Printing is very light in Excel ONLY

[snak...@officeformac.com]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I have a brand new Mac computer. I just hooked up a brand new Canon PIXMA MP490 printer. It prints everything correctly EXCEPT documents I've created in Excel. I still have my old printer and it prints Excel documents just fine. Canon helped me reinstall the drivers but I still can't get a good black and white document from Excel. What could be the problem? Word documents print just fine.

[CyberTaz]

Perhaps Canon helped you reinstall the drivers, but did they help you
reinstall the *latest* drivers? Those that came in the box may well be
several versions behind. With Snow Leopard that is a critical issue.

Although it's understandable that many people have the wrong impression the
program you're printing from doesn't do the printing. And the fact that
printing from one program presents a problem while printing from others
doesn't really makes little difference. Each program calls for a certain
array of print services & it's the responsibility of the driver software to
provide what's needed.

Excel calls for the print service from OS X which works in conjunction with
the selected printer's driver software to carry out the task. Two things to
check in Excel: In File> Page Setup confirm that High is selected on the
Page tab & that Draft Quality is not checked on the Sheet tab.

Unless you've used some kind of formatting on the cells that employs other
than Automatic font color there isn't much more Excel has to do with it.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 3/10/10 12:01 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,

[snak...@officeformac.com]

Yes, they installed the latest drivers. They said I shouldn't have installed from the software that was enclosed with the printer because it was "old", so they removed everything and had me download a bunch of files from their website. Incidentally, I tried to print your response and that printer tells me the job is on "hold" and even though I click "resume", it wouldn't print. Had to use my old HP.

> Perhaps Canon helped you reinstall the drivers, but did they help you
> reinstall the *latest* drivers? Those that came in the box may well be
> several versions behind. With Snow Leopard that is a critical issue.
>
> Although it's understandable that many people have the wrong impression the
> program you're printing from doesn't do the printing. And the fact that
> printing from one program presents a problem while printing from others
> doesn't really makes little difference. Each program calls for a certain
> array of print services & it's the responsibility of the driver software to
> provide what's needed.
>
> Excel calls for the print service from OS X which works in conjunction with
> the selected printer's driver software to carry out the task. Two things to
> check in Excel: In File> Page Setup confirm that High is selected on the
> Page tab & that Draft Quality is not checked on the Sheet tab.
>
> Unless you've used some kind of formatting on the cells that employs other
> than Automatic font color there isn't much more Excel has to do with it.
>
> HTH |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
>
>
> On 3/10/10 12:01 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,

[John McGhie]

Delete the printer entirely from your computer, then re-start the computer.

Then re-install the printer.

When you re-install, OS X should prompt you to go online to get updated
drivers. If it does, say "Yes". If it doesn't, use the files the Canon
people gave you.

This is a bit of an issue with OS X and Canon printers: the first try
sometimes doesn't work because OS X 10.6 has a different printing engine,
and the old drivers won't work.

Cheers

On 11/03/10 3:54 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"snak...@officeformac.com" <snak...@officeformac.com> wrote:

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word); Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia.
Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410; mailto:jo...@mcghie.name

[CyberTaz]

Further to John's advice... Since your messages don't explicitly indicate
your OS X update level make sure you are at 10.6.2 before you proceed.

Regards |:>)

Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 3/11/10 1:38 AM, in article C7BEDAFD.61F7%jo...@mcghie.name, "John McGhie"

[snak...@officeformac.com]

Cannon won't help me. I had still yet another guy tell me that the problem is Excel. He said that a spreadsheet is a "graphic" and therefore only prints it in cyan, magenta, and yellow. He said only plain text will print dark in black and white. I told him I can't believe people would go out and replace a broken-down printer with a Cannon and then not be able to print their documents in Excel. He would not replace the drivers. He said if the drivers were the problem I wouldn't be able to print anything. I wonder why my Hewlett Packard printer is smart enough to figure out that when I say black and white I want it printed in black and white, not gray and white. I bought my HP in 2002 and it's still chugging away. How does anyone get their documents to print correctly from Excel with a Cannon printer? (By the way, it's a PIXMA MP490.) I am so frustrated!

