Why does my presentation print in grayscale??

[Michael Levin]

I'm using Powerpoint v.X on OSX Panther 10.3.5. I've got a color PowerPoint
presentation which used to print fine in color, to my Phaser color printer.
All of a sudden, when I print it, it comes out in grayscale. I did a print
preview, which (if I click the "soft preview" box) is in color. Other stuff
comes out fine in color on this printer (if I print from Photoshop for
example). Can someone clue me in: why might it decide to print in grayscale?

Mike

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Michael,

I'm using Powerpoint v.X on OSX Panther 10.3.5. I've got a color PowerPoint
presentation which used to print fine in color, to my Phaser color printer.
All of a sudden, when I print it, it comes out in grayscale. I did a print
preview, which (if I click the "soft preview" box) is in color. Other stuff
comes out fine in color on this printer (if I print from Photoshop for
example). Can someone clue me in: why might it decide to print in grayscale?

I've seen that many times and was wondering what was goingon. I don;t
remember if it is in POrint Setup or directly in the options as you Print (I
don;t have PPT X anymore) but I know you can uncheck a box there that forces
the file to be printed in black and white )

Corentin

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'm using Powerpoint v.X on OSX Panther 10.3.5. I've got a color PowerPoint
presentation which used to print fine in color, to my Phaser color printer.
All of a sudden, when I print it, it comes out in grayscale. I did a print
preview, which (if I click the "soft preview" box) is in color. Other stuff
comes out fine in color on this printer (if I print from Photoshop for
example). Can someone clue me in: why might it decide to print in grayscale?

Do you print by clicking the Print button or by using File, Print and setting
options? If the former, you're accepting whatever defaults are in place;
depending on the version of PPT, that might include printing in B/W.


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

 

[Michael Levin]

Do you print by clicking the Print button or by using File, Print and setting
options? If the former, you're accepting whatever defaults are in place;
depending on the version of PPT, that might include printing in B/W.


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

I use File, Print, and set options, which do say "color"...

Mike

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I use File, Print, and set options, which do say "color"...
Between that and the soft preview being in color, it pretty much proves that PPT
thinks it's supposed to be printing color.

Now to work out whether it really is.

Do you happen to have Adobe Acrobat? If so, go through the normal print motions
of choosing your Phaser printer and print options but print to file instead of to
the printer. Run the resulting file through Distiller and see if the PDF comes
out in color.

If you don't have Distiller, try printing just the first page of the presentation
to file and email the resulting file to me at steve at sign pptools dot com

I'll distill it and maybe have a look inside the PS and see if it's really color
or not. If it is, then it's probably a driver setting of some sort that's goofing
things up.


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

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Followup:

Michael sent me a PostScript file he printed to disk and a PDF. Both were in full
color, but there was quite a bit of stuff in the PS that led me to wonder whether
the PS was somehow targeted at an HP printer (feature setup code for e.g.
HPEconoMode).

As I explained to Michael, the PDF in color gives him a temporary workaround to get
color output. So now the trick is to work out what happens between the time PPT
talks to the printer driver and the PostScript hits the printer. PPT's making
color. Why's it go away?

I'm not up to speed on OS X printing/spooling. Does anyone have any theories why
this might be happening?

Between that and the soft preview being in color, it pretty much proves that PPT
thinks it's supposed to be printing color.

Now to work out whether it really is.

Do you happen to have Adobe Acrobat? If so, go through the normal print motions
of choosing your Phaser printer and print options but print to file instead of to
the printer. Run the resulting file through Distiller and see if the PDF comes
out in color.

If you don't have Distiller, try printing just the first page of the presentation
to file and email the resulting file to me at steve at sign pptools dot com

I'll distill it and maybe have a look inside the PS and see if it's really color
or not. If it is, then it's probably a driver setting of some sort that's goofing
things up.

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

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