PUB: Troubleshooting Text Printing (Inkjet Printers)

This article contains techniques you can use to troubleshoot problems you may have printing text to inkjet-style printers (such as the Hewlett-Packard (HP) DeskJet-series and the Canon BubbleJet series printers.) There is a general troubleshooting section at the beginning of the article, followed by list of some specific known issues.

General Troubleshooting

NOTE: To print correctly from Publisher, you must also be able to print correctly from other Windows programs. This article does not contain steps to fix problems printing from Windows in general.

No Text Prints or Text Prints Garbled:

If none of the text in your publication prints, try the following:

1. Copy some or all of the text and paste it into Notepad. If the text won't print from Notepad either, you may be using a Windows printer driver that is corrupt or not correct for the type of printer you have. You may also have a problem with your printer cable, network connection, or with the printer itself.
2. If the text prints from Notepad, copy some or all of the text in your Publication and paste it into WordPad or Write. WordPad and Write retain your text's font and size information. If the text won't print from WordPad or Write (but does from Notepad), you may have one or more corrupted fonts on your computer. Try changing your text to a different font and see if it prints. If it does print, remove and reinstall the original font. If it still doesn't print, you may be using a printer driver that doesn't match your actual printer. You may also have a problem with your network connection, printer cable, or printer.
3. If your text prints from WordPad or Write, your publication may contain a corrupt graphic or OLE object. In Publisher, try printing your publication without pictures.
   1. In Publisher 3.0 or 97, click Print on the File menu. Click the Do Not Print Pictures check box and then click OK.
   2. In Publisher 2.0, click Hide Pictures on the Tools menu. On the File menu, click Print.
   If the text prints correctly with the pictures hidden, try removing picture frames and OLE frames until it does print correctly.
4. If you have access to a different type of printer, try printing to the other printer instead.

Text Prints in Incorrect Font:

If the text in your publication prints, but in an incorrect font, try using the same font in another publication or in another program. If the font doesn't work there, either, you may have to re-install that particular font.

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Problems:

If all your text prints, but the text doesn't look the way it does on screen, see the following article here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Troubleshooting Specific Problems

Text in Columns Doesn't Line Up Correctly:

If you use spaces to separate columns of text, they may appear to be lined up correctly on screen, but print out of alignment.

You can see if you have used spaces to separate columns by clicking Show Special Characters on the View menu (in Publisher 3.0 this command is on the Tools menu.) Spaces show up as dots. You should use tabs instead of spaces to line up columns in a single text frame.

Text Doesn't Print Near Bottom of Page:

If your publication contains text that is closer than .75" to the bottom of the page, that text may not print. Because of the way some inkjet printers grip the paper, they can't print closer than 5/8" or 3/4" to the bottom of the paper. To find out how close your printer can print to the edge of the page, do the following:

1. Create a new, blank publication.
2. Draw a rectangle that is larger than the page and extends off the page in all directions.
3. Fill the rectangle with a light shade of gray or a light pattern.
4. Print the page.

This test page shows you how close to each edge of the paper your printer can print.

Problems Printing Colored Text:

If your publication contains colored text, that text may print all in black. If this happens, try turning off Image Color Matching.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Click the Improve Screen and Printer Color Matching check box to remove the mark.
4. Click OK.

If your publication contains text in a custom color, that text may print in one of these eight colors instead of the custom color: Red, Green, Blue, Cyan (Aqua), Magenta (Fuschia), Yellow, Black, or White.

Some inkjet printers can print text in only these colors. If you have one of these printers and need to print text in a different color, create the text as a WordArt frame instead of a text frame.

For more information about this issue, please see the following article here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Problems Printing Rotated Text:

In some cases text that is rotated (on a different baseline from the rest of your page) may print incorrectly. It may print in a different font or it may print unrotated.

For more information on issues related to printing rotated text, please see the following article here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The third-party products that are discussed in this article are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.