> Delete the printer entirely from your computer, then re-start the computer.
>
> Then re-install the printer.
>
> When you re-install, OS X should prompt you to go online to get updated
> drivers. If it does, say "Yes". If it doesn't, use the files the Canon
> people gave you.
>
> This is a bit of an issue with OS X and Canon printers: the first try
> sometimes doesn't work because OS X 10.6 has a different printing engine,
> and the old drivers won't work.
>
> Cheers
>
>
> On 11/03/10 3:54 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,

[John McGhie]

Sounds like he knows less than you do :-)

I can't try this, because I don't have your printer, but go to File>Print in
Excel, then drop down the slot that says "Copies and Pages".

Under "Colour Matching" there should be an option to "Force colours to
black" or "Grey scale" or something. The exact options you will see I can't
say: they are not part of Excel. The entire Print dialog is a Mac OS X
dialog, and the options you see in it come from either Mac OS or the printer
driver.

The problem you have is NOT Excel. Excel will print colour or black, and
even mix the two on the same page. On a Mac, Excel does not do any
printing: it simply hands the file over to Mac OS X and says "Here, print
this".

Now, you have to be a little reasonable here: getting a machine that will
print, scan, and copy at photographic resolution for less than a hundred
bucks is Cannon's suggestion to you that you should not expect the same kind
of performance you would get from a $35,000.00 high-volume commercial
printer.

However, I STILL say that the problem is the driver. Your printer has one
cartridge for black ink, and one for the other three colours.

For some reason, it's not using the black ink...

{Lightbulb comes on} Would you mind just opening up the printer for me?
You should see two cartridges in there. One cartridge should have "PG510"
written prominently on it and a BLACK band across the top. The other should
have "CL511" written on it, and a multi-coloured band across the top.

If the black ink is not in there, then your poor printer cannot print a true
black, no matter how hard it tries. It will try: but the result of mixing
Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow produces a muddy greenish-grey colour!

In which case, look in the shipping box: there should be a "PG510" cartridge
in there somewhere: put it in, and you will cure your problem.

Note: The above is unlikely: Most modern printers will refuse to print
"anything" if either cartridge is missing or empty. It is possible that the
Black cartridge is present but not "working", I suppose.

When you're next out shopping, have a look for the high-yield cartridges
(PG512 and CL513). They will give you better than double the number of
pages, but you need to be printing enough to use them up within six months
or they will glunk up on you.

Sorry: You may need to take this one back to the shop and tell them to
"show me it working".

Cheers

On 12/03/10 2:40 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"snak...@officeformac.com" <snak...@officeformac.com> wrote:

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word); Consultant Technical Writer,

[CyberTaz]

Just a footnote to John's reply: The murky result can also occur if you
specify Black for the font color rather than "Automatic".

Regards |:>)

Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 3/12/10 3:06 AM, in article C7C0412F.6271%jo...@mcghie.name, "John McGhie"

[John McGhie]

Thank you! I knew I had missed one :-)

Cheers

On 13/03/10 4:55 AM, in article C7BFEA46.5924F%onlygen...@com.cast.net,

[snak...@officeformac.com]

The choices I get in "color sync" are as follows:

Adobe RGB (1998), Apple RGB, CIE RGB, Canon IJ Color Printer Profile 2005, Canon MP490 series GL2/SG2, Canon MP490 series MP2, Cannon MP490 series PR1, Canon MP490 series PR2, Canon MP490 series PT2, Coated FOGRA27 (ISO 12647-2:2004), Coated FOGRA39 (ISO 12647-2:2004), Coated GRAoL 2006 (ISO 12647-2:2004), ColorMatch RGB, Euroscale Coated v2, Euroscale Uncoated v2, Generic CMYK Profile, Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile, Generic Gray Profile, Generic RGB Profile, Japan Color 2001 Coated, Japan Color 2001 Uncoated, Japan Color 2002 Newspaper, Japan Color 2003 Web Coated, Japan Web Coated (Ad), PAL/SECAM, Photoshop 4 Default CMYK, Photoshop 5 Default CMYK, ProPhoto RGB, SMPTE-C, U>S> Sheetfed Coated v2, U>S> Sheetfed Uncoated v2, U>S> Web Coated (SWOP) v2, U>S> Web Uncoated v2, Uncoated FOGRA29 (ISO 12647-2:2004), Web Coated FOGRA28 (ISOP 12647-2:2004), Web Coated SWOP 2006 Grade 3 Paper, Web Coated SWOP 2006 Grade 5 Paper, Wide Gamut RGB, iMac, sRGB IE61966-2.1, aRGB IEC61966-2.1 Can you tell me if any of these choices are in black? There's no "force colors to black".

