PowerPoint and printing: why your transparencies are displayed with colored squares (and how to fix the problem)

You've worked for hours on a beautiful PowerPoint presentation, with transparency effects, PNG logos, or elegant shadows. Everything is flawless on the screen... but when it's time to print, disaster: colored squares appear around your transparent elements.

Don't worry, you're not alone: it's a common problem, related to how PowerPoint handles transparency when printing.

Why is this problem appearing?

When PowerPoint sends a presentation to the printer, it must “translate” the visual effects (shadows, gradients, transparent images).
Often he Flattens these effects, that is, it transforms transparency into rasterized images. As a result, the printer receives colored blocks, which appear as squares around the objects.

4 simple solutions to fix the bug

1. Check printer settings

First of all, go to File → Print → Printer Properties.

• Activate Print as image if available.
  
• Select High quality.
  This forces the printer to better manage transparencies.
  

2. Adjust PowerPoint print options

In File → Options → Advanced Options → Print :

• Deactivate Print in the background.
  
• Tick High print quality.
  

3. Export to PDF before printing

It is the most effective solution:

• File → Save As → PDF (or Export → Create a PDF document).
  
• In the PDF options, uncheck “ISO 19005-1 (PDF/A)”.
  
• Then print the PDF from Adobe Acrobat or another reader → the result will be true to the screen.
  

4. Manually flatten your transparencies

As a last resort, you can convert transparent objects into images:

• Select the item.
  
• Right click → Save as image.
  
• Choose the format PNG (transparent background).
  
• Reinsert the image into your slide.
  

Conclusion

Colored squares around transparent elements are a well-known bug in PowerPoint when printing. Fortunately, with these few adjustments, you can find prints that are clean and faithful to your slides.

And if you want to go further, at Pokeslide, we specialize in creating professional PowerPoint presentations, optimized for all uses: screen, projection... and printing without unpleasant surprises.