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images with transparency adjustments print grey and are grey when saved as .pdf

I write a monthly community newsletter. After upgrading to Mojave 10.14.1, images with transparency adjustments in Office for Mac Word 16.16.4 look fine onscreen yet print greyed out. Also, saving the same file as a .pdf produces a greyed out image. Older issues created before Mojave now behave similarly.


Posted on Dec 8, 2018 7:23 AM

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Posted on Dec 8, 2018 7:31 AM

Do you observe this issue when viewing the resultant PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (v2019)? Have you updated to Mojave 10.14.2 yet, and if so, does the issue persist in either PDF reader?


Is your printer driver compatible with Mojave?

6 replies

Dec 8, 2018 9:18 AM in response to Marty.K

I responded too quickly. The issue still exists with Mojave 10.14.2 and Word 16.16.4.


In reply to your questions: I do not use Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. I see the results in Preview. I have forwarded the .pdf file to others not running a macOS and they see the grey image as well. The printer should be compatible with Mojave. The Epson firmware is up to date as is the software which also identifies: On OS X v10.6 and later, the latest driver is distributed via Apple Inc.’s Software Update.


I've created a new blank document and imported the same image twice. The image on the right side I've adjusted the transparency to 40% using the Word picture formatting tool. The images both look fine in Word saved as a .docx fi.e. However, when attempting to print the .docx file, the image with transparency applied is greyed out. This is also seen, visually as well as printed, when the .docx file is exported as a .pdf from the Word "save as" function. 





Dec 8, 2018 9:51 AM in response to Marty.K

The last Epson printer drivers for the XP-960 series that Epson claims are compatible with macOS Mojave were released on Sept 11, 2018 — almost two weeks before Mojave was released on Sept 24. The Epson Printer Drivers v3.3 for OS X (latest) from the Apple downloads site was made available in Summer 2017 — so more than a year out of date for Mojave compatibility. There remains a possibility that Apple, Microsoft, or both could have introduced some issue causing the greyed out transparency.


I would update your Office 16.16.4 to the November 13, 2018 Office 16.19.0 release, and see if the problem persists.

Dec 8, 2018 10:43 AM in response to VikingOSX

Hi,


Just to clarify, the .pdf file in the screen capture above was created from the Word "save as" function, not from the Epson print preview screen.


Also, Office 16.16.4 was released November 13, 2018 and is the current version of Office for Mac 2016. Office 16.19.0, with the same release date, applies to Office for Mac 2019.


I've been in contact with the Microsoft support group for the past couple of weeks. They confirmed they get the same transparency issue using Mojave 10.14.1 and Word 16.16.4


The Update to Mojave 10.14.2 did not change the issue. The Microsoft team asked me to reach out to the Apple team as they have yet to find the source of the issue on their end.


Thanks,

Marty

images with transparency adjustments print grey and are grey when saved as .pdf

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