[John McGhie]

On 13/03/10 2:45 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"snak...@officeformac.com" <snak...@officeformac.com> wrote:

> Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile, Generic Gray Profile

Those two are in Black and White. But I don't think they will solve your
problem.

Have you followed Bob's suggestion? Open a spreadsheet, select all, then
Format>Cells>Font and ensure the colour is set to "Automatic" and NOT
"Black". Try that.

Other than that, I need you to take the computer and the printer back to the
shop and get the salesman to make it work for you. The possibility of doing
more harm than good is too high; because I can't see what you are doing, and
you are not an expert in this field.

Particularly since I don't have your printer here to try this on.

This is not intended to impugn your ability at all, but the settings
concerned are rather complex, and if we get them wrong, it could be a very
lengthy process to get them right again.

Hope this helps

[snak...@officeformac.com]

Bob-Today I made another chart in Excel. I remembered what you said about "automatic" so just before I was ready to print I went up to the black A in the toolbar and made certain that "automatic" was checked. I then printed the chart and IT PRINTED IN BLACK AND WHITE! Now I've never fiddled with the color whenever I've made a chart/spreadsheet and I would assume that the default setting IS "automatic" so I don't understand why I can't print any of my previous spreadsheets in black and white. I even went back in and opened one of them, made sure "automatic" was checked and printed it and it still came out in gray and white! Oh well.

> Perhaps Canon helped you reinstall the drivers, but did they help you
> reinstall the *latest* drivers? Those that came in the box may well be
> several versions behind. With Snow Leopard that is a critical issue.
>
> Although it's understandable that many people have the wrong impression the
> program you're printing from doesn't do the printing. And the fact that
> printing from one program presents a problem while printing from others
> doesn't really makes little difference. Each program calls for a certain
> array of print services & it's the responsibility of the driver software to
> provide what's needed.
>
> Excel calls for the print service from OS X which works in conjunction with
> the selected printer's driver software to carry out the task. Two things to
> check in Excel: In File> Page Setup confirm that High is selected on the
> Page tab & that Draft Quality is not checked on the Sheet tab.
>
> Unless you've used some kind of formatting on the cells that employs other
> than Automatic font color there isn't much more Excel has to do with it.
>
> HTH |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
>
>

> On 3/10/10 12:01 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,

[snak...@officeformac.com]

Bob-Yesterday I told you that I was able to print a spreadsheet in Excel correctly. Today I decided to tweak it a little but when I printed it, it came out in gray and white! I didn't save my work but canceled it and went back to the first document and tried to print it and it came out in gray and white! Now I can't print it in black and white at all! I can't believe it. Why did it work the first time I printed it? I'm so confused!

> Perhaps Canon helped you reinstall the drivers, but did they help you
> reinstall the *latest* drivers? Those that came in the box may well be
> several versions behind. With Snow Leopard that is a critical issue.
>
> Although it's understandable that many people have the wrong impression the
> program you're printing from doesn't do the printing. And the fact that
> printing from one program presents a problem while printing from others
> doesn't really makes little difference. Each program calls for a certain
> array of print services & it's the responsibility of the driver software to
> provide what's needed.
>
> Excel calls for the print service from OS X which works in conjunction with
> the selected printer's driver software to carry out the task. Two things to
> check in Excel: In File> Page Setup confirm that High is selected on the
> Page tab & that Draft Quality is not checked on the Sheet tab.
>
> Unless you've used some kind of formatting on the cells that employs other
> than Automatic font color there isn't much more Excel has to do with it.
>
> HTH |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
>
>
> On 3/10/10 12:01 PM, in article 59bb4...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
> "snak...@officeformac.com" wrote:
>