PDFs print out light

[goombawaho]

I've got a customer that got a new computer and we switched her from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2013 and imported all emails. Her boss sends her PDFs via email attachments. She tells me that PDFs print out too light compared to how they used to print out.

But.....
An old PDF from an old email will print out light now whereas when she printed them out of Outlook 2003 they are dark on her hard copy.

If she sends me the old PDF, it prints out light as well, so it seems not to be an Acrobat setting or a printer setting.

If her boss sends me the PDF, it prints light from my printer.

Is there some setting in Outlook 2013 that could be changing the PDF? We tried saving the PDF to the desktop vs. opening/printing directly from Outlook 2013. No change.

Where else could the problem be? Very confused.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[MikeHalloran]

When a 'high resolution' printer had 300 dpi, lines just a pixel wide were, uh, fine.
Now they may print super ultra-fine or basically not visible.
I'll bet that the Acrobat you have installed everywhere has a setting for 'enhance fine lines'.

 

[goombawaho]

It's just the free READER on my computer. Latest version.

Prints the same way on my printer with "Enhance thin lines" ON or OFF. Next idea please.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[zelgar]

It sounde like it's something to do with the Acrobat Reader, not Outlook. I'd look for things in the Print Properties in Acrobat Reader and mess around with the settings (e.g., Turn Off Toner Saving).

 

[goombawaho]

I'm starting to think it's user error. The old PDFs that used to print out okay are now "light", but Outlook couldn't really modify an attachment.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

It's got to be printer driver or pdf reader related.

Another option would be to try using a different PDF reader, like Foxit. That's getting pretty popular now, it seems, anyway, for businesses and corporations because of security issues with Adobe products. I know my company (at least 600+ employees) switched to Foxit a while back, and aside from a few hiccups, seems like the transition has gone smoothly.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[cdogg]

A new computer changes a lot of things (OS, print driver, software app versions, etc.). I'm leaning towards the print driver or Adobe settings as well. Changing Outlook versions is not likely related.

Quick questions:
1. Can her boss still print the PDF's out dark on their printer?
2. Can anyone print it out dark?

It would be great if someone still could, so you can compare settings and versions. Try installing the Postscript (PS) version of the printer driver as well to see if that makes any difference.

-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

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[DSummZZZ]

Changing Outlook versions is not likely related.

One never knows what settings Microsoft may change or incorporate in an upgrade, update, fix, whatever. It wouldn't surprise me to find an upgrade changed a printer driver default setting.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.dave-summers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[cdogg]

Thanks Dave. I did say "not likely", and I think I'll stand by that!
Also, a simple uninstall/reinstall of the printer would rule that out, which I wouldn't doubt Goom has already tried.

 

[goombawaho]

Quick questions:
1. Can her boss still print the PDF's out dark on their printer? YES. Though she seems to say "not real dark".
2. Can anyone print it out dark? There is no one else (two person company). I can't print it dark on my PC.

I'm starting to think there is a problem with perception vs. reality and the difference between printers. I have only seen MY printout and not what the other two look like. The two people are in different parts of town in home offices.

I should really show you guys what's going on. It's only PARTS of the PDF text that are light. Here is a scan to look at.
The items like "INVOICE", "SUBTOTAL", BALANCE DUE", etc. are dark. The areas like the BILL TO information and Description are light. I thought it might be in a light color, so I printed on my color printer, but no change.
Link

I was going to suggest that they install FreePDF and then create a PDF that way, test. Right now, she is printing the document and then scanning it in using her Brother MFC (which is a ridiculous procedure, but that's another story).

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[technome]

Curious, how much does a new sleigh go for these days? Delivery must be really expensive, sleigh rated delivery drivers are few and far between these days.

