Black and white images do not print properly

[Mango45]

I have a page with an image on it. It is black and white (literally black and white, no grey at all). My page also has a green line on it.

When I print the page that has the green line, the black/white image prints in composite black, that is, with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. I can see the colours around the edges and there is also a light colour background where it's supposed to be white.

When I delete the green line, the black/white image prints with only black toner as it should.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with the printer or with Publisher since I don't have another colour printer to test with. I'm using Publisher 2002 on Windows XP, with a Dell 3110cn colour laser printer.

I've tried inserting the image in JPG and GIF format with the same results. I've also tried setting the colour to Grayscale and Black & White from within Format Picture but that does not change the problem.

Text prints as it should, ie, with only black toner.

Thanks,
Mango

 

[FredWagner]

with the printer you're using, it sounds like you can either do without the green line and get a perfect B/W image, or keep the green line and accept what you've been getting. If you want to keep the green line for use on other media, or viewing as a PDF, try using the Advanced Settings in your Print menu to 'Print Color as Black and White' which should show the green line as a shad of gray.
another option would be to run the paper through the printer twice - once for the Black and White image, and a second pass for just the green line. You'd make two copies of the current page, and delete the green line on one, and the B/W image on the other. Then print each page on the same sheet of paper.

Fred Wagner

 

[Makonz]

Hi Mango

Something else you can try unless you have resolved this issue already is to select the picture and then select the 'Format Picture' button on the Picture Toolbar ( or via Format > Picture on the Standard Menu ). Under the 'Picture'Tab go to the Image Control section of the panel and click the colour drop down button and choose option 'Black & White'.
You can then use the Brightness and Contrast sliders to tweak the image to how you want it to appear. The tweaking wont happen in real time - you select a setting and click OK to check the result and go back and adjust as necessary.

My guess is that you have imported a picture that appears to be Black & White on the screen but on close inspection in an image editing program you will most probably see a small number of colour pixels around the image edge. These are what is printing out when you are doing a colour print.
From what you say about how the printer is printing the image under the different conditions you most probably have it set on automatic or auto detect so that when it determines that it is a colour image it prints all the colour information it receives including the tiny amount of colour variation at the edge and when the detection software 'decides' that it is a black & white image it prints in black only.

If my guess is right then what I have advised you to do should fix the problem.

See how you go.

Regards,
Makonz

 

[Mango45]

The image is indeed black and white with no colour pixels. I did try choosing Black & White from Format Picture, but the result is curiously the same.

I thought to try printing the document on a black & white laser printer. Of course, there was no colour around the edges, but curiously the other problem I described, ("there is also a light colour background where it's supposed to be white") remained, except now the background is light grey.

I printed the first page of the document to PDF and then printed the PDF to the same colour printer. Background issue is gone, but there is still colour around the edges. I'd be satisfied with that, except it's a 4000+ page mail merge and Publisher does 10 page batches and I don't want to have to deal with 400 PDFs :-/

m.

 

[Mango45]

I "solved" the problem. I used FontCreator to convert the image to a font. As a font, it prints properly from Publisher with both printers.

If anyone knows why Publisher alters the image before printing it, I would still be curious to know.

m.

 

[Makonz]

Hey Mango

Great solution to use a 'convert to font' program. I would never have thought of that one myself - I'll log that one away.

Cheers

Makonz