WD: Gray Drawing Layer Lines Printed in Black on HP LaserJet

ID: Q187895

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a

SYMPTOMS

When you create a gray-colored line for a drawing object (using the tools on the Drawing toolbar), the line may be printed in black on Hewlett- Packard (HP) LaserJet series printers.

In Word 6.x, this behavior occurs with lines, circles, squares, arcs, and freeform shapes; and with ellipses when you use a Windows 95 printer driver.

CAUSE

Word sends correct gray color instructions to the printer driver, which means Word is not responsible for this behavior. Some versions of the HP LaserJet Series printer drivers translate gray color formatting to black printer instructions for all shapes except the ellipse (except when using the Windows 95 printer driver).

Specifically, when a non-ellipse is formatted as gray, the printer driver sends a NULL brush and solid pen (pen width = 0) instruction, which tells the printer to print in black instead of gray. In contrast, for a gray- colored ellipse, the printer driver sends a brush instruction that corresponds to the Windows Universal Printer Driver (Unidrv.dll) instruction for dithered solid red color, which the HP LaserJet printer prints as gray.

This problem may occur with the following printers:

   HP LaserJet
   HP LaserJet II
   HP LaserJet IIp+
   HP LaserJet III
   HP LaserJet IIIp
   HP LaserJet IIIsi
   HP LaserJet 4M/4P (HPPCL5E.DRV version 1.27)
   HP LaserJet 4si (HPPCL5E.DRV version 1.27)
   HP LaserJet 4si MX (HPPCL5E.DRV version 1.27)
   HP LaserJet 4si version 3.78 (Windows 95 printer driver)

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem use any of the following methods:

Method 1: Create an Object That Uses a Gray Fill

Depending on the type of drawing object needed, it may be possible to create the object that uses a gray fill, but to which you do not add a line color. Gray-colored object fills print correctly. For example, to create a gray-colored line, create instead a narrow rectangle that has no lines and uses a gray fill.

Method 2: Use a PostScript Printer Driver

If your printer supports PostScript, use a PostScript printer driver.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

For a possible solution, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q130508
   TITLE     : Non-white Text or Graphics Printed in Black

MORE INFORMATION

The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Additional query words: grey watermark water mark

Keywords          : kb3rdparty kbprint kbdta word6 word7 word95 
Version           : WINDOWS:6.0,6.0a,6.0c,7.0,7.0a
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: February 12, 1999