[Solved] Grey background when printing documents with images

Discuss the word processor
Post Reply
abukarmo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:14 pm

[Solved] Grey background when printing documents with images

Post by abukarmo »

I face the following problem;

I inserting images in a document in WRITER with transparent back groud and GIF format, I do that by inserting a table (1 column 1 row) and then i insert the image in that cell,
and it seems OK when i see on screen, but when i print the document the background of some images will be printed light black. Does anybody know the solution of this problem.
I add two images: one shows how i see the document and the other image shows how will be by printing
Attachments
what i get by printing
what i get by printing
what i see on screen
what i see on screen
Last edited by abukarmo on Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
OpenOffice 4.1.2 on Windows XP
User avatar
Hagar Delest
Moderator
Posts: 32627
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: France

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by Hagar Delest »

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I don't use the gif format, so can't say. But png is equivalent, have you tried to convert it to .png with transparency?
Note: if you export in PDF, does it also print the gray background? or is it visible in the PDF?

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the edit button if your issue has been fixed.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
abukarmo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:14 pm

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by abukarmo »

Hi Hagar, thanks for reply
when i export to dpf: the back ground will be transparent within the pdf file, but as i print the pdf file the gray color will appear again.

In the mean while I tried to solve this problem and I discovered, that because I am using "callouts", but I nedd to use "callouts" with the images, so any suggestions?
OpenOffice 4.1.2 on Windows XP
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by John_Ha »

Can you upload two small images (128kB max); one which prints "white" and one which prints "grey".

This can be caused by reducing the number of colours to the 8-bit, 256 colours used in GIF images, where the colour gamut (the range of colours) is optimised based on the picture content. Instead of stretching from, say, [0, 0, 0] to [256, 256, 256]; it only stretches, from, say, [30, 30, 30] to [240, 240, 240]. The [30, 30, 30] still looks black, but the [240, 240, 240] looks grey.

PNG uses 24 bit, 16.7 million colours and should not have this problem - unless you reduce the colour depth to 8 bit, 256 colours.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by John_Ha »

Also, Writer produced PDFs seem to put one or two bit artefacts like this on images - I think it is the algorithm used to produce the PDF which does it.

I never copy an image from a Writer produced PDF without checking that the entire background is a single colour value - eg [255, 255, 255] for white for a 24 bit colour image. Use Colour fill (or better, Replace colour) in your graphics editor with a tolerance of, say, 10, so that [246, 246, 246] and above will all be set to [255, 255, 255] (and similarly for 8 bit GIFs).
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
User avatar
Hagar Delest
Moderator
Posts: 32627
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: France

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by Hagar Delest »

Another problem could be a light gray grid remaining among the transparent pixels, that is not a uniform transparent background. If you zoom so that you see clearly the pixels, are they all transparent or do you see a kind of checked pattern?
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
abukarmo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:14 pm

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by abukarmo »

Hi,
Thanks John, thanks Hagar
Regarding Johns comments: which program do you use to edit images or illustrations and which gives you all these facilities (which you talked about) ? I worked just "newly" with PAINT.NET.

As I found a solution for this problem just today afternoon, which i think meets what you talked about; the transparent background of the image was the problem, because when I make the background of the image white, i got a clear print of the document even with using "callouts".

Thanks again
OpenOffice 4.1.2 on Windows XP
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Light black background when printing documents with imag

Post by John_Ha »

abukarmo wrote:Regarding Johns comments: which program do you use to edit images or illustrations and which gives you all these facilities (which you talked about) ? I worked just "newly" with PAINT.NET.
I use IrfanView for 99% of my graphics work - it is excellent.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
abukarmo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:14 pm

Re: [Solved] Grey background when printing documents with im

Post by abukarmo »

thanks
OpenOffice 4.1.2 on Windows XP
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: [Solved] Grey background when printing documents with im

Post by John_Ha »

See Re: Images for some useful hints on using images.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
abukarmo
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 6:14 pm

Re: [Solved] Grey background when printing documents with im

Post by abukarmo »

Uselful links :super:
OpenOffice 4.1.2 on Windows XP
Post Reply