Canon MF743CDW prints empty squares on MacOS Catalina

[brianinoc]

When I print pdfs inside of Safari or Preview on MacOS Catalina, some fonts (italics) print as empty squares.  

I tried reinstalling the OS and Canon print drivers and the problem does not go away.

If I switch to Airplay print drivers then things print okay.

Is there a way to get Canon print drivers to work properly on a Mac?

Thanks,

Brian

[Darius]

Hi brianinoc.

The boxes appear when the font data processed does not have an appropriate analogue installed on the device that is processing the data.  This can be either a font mismatch on the computer (if, in your case, the Mac is not recognizing italics for that font), or if the font data is being sent for processing to the printer, without an appropriately broad font option installed or preset on the printer itself. This last occurrence is more common when using Direct Print or PCL Drivers. 

If you haven't yet done so, reinstall the printer specifically using the UFR or UFR II driver option.  UFR and UFR II rely upon the computer to handle rendering, thus sending a pre-processed image of print data instead of sending the PDF itself to be processed.

If the UFR and UFR II drivers still experience this problem, try reinstalling the fonts on the computer from which you are printing.  It is possible that the automated program you are using to create the PDFs has its own font file independent of what is installed on the computer.

In the case that further troubleshooting is required, does the problem occur when printing from a different computer?  Does it occur when printing from Windows?

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[brianinoc]

I tried reinstalling the driver with the latest UFRII driver.  Same issue.

I tried wiping the drive, and then reinstalling the whole MacOS Catalina operating system and user account.  Same problem.

I've seen this on PDFs that I have created and PDFs created by others (scientific papers).  I have taken a look at the PDFs and some of them embed all of the fonts.

Brian

[Darius]

Hi brianinoc.

Open the PDF again in Safari.  Ensure that the MF743Cdw is selected. Instead of printing, click on the PDF button and Save as PDF (name the produced PDF something distinct so you don't mix them up).  Does that created PDF have the same problem with the boxes?

If the created test PDF does not show the boxes, try printing THAT PDF to the MF743Cdw. Does that one print correctly?

I look forward to your update.

[brianinoc]

When I open the created pdf (saved in the print dialog for the printer), it opens fine.  When I print it, I get a bunch of empty boxes.

Brian

[Darius]

Hi brianinoc

This sounds like corruption of the printer driver itself.  We'll need to remove the printer driver before reinstalling to ensure the corruption goes away.

First, remove the printer from the System Preferences > Printers & Scanners list.

Next, look in "Mac HD (-> Library) -> Printers -> PPDs -> Contents -> Resources" for a Canon entry with the same or similar model number to this one. Drag any Canon MF entries that might cover this model to the trash (i.e. "MF700 series").  Repeat for similar entries in "Mac HD (-> Library) -> Printers -> Canon"

Once those are removed, reinstall the UFR II driver from the download, then add the printer back.

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[brianinoc]

Hi Darius,

I have already effectively done this by erasing the entire drive and reinstalling the OS and drivers from scratch.  Even that did not fix the problem.

Regards,

Brian

[Darius]

Hi brianinoc.

The reason I ask to manually remove the drivers is that, when the OS is reinstalled from scratch, the generic drivers (such as Airprint drivers) are reinstalled as well.  It's possible that these generic drivers, or older versions of the Canon-produced drivers, have been reinstalled in that way.  Manually removing them from the folders without reinstalling the OS ensures such a conflict is being addressed.

One more thing I can think of is to try updating the printer's Firmware.  If it's an issue with communication between the printer and computer, a Firmware update will carry the newer communication information.  Directions may be found HERE in the online manual.

If removing the old drivers, reinstalling the newer drivers, and updating the firmware does not correct the problem, then the problem is somewhere in the printing system on the computer, and you'll need to contact Apple Support (https://support.apple.com) for further assistance.

Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

[brianinoc]

I did this and I still have the same issue.  I do not see how it can be an OS issue because if I use the Airprint drivers, everything works fine.

Of course, then I do not get all the extra functionality of the Canon drivers.

[brianinoc]

So I found other pdf documents that print incorrectly with the AirPrint drivers (leaving big blank parts).