Publisher only prints black pictures?

[Rich]

I have Microsoft Publisher 2003 and am trying to complete a catalog merge. I
have completed the work and the print preview looks great, but when I print
the photos, black squares are printed. Has anyone else had this problem?
I've inserted clip art and the colors will print without a problem. I've also
reduced the photos to less than 20kb but still can't seem to fix it. Thanks
in advance for the help!!!!

 

[Mary Sauer]

Are the images .tiff's? See if saving in a different format in your editing program
makes a difference.

 

[DEAN]

I am having the same problem except that it DID print business cards
correctly several times BEFORE starting with the back squares. On the
Publisher print preview it looks fine, but after it RIPs up to the HP
Photosmart 8750 dialog box Print Preview - the pictures have vanished. They
are NOT tiffs- they are jpgs (I've tried both RGB and CMYK modes). Pictures
are fine on screen - but don't print. Previously we did a (REPAIR) on
Publisher after getting errors because earlier we got an -out of virtual
memory- (but it is small file 2MB) and also got a "Need postscript driver to
print CMYK separations" (but it is not a postscript printer). ALL other
applications are printing correctly (Illustrator, Photoshop, FreeHand,
MSExcel, MSWord, MSIE, etc). I need to print from Publisher for the office
business cards.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Have you checked for a newer driver? Go to the Printer and Fax folder,
right-click your printer, printing preferences, color tab, is grayscale
selected?

HP Photosmart 8750 Professional Series Printers - Wrong Colors
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=426109&lang=en&cc=us&docname=c00293487

 

[Rich]

I did manage to fix the problem and found out that the photos were in CMYK
format and it was unable to print them. After I changed them to the RGB
format through Photoshop they printed up without any problems

 

[DEAN]

Grayscale is NOT selected.

Have you checked for a newer driver? Go to the Printer and Fax folder,
right-click your printer, printing preferences, color tab, is grayscale
selected?

HP Photosmart 8750 Professional Series Printers - Wrong Colors
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=426109&lang=en&cc=us&docname=c00293487

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

 

[DEAN]

Rich - 1) Are you saying that you had to change the color mode (CMYK-to-RGB)
in the source file (in Photoshop)?? That seems real odd - most files from
clients come to me in CMYK. 2) Did you also fiddle with any of the output
(CMYK to RGB) selections in: a) the printer software or/and b) MSPublisher
preferences?

 

[DEAN]

Rich/Mary: Ok - I did the source mode change in Photoshop to RGB with
success. Oddly - it previously printed 3x before without that mode change
(same photo/same file). NOW the question is - is this behavior pravalent in
all versions of MSPublisher OR is it specific to the printer used?

 

[Ed Bennett]

Rich - 1) Are you saying that you had to change the color mode
(CMYK-to-RGB) in the source file (in Photoshop)?? That seems real odd
- most files from clients come to me in CMYK. 2) Did you also fiddle
with any of the output (CMYK to RGB) selections in: a) the printer
software or/and b) MSPublisher preferences?

Publisher cannot usually print files that are in CMYK format.

 

[DEAN]

Ed- Using Photoshop to change the mode of the source photo to RGB works
HOWEVER if MSPublisher operationally 'prefers' RGB source photos - wouldn't
it have that conversion interface 'built-in'? The end problem in this is that
while my client photographers prefer RGB - my publish/print clientel prefer
the CMYK gamut (to match end product).

 

[Ed Bennett]

Ed- Using Photoshop to change the mode of the source photo to RGB
works HOWEVER if MSPublisher operationally 'prefers' RGB source
photos - wouldn't it have that conversion interface 'built-in'? The
end problem in this is that while my client photographers prefer RGB
- my publish/print clientel prefer the CMYK gamut (to match end
product).

If you're going to be going via Publisher, CMYK input won't do anything
towards matching the end product. Publisher works in RGB internally as far
as pictures are concerned, as do all Windows printer drivers. If you go to
CMYK Composite at the end, then Publisher will convert RGB to CMYK at that
point, after potentially already having converted CMYK to RGB. This entails
an extra conversion, reducing the quality, not enhancing it.

If you want to go from CMYK source through the DTP application to CMYK
press, then you are using the wrong program.

Publisher has no CMYK conversion. Hell, it can barely handle all the
different types of RGB images out there (particularly variants of TIFF
files, and alpha transparency)

 

[GoldHorde]

Ed- Unfortunately - my lower-end clients (realtors mostly) use Publisher with
LOTS of home/house photos. I've tried to get them to switch to pro-DTP's
(InDesign/Illustrator/Quark) that I get from inhouse Corporations or the ad
and design agencies. Until then I will effect a policy of checking and
changing the default modes to RGB on their pictures (mixed bag of RGB and
CMYK modes usually - some digital photos, some scans and some existing from
previous uses) - I just do final resizing and placements into the MSPublisher
documents.

 

[Ed Bennett]

pro-DTP's (InDesign/Illustrator/Quark)

Illustrator is a draw/illustration application, not a DTP app. That's what
PageMaker and InDesign are for.

 

[GoldHorde]

I think 'Rage'maker is STILL the preferred term. Thanks for the help!

 

[Rich]

Don't quite know the answer to that one. I'm running Publisher 2003 here
with an HP Officejet 6210 and it just took that one mode change to clear
things up. So far so good but if I have any more issues I'll be sure to post
them.