Looks like the the font(s) the invoice was created with are not in the font directory in affected machines, or it has been substituted with another font. If this happened to me, I would find the fonts type/size it was printing with normally, edit the invoice form, changing the font to a similar font.
Looks Ok but most invoice fonts are darker/thicker. Light font looks like a form of "Times", which is generally thinner/lighter. My invoices primarily use True Type/Helvetica/actual font=Arial MT throughout, with differing font sizes (Which looks like your sub total, balance due etc), and a bit of Times but in bold, bold makes the Times a good bit thicker.



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Popular Mechanics, 1949

 

[zelgar]

Printing and then scanning is the worst way of making PDF's. If you're using MS-Word, you can Save-As a PDF. Alternately, you can download a free PDF print driver (e.g., CutePDF) and "Print" to a PDF.

I don't know if these will work, if she's manually stamping them with "PAID" after they are printed. If so, she could open the Word file and then electronically add a "PAID" stamp and then create the PDF.

 

[goombawaho]

Agreed - printing and then scanning is archaic.

I asked her to install and try FreePDF, which is what I use, as a troubleshooting tool. I haven't heard back. I don't think she wants to install it. So, there endeth my troubleshooting if she won't play ball.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, part of the problem with work processes and technology is convincing the processor that it's worth at least TRYING a different route with new technology rather than assuming something works. In this case, she should KNOW it isn't working, and be willing to try alternatives. If she asks again, definitely ask if she tried the digital method. And if she says no, if possible, maybe dig around to find out why. I realize you're not likely being paid as a consultant, but that about sounds like what this small business needs. A business technology consultant.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[goombawaho]

Oh I'm being paid when I go on site, but not when I'm emailing endlessly back and forth about "which print out is darker?" without any basis for really troubleshooting it.

I told her I wasn't going to do anything else UNLESS she tried the software as a troubleshooting step. There are too many variables at work here and I need a concrete troubleshooting step.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[gbaughma]

I saw folks getting a little off-topic... here was the important point:

If she sends me the old PDF, it prints out light as well, so it seems not to be an Acrobat setting or a printer setting.

It's doing the same thing, on multiple printers.

I do agree with kjv about trying a different reader.

Same file - Different printers - Light printing
Same reader? Different reader?

If Different Reader = darker printing then it's the reader.
If different reader = same printing, then it's the file(s)

It's all subjective, unless you have them next to each other to compare.

The other question that I didn't see (maybe I missed it) is OTHER printing also light on her computer? Could it just be that she has been shaking her toner cartridge for the past 6 months and is out of toner?

<Shrugs>
(but that wouldn't explain if it was printing the same lightness on a different printer...)


Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

 

[goombawaho]

I'm so confused now, but......................

It's all subjective, unless you have them next to each other to compare.

And that's my fault that I don't want to drive 30 miles to one office and then to the other office. Or actually it's their fault that they want me to analyze this over the phone/email so they don't have to pay me to be on site!!! Taking advantage of my sweet, helping nature.

It's doing the same thing, on multiple printers.

Yes, my printer and the other recipient. To me, I guess that nails it down. But, as I said, I'm not getting any response from the creator of the PDFs that she's going to try my suggestion of using a different PDF creator. So, I'm washing my hands of this for the moment. I guess everyone should wait until I make another post and just assume that I've heard nothing from the customer.

The customer has this attitude that she's afraid to make changes to her computer. But I'm advising her to do it, so I'm a bit offended that she doesn't follow my advice. In other words, she's smarter than me and is playing it safe. Never mind that she's killing the troubleshooting process.



"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[kjv1611]

Here's another idea I just thought of. What about asking them to print one of the files, then put it in an envelope and mail it to you. Make sure printing the exact same file - so maybe one person prints it, then emails the same thing to the 2nd person, and they print it.

I don't know, just maybe another way to have both apples in your possession at same time to compare.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[cdogg]

Wow, this thread isn't dead yet? LOL

Since it's still going, here's another suggestion. Instead of snail mail or driving, why not have the users snap photos with a decent camera - most smartphones have one nowadays!

 

[MikeHalloran]

>>> ... she doesn't follow my advice. In other words, she's smarter than me and is playing it safe. ... <<<

This suggests that you're not charging her enough.