Word 2004 Mac: page background image prints washed out or pixelated

[Martin S.]

Hi,

I need to create stationery for a client - we're both Mac-based.

The design contains vector art and hence can't be replicated in Word.

I was hoping I could just export the artwork as a PDF, insert that into
the header and stretch it to cover the entire page.

Unfortunately the PDF renders as an image at very low resolution and the
result prints poorly. But the colours are preserved as they should be.

Now I've tried using a 300 PPI image saved as Tiff, PNG and GIF instead.
The image stays sharp, but now the colours print totally washed out.


Is it possible to have both, the proper saturated colour AND the high
resolution image?


Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you are inserting the image as a "watermark," then the colors are intentionally muted (the "washout" property is applied automatically). You can access the document header and change the color setting on your background image (which is anchored to the header). It will still be dimmed in Word when the document body is active. In addition, some wrapped images may display dimmed even when you view the header (this is a bug) but should print properly. For more on this, see http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/AnchorToHeader.htm

 

[Martin-S]

If you are inserting the image as a "watermark," then the colors are
intentionally muted (the "washout" property is applied automatically). You
can access the document header and change the color setting on your
background image (which is anchored to the header). It will still be dimmed
in Word when the document body is active. In addition, some wrapped images
may display dimmed even when you view the header (this is a bug) but should
print properly. For more on this, see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/AnchorToHeader.htm

Thanks Suzanne,

I was following that exact tutorial, but upon rereading it now, one line
struck me:

"If the object is to be a ³watermark,² you will probably want to choose
³Behind Text² as the wrapping style..."

I did not *intend* to insert the image as a watermark, but does this
mean setting the text wrap to ³Behind Text² turns it into a watermark??

That would explain it.

I thought I needed to apply this setting in order for the body text to
flow over the image.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, setting it Behind Text alone doesn't make it a watermark; if you haven't
changed the color setting, then it shouldn't *print* washed out, though it
will be displayed that way because the background image is part of the
header.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Martin-S]

No, setting it Behind Text alone doesn't make it a watermark; if you haven't
changed the color setting, then it shouldn't *print* washed out, though it
will be displayed that way because the background image is part of the
header.

The culprit appears to be a colour-management issue.

After the laser printer failed so miserably - I'm not being picky, but
the print looked twice as bright - I tried a desktop inkjet and our 24"
roll printer.

The desktop inkjet was way off just like the laser, but the 24" printer
was almost spot on; shame that those aren't more common in office
environments.

The image format (PNG, TIFF, JPG etc.) didn't seem to matter by the way.

And another interesting little detail: if I create a PDF from Word
first, it prints well on *all* printers.

Go figure...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, printing to PDF is often the only workaround. I don't know to what
extent it matters that this is MacWord, with which I have no experience.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org