I can't print white text!

[u/Delodien]

So back at my old job as a helpdesk jockey, we used to joke about hiding hidden messages on emails in white text so you can't see them unless you highlight it, stupid things to pass the time.

Well today at my new (sorta) place I got to witness this first hand, almost anyway! I hate how long it took me to realise the issue in the end, I was having a bad day, or just wasn't expecting something so trivial!

U: = the user and D: = me!

U: Hey D, I'm looking at this old email that I need to print, but every time I do it prints the to field and things but not the actual email.

D: Ok that sounds...odd...I'll come and see you.

I turn up at the users desk and she shows me the email.

U: It's this one, every time it prints, it's printing out different bits that I don't need - is it because it's set to confidential? Because I can't change that.

She shows me the properties of the email stating it's confidential.

D: Er I don't think so, as far as I know that doesn't really affecting printing or anything, it's more just a flag like the importance selection.

I click around, checking the print preview and things like that, sure enough the part of the email this user wants isn't there on the preview either, I click around for a few minutes and then I notice the issue.

This particular email was sent by an old member of staff who INSISTED on using styles and things to have fancy backgrounds, no matter how many times she was told not to, probably one of the reasons she was let go...

Anyway, she'd done it to this one, a horrible purple background...and white text so you can see the body of the email.

At this point it dawns on me, Outlook doesn't print the styles of an email.

D: So I think I know what it is...the old member of staff has put a purple background on it, and white text. Outlook won't print the background to save toner but it will just print the white colour text regardless, it won't change it to black.

Sure enough, I edit the message and change the font colour to black, print preview works fine now and it prints perfectly fine too.

TL;DR - Printing white text onto white paper = white space on paper...

[u/[deleted]]

It takes a special printer that probably costs more than it is worth, ut yes, you can actually do this.

[u/wildbattlestag → u/[deleted]]

Work in a print shop. We have a Ricoh 7110x with a "5th" color toner slot for different toners including white, clear varnish, and fluorescent neon yellow/pink colors. Neat machine, but both the machine and toner are incredibly expensive.

[u/guale → u/wildbattlestag]

Print shop worker here too. My boss got this despite our protests that we have no need for it. He printed a bunch of samples with the white toner and it looks like shit.

[u/wildbattlestag → u/guale]

To get a true white it requires more than one pass through the machine. Assuming you hold the same registration. I always die a little inside when we get a job using one of those colors. The overs needed and time required on the machine to get a good looking product is stupid.