Print - Error while printing.

Welcome to Pages discussions:

I'm no great shakes at printers - only got the one. However I do know that following a re-install, some programs can lose track of files they need.

Begin the following with your printer connected and switched on: now, in the Pages print dialogue box, first check if your printer is listed in the first box, "Printer". Even if it is, open up the scroll box list from the arrows to the right of this and select "add printer." This will bring up a "Print Browser" dialogue. Select the "Default Browser" here for a start. Your printer might be listed or not, but it doesn't matter: the point is to find it with Pages running. Select the box at the bottom, "More Printers." This will bring up a search panel, which may show your printer or not (again), probably in grey if it's there.

This panel should already be running a search, which should find your printer as named in your other applications. Select it, and click "Add" which will be highlighted at the bottom right of this panel. Pages should know where it is now. So return to the Pages print panel. If your printer was listed when you had this problem, it will still be there and ticked. Select the new one first, then try it, and if it works get rid of the other. Don't forget to "save presets" when you've finished, selecting a name for you most-used settings. You can add others to those later, with different selections in whatever choices you need from the print dialogue.

If the above doesn't fix things, try giving details of your printer, and someone with a similar one might be able to advise you better.

Sometimes, too, after re-installation, just logging in and out, restarting or running routine maintenance can make these things go away. But I've had to do the above in the past: so at least there's an offchance it might be the same issue. I hadn't noticed if it affected PDF, but I'd assume that it would.

Good Luck.

Several things, beyond Max's suggestions, come to mind.

If it is only the one document, try saving it as an iWork '05 file with a different name & then opening this new file in Pages 2. This is an old trick suggested for problem AppleWorks documents & it has worked before on problem Pages documents. It strips out imbedded printing information.

Delete the com.apple.iwork.pages.plist from HD > Users > [your account] > Library > Preferences & restart Pages.

Even though you are able to print from other programs, it still could be a printer issue. Delete your printer from the Printer list & add it again. If this doesn't work, I'd delete the preferences related to printing. In a Spotlight search of my Preferences folder for "print," I got 10 .plist files with print in the name. Move these to another folder & restart. I'd restart rather than just log out & back in. There are some maintenance routines run at start up. You may have to rest some printing preferences & settings afterwards.

Thanks for your expansion, Peggy. I'm reticent to advise when it comes to deleting files yet: even to moving them sometimes. You really do have to know what you can do and what you can't with that, which is where your experience becomes invaluable.

Just one other thing for a new poster, though - that a PDF file is a print file. If there isn't a printer installed it has to be referred to a system stand-by. Only if it's referred to an actual printer, the PDF will recognise its features and limitations. Referred to a printer that can't be found, a PDF won't work either.

Not sure the poster understood that - hope I have, in your presence!

Regards.

Oops, already:

That's "referred to a printer whose driver can't be found: the printer doesn't need to be plugged in for that. But it does if you're browsing for printers.

Max.

I'm reluctant to delete preferences other than those for AppleWorks, Pages or iWork, too. That's a big reason why I put moving print preferences last. I think the problem lies in Pages & the printer, not just in one or the other.

It could be a font problem.

Make sure the following are in your font folder:

Academy Engraved LET Fonts
Bank Gothic
Blackmoor LET Fonts
BlairMdITC TT-Medium
Bodoni SvtyTwo ITC TT
Bodoni SvtyTwo OS ITC TT
Bodoni SvtyTwo SC ITC TT
Bordeaux Roman Bold LET Fonts
Bradley Hand ITC TT-Bold
Jazz LET Fonts
Mona Lisa Solid ITC TT
Palatino
Party LET Fonts
PortagoITC TT
Princetown LET Fonts
Santa Fe LET Fonts
Savoye LET Fonts
SchoolHouse Cursive B.suit
SchoolHouse Printed A
Snell Roundhand
Stone Sans ITC TT
Synchro LET Fonts
Type Embellishmnt One LET

(These are fonts installed by iWork.)

You may also want to open the application font book and make sure you have no duplicate fonts. Font book puts a dot next to them if they are dups. Select the dups and then from the edit menu select 'resolve duplicates.'

Kurt

I'm not sure whether the particular fonts listed above are the ones that are absolutely necessary, but my printing problem certainly went away when I set up font auto-activation.

I use Linotype's free FontExplorer to manage fonts in OS X but any means of activating fonts should work.

I think the crucial thing is that in my case, the printing process was broken because the required fonts were unavailable.

PB1.5GB Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I'm not sure whether the particular fonts listed above are the ones that are absolutely necessary

The above fonts are not necessary to the system but they are installed with iWork and are included in many of the templates. If the font is missing then the errors may occur even though the doc seems to be opening normally.

Kurt

Apparently this is a permissions problem. I think I caused it by installing separate HP drivers (messy business), instead of just using Apple native ones.

More importantly, this isn't a Pages problem or a font problem: as far as I know, ANY program you try will not not be able to print to PDF or actual printer.

In any case, I found the solution on google groups. The distilled instructions are simple:

1) Go to Disk Repair Utility
2) Click "repair permissions" (take a few minutes; may generate a large log of corrections)
3) Restart computer (don't just logout!)

Some others on Google groups had a more difficult time (the above procedure fixed mine). So if for some reason that doesn't do it for ya then check the discussion below for more info or search google groups under the same error phrase.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.mac.system/browse_thread/thread/e212dc8f 4910d0b8/a7bf823192d4e9c%23a7bf823192d4e9c

More information:
If disk repair doesn't totally fix your problem, try the "repair disk permissions" option on an excellent tweak program called "cocktail." ( http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.html)

Their documentation on this issue (see their help file for more) is as follows:

"Mac OS X incorporates a subsystem based on a UNIX-style operating system that uses permissions in the file system. Every file and folder on your hard disk has an associated set of permissions that determines who can read, write to, or execute it. Incorrect permission settings may cause unexpected behaviour, for example, applications are appearing in the Dock as question marks and/or are not able to connect to the Internet, software installed while logged in as one user will be inaccessible when logged in as another user, files created in Mac OS 9 may appear in Mac OS X with root ownership, backup software may not back up Mac OS X system files that have root ownership, folders for which you do not have write permission can end up in the Trash and you will not be able to delete them or the files contained in them...When you repair disk permissions, the system reviews each of the “Bill of Materials” files in the /Library/Receipts/ folder and compares its list to the actual permissions on each file listed. If the permissions differ, they are corrected (all modifications to the privileges will be lost)."