A PDF printing problem

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JimSimsGroup
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A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

I printed from Revit a set of drawings and they looked sort of fine on the sheet, but when I printed it from the editor to a OCE wide format printer we got some strange artifacts.

When printing the same document from Adobe dc the print looked fine. I am just wondering what is going on with the print from the editor.

I had just noticed that the preview showed a dark background on some text, but as I said, adobe editor didn't have any problem printing it. What is going on? I really don't want to have to rely on adobe printing and another program used as a print driver.
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a dark text background, even in preview.
a dark text background, even in preview.
a screen shot of pdf editor and everything looks fine
a screen shot of pdf editor and everything looks fine
printing to OCE resulted in a lot of text printing with dark background on every sheet.
printing to OCE resulted in a lot of text printing with dark background on every sheet.
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Jim,

thanks for the post and detailed description of your issue.

Can you tell me if selecting the option "Print as images" in the Editor's Print dialogue does for you?
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

The button for printing as image was not checked in the first screenshot.
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

1) I suppose that Paul wants to ask if you see a difference when you activate the "Print as image"-option and then print.

2) Also something to try, in the Print-dialog-box, select Print: "Document" instead of "Document and Markup" and print.

Best regards.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello JimSimsGroup,

As Paul and will suggested above, please do try printing once with "print as image" enabled and once more with "document" selected to see what the results are. Beyond that, if you could send us a copy of the document to work on here, it would be helpful...

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

The print as the image did help and it is saving its settings but the orientation is not staying from the last session and I have to go into that landscape setting each time I print, which I don't like having to do the same thing more than once if I don't have to.


I attached another PDF I made that is doing the same thing. I don't see how this could be such a nuisance but seems like the norm. I attached a pdf so you can have a look.
Attachments
F 19036 - Bennettsville Intermediate School Additions & Renovations - DD - Electrical_2019-10-25.pdf
(1.3 MiB) Downloaded 62 times
2019-10-29_14-28-27.jpg
2019-10-29_14-26-35.jpg
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello JimSimsGroup,

For the printing issue, Thank you for the document, I have not been able to reproduce this with any of the printers in our office, but will ask my collegues in the European office to test this as well when they are in.
For the meantime, could I ask you to verify that both Windows and the printer drivers are fully updated, and then see if the same issue happens with any other printers, or only the brother printer in your screenshots? In either case, if the issue persists on the brother printer, please send us the link from which you downloaded the latest driver updates. We can then try emulating your printer and see what can be done.

As for the rotation issue. the Page settings dialog reflects what the printer drivers are using as their settings for the app, while we can try to override them here, sometimes it is not possible. If you wish for the settings to be changed permanently you can either manually change the default option for the printer, or set the Editor to "auto rotate page" and either "fit to page" or "select paper size by document size"
image.png
Those settings are controlled by the Editor directly, and will be remembered between print jobs.

I hope this helps, and I look forward to hearing back!
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

As a matter of fact, the Brother printer is brand new and we just installed it here in less than 20 days ago which my driver came from a cd disk that came with the printer. As for the OCE wide format, that is a very old printer and if the machine that spools the prints ever goes down we would be forced to get another printer, and they are not cheap. It originally happened on the OCE wide first, which was an image of the print so no way can be a printer driver, except in the thing that wrote it (Revit).

I just found out that this darker text masking might be related to an old Autodesk printing issue that has been going on for many years but yet we rely on you to fix it for us.

Thanks for the tips on holding the correct settings. I will give that a try.
Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Hello,


Some additional info that might help.

To me it seems that there are "Shapes" laying under the text that has a dark background when printing.

You can discover these shapes by activating "Edit" > "Shapes" and then clicking on each of the four lines of the text.

When you look at the properties of these shapes, you will see that they have a Fill Color : 255, 255, 255 (= white).
Strange that these shapes are printed as gray. Should we suppose that this is a bug?

When you make the shapes "transparent" (= no fill color), then the print problem goes away.

I did the test with Editor v7 build 326, not (yet) with V8 build 333. Maybe there is a difference?

Best regards.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi Jim,
Glad to hear you found a possible reason for this, Willy brings up a good point as well (thanks willy!), the invisible items overlaying the text could certainly be the cause, please do try as he suggested. changing the "fill color" of these boxes to none, or simply deleting the boxes entirely. It may also help with the issue.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

These are not boxes behind the text, they are text masking from Autodesk software. The 4 lines here run on every one of 40 sheets and then are infected in other parts of the documents and I could surely miss something trying to find every instance.

Another problem today when plotting from Autocad. There isn't any dark background but there is a line, and again this is text masking on this object, but not only that, I got a weird message coming from the brother printer too when I tried to print.

Adobe reader does not show the line. Adobe standard does show clear background though.
Attachments
2019-10-31_15-07-21.rar
(126.72 KiB) Downloaded 48 times
JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

Not sure I uploaded all i wanted to.
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

i think file was to big
Attachments
C19044 - E001 ELECTRICAL SYMBOLS AND NOTES.pdf
(645.59 KiB) Downloaded 57 times
20191031_140833.jpg
2019-10-31_14-08-55.jpg
2019-10-31_15-07-21.jpg
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello Jim,

Can you please verify what version of the Editor you are running? We are currently in build 333.0 and are about to release build 334 (sometime in the next week or so). If you are not running the latest version, please do try updating and see if that improves the situation, as currently I do not see the line shown in your screenshot.
Thinking back, that could also be why I cannot reproduce the issue with those odd colored backgrounds on some text.

Please let me know what version you are currently running (from "help > about") and if updating resolves either or both of these issues?

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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Willy Van Nuffel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

Just for information:

The problem with the colored background is not there anymore in PDF-XChange Editor V8 build 333.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/produc ... nge-editor

In the version history I see that there has been some printing-fixes, since release V7 build 326.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/produc ... or/history

Regards.
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Dimitar - Tracker Supp
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Dimitar - Tracker Supp »

Hi all,

We will release a new version in a few days in which we have made a lot of improvements as well.

We will appreciate any feedback on the productivity and stability of our products.

Regards.
JimSimsGroup
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by JimSimsGroup »

Someone lied about fixing the problem because I had 333 before and now I have 334. The backmasking in as a separate graphic thing and is what is causing the problem. This backbox is not visible in Adobe reader or standard.
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2019-11-06_9-50-30.jpg
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello JimSimsGroup,

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you here. After much testing, I have found that this appearance is caused by you having "accessibility mode" enabled. You can disable this by pressing Ctrl+Shift+6.

I hope this helps!
Attachments
image.png
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by Willy Van Nuffel »

I would like to apologize from my side for having given some wrong information. :oops:

On the PC with V7 build 326 I had the "Override document colors" still turned ON (after running some tests).
On the PC with V8 build 333 this option was turned OFF (in Preferences > Accessibility).

That was indeed the explanation for the difference in the Print (Preview).

End good, all good.

Congratulations to the Tracker Software Support team for their splendid support.
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: A PDF printing problem

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi Willy,

Those a very kind words, I do hope that this helps Jim with his work.
Your suggestions we very helpful as well Willy, So thank you too!
:D
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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