Microsoft KB Archive/128484

= PUB: Hairlines Disappear When Printing to an HP III =

Article ID: 128484

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Publisher 3.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Publisher 2.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Publisher 2.0a

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This article was previously published under Q128484



SYMPTOMS
When you print a publication, certain lines disappear randomly from a document printed to a Hewlett-Packard (HP) III series printer at 300 dpi. The lines that disappear are the lines set to the Hairline thickness, to a color other than black, and to the lightest gray fill style.



CAUSE
The HP III printer trys to fit the pattern fill of the light gray style to a 300 dpi grid using an averaging algorithm. Some pixels fall out of the average, others find a perfect match. The color black fills the pixels evenly, while the other colors have an uneven fill pattern that doesn't quite match the average.



WORKAROUND
There are four possible workarounds:
 * Change the width of the line to one point. This will create a line that is four pixels wide on a 300 dpi printer and may resolve the problem.
 * Change the line color to black. This will let your line(s) print in the light gray fill style on the HP III printer.
 * Choose the next lighter gray fill style for the line. The darker gray fill has more pixels to hit the HP III fill average, and should print out fine.
 * Reposition the lines up or down slightly. Since the problem is caused by aligning the fill to the HP III's 300 dpi fill average, moving the line up or down may place it in a position to hit the average and print out. This is the more laborious of the work arounds mentioned in this article because it will take several tries before you find the right position for the line to print out.



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

Additional query words: 2.00 2.00a pub20 pub20a pub3 Pub97 mspub

Keywords: kbprint kbprb KB128484

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