When I print a PowerPoint presentation with a Prism graph, the graph background prints black.

We've had a few reports that graph backgrounds turn black when printed on a large printer. Many others have no trouble printing on a poster printer.

While we don't really understand why this occurs on a few printers, here are some things to try:

• If you are sending the graph to powerpoint, and printing from there switch, between WMF and EMF output. This is a change on the File&Printer tab of Prism's preferences dialog. This controls the detail of what Prism copies to PowerPoint when you click the send-to-powerpoint button (as well as when you copy and paste). In theory, the two formats are interchangeable. In fact, it sometimes matters.
• Instead of printing directly from Prism or PowerPoint, try exporting to a EMF, WMF, TIFF (high resolution) or JPG file, and then printing that. Even better, if you have the needed software, "print" to a pdf file and then print that pdf file.
• After copying the graph in Prism, use Paste Special in PowerPoint and try the various choices.
• Within Prism, try choosing a different background color.
• If possible, use a different printer. This problem seems specific to older printers (or maybe older printer drivers or older Raster Image Processors). We are told that Kinkos (a chain of printer shops in the US, Canada and elsewhere) does a great job of printing Prism or PowerPoint flies onto posters.