Graphic design on XP... need help solving issues

[M A V I C]

A client of mine has a newer XP machine at work. Trust me, I know.

She has a pile of issues, and I've pretty much said I don't want to touch them because I don't know how it'll effect the rest of the system. Here's some of the issues:

- PageMaker prints 5x the copies: If she tries to print more than one copy of something at a time, it wants to print 5x the amount. For example, she inputs 5 copies and it prints 25 copies.

- Often photoshop will fail to print. I sent her a TIFF and it started acting like it was going to print then nothing came out. She had a pile of jpegs direct from a digicam and several of them did the same thing. She's also had issues with getting an "unknown error" when trying to print. Simply duplicating the open file and trying to print that allows her to print. I'm guessing it's some sort of file corruption.

- FreeHand will not print.

- Acrobat will not embed fonts.

- She has a ton of fonts, and can't find a good font manager. One that automatically enabled and disable fonts would be best.

The print driver is up-to-date.

Any ideas? TIA.

[Seacrest]

M A V I C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> - PageMaker prints 5x the copies: If she tries to
> print more than one copy of something at a time,
> it wants to print 5x the amount. For example, she
> inputs 5 copies and it prints 25 copies.

That's OK. We've got plenty of trees.

>
> - Often photoshop will fail to print. I sent her a
> TIFF and it started acting like it was going to
> print then nothing came out. She had a pile of
> jpegs direct from a digicam and several of them
> did the same thing. She's also had issues with
> getting an "unknown error" when trying to print.
> Simply duplicating the open file and trying to
> print that allows her to print. I'm guessing it's
> some sort of file corruption.
>
> - FreeHand will not print.

You might want to check for adequate free disk space/fragmentation/bad sectors.
Often when printing, there's spooling involved and if the drive is bad, you'll have issues.

>
> - Acrobat will not embed fonts.

She might want to switch profiles?
Also, certain TrueType font licenses disallow embedding.

>
> - She has a ton of fonts, and can't find a good
> font manager. One that automatically enabled and
> disable fonts would be best.

http://www.extensis.com/en/products/font_management/product_information.jsp?id=1054

> The print driver is up-to-date.
>
> Any ideas? TIA.
>

[mick e]

mick e almost ran away when he saw PageMaker. Where to begin.

Does she have IT support on this machine?

mick e had problems similar to this, during that very dark month in which he was a government employee working on a XP Dull.

Basically a full re-install of Acrobat and Distiller cured the beast. It would probably not hurt to do the same with PM, PS, and the font software.

This moment of reflection has hurt mick e's soul. Please forward his sympathies to your friend, and these words of advice: GET OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!

[Filliam H. Muffman]

If she has an IT department at work, have them do a nuke and pave. The 5X printing problem sounds familliar but I have lost too much of my 1337 skilz to find it quickly. A check for malware would not hurt either.

[Paul F.]

Not a clue on most of it...

I had a printer here (HP Laserjet) that was printing multiple copies when it should have been printing one..
I attacked it with the LaserJet utility and reset it to factory defaults, then re-set those options I wanted/needed.
No further troubles.

I have no idea if it would be applicable in this case. I suspect not...



That nuke and pave idea sounds attractive...

[bazookaman]

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.
Its the only way to be sure.