printing digital products problems

[MomLifeUplifted]

hello, i had a customer purchase a digital download from me but she said it printed out with black boxes and distorted pictures...i have had this downloaded from others before with no problems...does anyone know what could be causing the issue I can't seem to find much info about it online she says it looks fine on the computer but not printing correctly...thanks, Lisa

[givemeacrown]

@MomLifeUplifted There are a lot of variables going into that such as what program was used to create the PDF, what device the person is viewing it on, what program they're using to print the file, and what model of printer they have.

I have heard of instances before where popular printers have printed PDFs with strange marks and alignments and that has been due to a fault in the printer driver.  Once the people updated their printer drivers then the PDFs printed perfectly.

If you ask her for information such as device, program and printer then you might be able to google to find out if it's a known bug with that particular printer to help troubleshoot the issue.

As it displays okay on screen but the issue arises once the file is sent to the printer then I would find it's most likely an issue with the program settings or the printer driver.

[PieceByNumberQuilts]

Send the file to the customer again, or tell her to redownload again from Etsy.  Ask her to delete the original file, then try printing the new file copy.  I have 2 or 3 customers each year (always different ones) with this issue, and redownloading has always solved it.  Files can be corrupted or damaged as the make their way around the internet - it doesn’t happen a lot but it does happen.

if redownloading doesn’t work, then move on to other troubleshooting steps like @givemeacrown suggests. But so far (knock on wood), I’ve never had to do this.  It’s kind of like rebooting as the first step to take with any computer problems!

[TheWoollyDesignCoUK]

Pretty much 100% of customers who messaged me with the same are using an Apple device. For some reason unless the PDF reader such as Adobe is the latest version this seems to be common.