Printing maps with a Parchment Appearance
loup_garou_gras
Newcomer
I am a recent convert to CC3 and I have been loving it! I have a question regarding the Classic Fantasy style with the aged parchment background. I am trying to print it on my printer but it keeps printing the background in greyscale, as opposed to the parchment color. I have checked my settings and I have enabled color printing. Not sure what I am doing wrong and I did not find another post with this question. Thank you in advance for any help you may provide, even if it is just a page number in the manual that would be pertinent.
Best Answer
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jslayton
Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
There is a report that Windows KB5000802 update from March 9th of this year breaks printing of brush pattern fills. It has to do with changes to the security model relating to requiring the same device context for creating and using brush bitmaps. Exporting as an image and then printing the image should be a suitable workaround if you're having problems.
Answers
Hm, that sounds strange. Can you post the map you're trying to print, and perhaps a screenshot of your printer sertings?
Here is the map so far.
And thank you for your response!
Ralf will definitely know about that, where I don't know anything about printing at all, but have you tried exporting the map to a jpeg file and then printing the jpeg?
@Loopysue I have not, but that is a great suggestion. I will try it. Update: Tried printing as a JPEG and had the same issue printing in B&W. Thank you for your suggestion anyway!
@thehawk That looks interesting and would make great props for the players!
I guess I should ask is the Classic Fantasy style meant to be printed onto actual parchment paper or paper treated as per thehawk's link? I assumed the yellow color and texture was to make regular untreated printer paper looked like aged parchment, but maybe I misunderstood?
No, it should clearly come out as color on the printer. All CC3+ maps should come out on the printer the same way they look in the software.
I do assume that you have printed color with this printer before (as in printed in color, I know that is a multi-function printer, so I am NOT counting making color copies using the copier function of the printer, as that is a completely different process)? What looks weird to me is that none of the screenshots from the printers own dialogs which you show above mentions colors in any way. Drivers for color printers usually have a switch somewhere to print in greyscale even if the print job is in color. I also have an HP printer, so my dialogs are similar to yours, but I have a separate 'Color' tab in the dialog.
As Ralf mentioned above, having your actual map might also help in troubleshooting.
@Monsen makes an interesting point regarding your printer dialogue boxes. A quick check online suggests the HP4650 series printers seem to have had repeated issues printing in colour, sometimes where another printer is also installed on a given computer, and others where the problem seems to have been solved only by reinstalling fresh printer drivers downloaded from the HP website. I don't know if this is what's happening here, but it may be worth checking some of the online HP information sources just in case.
I've occasionally had problems printing directly from CC3+ before, often where fills don't come out looking right (texture becomes patchy, but still the right colour), for instance. So now I just do what Sue already suggested, prepare a .jpg, and then print that.
@Monsen I have printed in color on that printer before.
@Wyvern I will try updating the drivers.
Here is my map file. Thank you for the responses!
No problem for me exporting to jpeg.
I assume the jpeg would print well enough. I just don't have a printer online at the moment to try it.
There is a report that Windows KB5000802 update from March 9th of this year breaks printing of brush pattern fills. It has to do with changes to the security model relating to requiring the same device context for creating and using brush bitmaps. Exporting as an image and then printing the image should be a suitable workaround if you're having problems.
First off, I would like to thank everyone for their responses. It appears to have been a Windows issue. The "fix", in case anyone else is having the same issue, is to install the printer without removing the prior installation. When it detects the printer, ignore the option to install and instead click my printer is a little bit older, please help me find it. After it finds your printer start the installation but when it comes time to pick a driver choose replace current driver. This fixed my problem, however it did not fix the Windows related reverting from borderless printing issue.