Microsoft Publisher can create complex page layouts and graphic designs with spot or process colour, CMYK photos, metallic inks, and other advanced printing features. If you’re printing a Publisher project on your desktop hardware, either to create final output or to proof a project for a commercial printer, you want your project to look exactly like it did onscreen. Examine what you’re printing and how you’re printing it to troubleshoot Publisher printing issues.
Composites Vs. Separations
You expect to see colour pages when you print your Microsoft Publisher document on a colour output device. If you see a series of black and white pages with portions of the content on each page, you’ve accidentally told the software to print separations rather than composites. Separations meet the requirements of printing presses, which divide the colour content of your files into a series of primary inks that combine to create the illusion of colour photos. Turn off the advanced print setting that produces separations on your desktop printer to resolve this issue.
Envelopes
Printing envelopes can present a number of challenges, including the need to select media with flap styles and adhesives that your printer and supplies can handle without damaging the printer or supplies. If the driver software that communicates between your printer and computer does not support the specific envelope size you want to print, you may be able to create a custom size to accommodate your chosen stock, but some printer drivers do not support custom sizes. When printing envelopes from Microsoft Publisher to your desktop output device, make sure your driver supports the size you want to use. If not, choose a supported size or print your project on a different device.
Memory
If your Microsoft Publisher file contains large graphics prepared in high-resolution files, the cause of your document printing issues may be your hardware, not your document. Your images may only print partially or not at all in these cases. Printing larger bitmaps takes more memory than printing smaller versions. If you need to use a large file at a much smaller size than its actual dimensions, your computer and printer will have to process more data than the output requires. In these cases, you can use your image-editing application to create a scaled-down version of your photo instead of the original.
Unprintable Area Vs. Bleed
When you create layouts that use photos, graphics or areas of solid color that extend all the way to the edge of the sheet of paper, you won’t be able to print your work as it appears in your Microsoft Publisher file without generating it on a larger sheet size and trimming off the excess paper to reach your final dimensions. A project like this involves a design technique called “bleed,” which requires that your material extend beyond the final size of your document and be cut away to present the illusion that the ink stops exactly at the edge of the page. Additionally, desktop printers leave at least some white space around the outer edges of the paper when they print, in part because they must leave some of the sheet for the hardware’s use in gripping and moving the output media through the device.
