Imported PDF page does not render properly on print

[PLShutterbug]

Hi, I'm new to Publisher.

I'm trying to remove the grey scanning "background" from a piece of music (that's public domain - downloaded from IMSLP). The original is a PDF file. I created a new document in Publisher, Placed the document, and copied each page I need to print, converted to a Picture Frame, rasterized, then discovered I needed to make a Curves adjustment to make the background drop out.

The second page of my document (the first page of the violin solo part) prints on my Epson WorkForce 7720 printer just fine.

The third page (the second page of the violin part) though, prints so light at the bottom of its page I cannot use it. This despite it looking "fine" on my display, next to page 2. If I print to PDF instead, I get the same effect. I'm attaching it here.

What am I doing wrong that it looks ok on my display but just that one page prints too light?

Aside ...

The Curves adjustment on the first page that worked was to the Main channel, on the second page it was Intensity, and on the third page it was Alpha. So a related question is, why doesn't a change to the same channel work on all three pages?

Attached: original downloaded source PDF from IMSLP, the afpub doc with that document embedded, and a "Microsoft print to PDF" 'soft print' that illustrates the problem.

Thanks in advance.

Ysaye - Reve d'Enfant violin solo part.afpub Ysaye - Reve d'Enfant violin solo part.pdf IMSLP36567-PMLP81457-Ysaye_-_Rêve_d'enfant_Op14_Violin_Piano.pdf

[firstdefence]

I think I know why your image is faded, I wondered why the image wasn't displaying in the layers panel and noticed I could still see the text but no white, I tried a threshold filter and it did not affect the image so thats when I decided to change the background transparent.

if you go to Document setup > Colour Tab  and set the background to be transparent you will see the the page image is translucent.

 

[firstdefence]

A simpler tweak to the pages barring the translucent one is to use Brightness and contrast and levels using these settings.

[firstdefence]

I made a new document up, this may save you some time if you need to add more sheets or want to do a different piece.

So,

• I made a Master A document, to this Master I added...
• I added the white rectangle to the top to remove the black line
• I added a Picture Frame Rectangle (PFR) to hold each image on each page
• I added the adjustment filters above the PFR, this means any image in the PFR will be affected by the adjustment filters on each page.
• For the translucent image I added a white rectangle below the PFR, this enables the filters to brighten the translucent image, without this the filters would look like they are not working.

You place the images as a child of the PFR on the actual page not in the Master A document.

Ysaye - Reve d'Enfant violin solo part - New Doc diff setup.afpub

[PLShutterbug]

On 1/27/2023 at 12:29 AM, firstdefence said:

I think I know why your image is faded, I wondered why the image wasn't displaying in the layers panel and noticed I could still see the text but no white, I tried a threshold filter and it did not affect the image so thats when I decided to change the background transparent.

if you go to Document setup > Colour Tab  and set the background to be transparent you will see the the page image is translucent.

 

Thanks for your responses. It's my first chance to get back to this.

My first comment is, I don't know why it is relevant that the page image is translucent. Why is that important? On my monitor, despite the fact that that page is ... to me it's transparent, not translucent, but maybe that's just semantics ... the notes look just as black on that page as they do on the previous page. So that doesn't tell me why they print "faded-looking." Can you explain why that would be?

I'll comment about your other messages too, but I'd like to know why what you are saying is important.

[PLShutterbug]

On 1/27/2023 at 1:19 AM, firstdefence said:

I made a new document up, this may save you some time if you need to add more sheets or want to do a different piece.

So,

• I made a Master A document, to this Master I added...
• I added the white rectangle to the top to remove the black line
• I added a Picture Frame Rectangle (PFR) to hold each image on each page
• I added the adjustment filters above the PFR, this means any image in the PFR will be affected by the adjustment filters on each page.
• For the translucent image I added a white rectangle below the PFR, this enables the filters to brighten the translucent image, without this the filters would look like they are not working.

You place the images as a child of the PFR on the actual page not in the Master A document.

Ysaye - Reve d'Enfant violin solo part - New Doc diff setup.afpub

Thanks, this does look better.

In your first reply were you saying that that one page of the original PDF file I downloaded from IMSLP was translucent rather than opaque like all the other pages in the doc? And that's partially why it printed in such a different way?

[firstdefence]

The page 3 image is translucent not transparent, the notes are faded, you can see through them to the transparency grid if I add a small rectangle below the page 3 image you can see it show through, so, because of this the image will not print boldly and will show as faded because there is less than 100% opacity in that image. This is why I highlighted the fact that it was translucent.

Sometimes people use the Erase white paper feature from Affinity's Photo app but this isn't always a good idea because it can reduce opacity in more than just the white area's. For erase white paper to work properly you would need a threshold image i.e. complete black and white. I'm not saying you used it just an example of why sometimes images become translucent, i.e. all pixels have a reduced opacity.

In the image below, the white 100% opacity rectangle is below the page 3 image, if the black was opaque it wouldn't show through the dark area's and if the presumed "transparent" area's were truly transparent the white would be much brighter and stark but it isn't it's more like it's being hazed out.

To show the translucency see the erased area below.

[PLShutterbug]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

The page 3 image is translucent not transparent, the notes are faded, you can see through them to the transparency grid if I add a small rectangle below the page 3 image you can see it show through, so, because of this the image will not print boldly and will show as faded because there is less than 100% opacity in that image. This is why I highlighted the fact that it was translucent.

Sometimes people use the Erase white paper feature from Affinity's Photo app but this isn't always a good idea because it can reduce opacity in more than just the white area's. For erase white paper to work properly you would need a threshold image i.e. complete black and white. I'm not saying you used it just an example of why sometimes images become translucent, i.e. all pixels have a reduced opacity.

That's exactly what I did, and I worked on the problem page first since it was the last I copied and then chose the specific PDF page from. I think maybe that is the root of the issues I experienced.

The rest of what you say makes sense, now that you've explained it.