!

 

[Bear Pair]

One additional piece to the puzzle: I just tried the same thing in Word 2003, and the semi-transparent, 2-color text box seems to work as it should, with no trouble. Problem seems to be just with Publisher.
--
Terry L. Lampel
Cup of Cold Water
t.lampel.home.att.net

Mary, now I'm really stumped! First of all, let me clarify:
As I work on the piece, it appears exactly as I planned:
1 large photo on bottom layer, then 2 smaller photos in opposite corners above the background photo, then there are 5 text boxes of varying size on top of both layers of photos (1 wt NO fill, and 4 wt 45 to 75% transparent fills)
It is the semi-transparent text boxes thath are causing the problem, that is NOT simply a printing problem... Even in the print-preview view, the transparent boxes appear as SOLID fills, with the black text.

I did try your suggestions, re-creating the whole thing again, or trying the text box separately, and with 1 single photo behind... EVERY TIME it does the same thing, showing the text box fill as SOLID, in the print-preview screen, rather than tranparent!

EUREKA: I think I just discovered the problem, and [I believe] it is a Publisher problem, not a settings problem:
I figured out that between 2 different docs that both used the semi-transparent text boxes, the only difference was that my "problem" one uses a 'FILL EFFECT' combination of 2 colors, rather than simply selecting a single color... The one using the single color is fine; the fill effect using 2 colors shows as a solid color block, rather than transparent!

Your turn!
--
Terry L. Lampel
Cup of Cold Water
t.lampel.home.att.net

Delete the text box and make a new one, or copy and paste the whole thing to a new
Publisher document.
If you separate the image from the text box does it print okay?
If it worked before it should work now. You might have some corruption in the file.
What extension is the image? Are you using BorderArt?

Transparent Texture Fill Is Not Printed As Transparent
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;820592&Product=pub2003

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

different??? The driver for the Epson is the current one from their web site. Its
almost as if printer AND the print preview mode is ignoring the transparency setting,
and printing as a solid block of fill! Hope you can find a solution!

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MSFT MVP]]

Hi Bear Pair ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| One additional piece to the puzzle: I just tried the same thing in
|| Word 2003, and the semi-transparent, 2-color text box seems to work
|| as it should, with no trouble. Problem seems to be just with
|| Publisher. --

Does it work PRINTING, or just PREVIEWING? My testing shows that in Word
preview, it appears correctly, but it doesn't print properly. This is a
known bug with all of the Office products. This feature of gradient (fill
effects) with transparency was designed for Web use, not print.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com
~pay it forward~

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

In

Hmmm... Interesting... would be nice to know up front that certain
aspects don't "work" as one would expect.
You are absolutely right: print preview works fine, (altho' didn't
with one item I tried in Publisher???), BUT when you print, it does
so as a solid block of gradient fill. Apparently sometimes in
Publisher, a transparent, gradient text box will showproperly in
print preview, sometimes as a solid block??? HOWEVER, there is a way
around this obstacle: If you save the item ( some combo of photo &
text box) as a "picture," i.e., .JPG or .GIF, then it DOES indeed
print as a transparent gradient fill.

Yes, that is the advertised work around that we have supplied in the
newsgroup. Good catch btw.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.