DLTK's Sites for Kids
Help for printing our templates and activities.
This print help page is for users of DLTK's Crafts for Kids and its sister sites. We hope to provide you with suggestions to help solve any problems that you may be having while trying to print the activities and templates on our sites.
If you are having general difficulties with your printer or you are not able to print from any applications, you should refer to the troubleshooting guide that came with your printer or check the online support on the website for your printer manufacturer.
Most print problems I experience when I'm surfing are the result of temporary glitches. The first thing I always do is bookmark where I was, reboot my computer (including shutting down my printer) and then start everything up again. I then go back in to where I was and try printing again. I've found that 90% of the time this solves whatever is wrong.
Still not working? Below is a list of common problems and their solutions. These solutions will help most of you but if you are still having trouble you are welcome to contact us using our print help form.
- Why is the "Print Template" link at the top of the page not working?
- Why is my template cut off or printing on multiple pages?
- Why can I see the image template on the screen but when I print the image
does not show up on paper?
- Why am I unable to view or print the images / templates?
- When I try to print a page, I only get part of the page. Do I have to do something special to make the whole page print?
- I use A4 paper. Do you have your projects available for this size?
- When I try to print some pages, I receive the error message "NO PAGES AVAILABLE TO PRINT". Why?
If none of these questions/answers have helped to solve your problem
please let us know using our print help form.
Q: Why is the "Print Template" link at the top of the page not working?
A: In order to use the “Print Template” link, you will need to have javascript enabled in your browser. If you do not have Javascript enabled, simply use the print function on your browser (for example, in Internet Explorer, click the Tools Gear at the top right of your screen and select Print)
Q: Why is my template cut off or printing on multiple pages?
A: All our templates are designed to fit on a single page of letter sized paper with minimum margins. If you can reduce your to a quarter inch (6mm) or less on all sides then the printed template should fit on a single page. To reduce your margins:
- in Internet Explorer - Choose FILE -> PAGE SETUP from the menu to open the page setup dialogue box. The margin settings will in the in top right part of that dialoge box. Adjust the numbers or just put zero for top, bottom, left and right and click OK and Explorer will automatically adjust the margins to their minimums for your printer.
- in Google Chrome - When you click the print button on our template page a print window opens in Chrome. On the left side of the print window there is a setting for 'margins'. Choose none or minimum to allow the template to print full sized.
- in Microsoft Edge - When you click the print button on our template page a print window opens in Edge. On the left side of the print window there is a setting for 'margins'. Choose narrow to allow the template to print full sized.
- in Safari on the iPad - There is no way to control the print margins for the browser on the iPad. Safari may resize the image slightly to fit on a page with its default margin settings.
If all else fails you can save the template to your computer by right clicking on the template image and choosing "Save picture as..." or "Save image as...". Then you can open the image in your favorite image editing software and print it from there.
Q: Why can I see the image template on the screen but when I print the image does not show up on paper?
A: This is our most common problem and can be caused by a variety of things. Here are a couple of solutions that have worked for some viewers:
- If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer you need to
ensure that your advances options are set to "Print
background colors and images." To do this:
- Click "tools" from the menu bar at the top of the browser .
- Choose "Internet Options" when the menu drops down.
- Click on the "advanced" tab.
- Scroll down to where it says "Printing" (that should be more than halfway down)
- Check the box below "Printing" that says "Print background colors and images"
- Click "apply", then click "OK" - Some viewers with Lexmark printers continue to experience
the problem even though their browser is set to print
backgrounds and images. I don't know the technical reasons for this but it has to do with the settings in your printer software. Basically, if you want to print in BLACK and WHITE you need to "tell" (set) the printer to print only B/W -- if set on automatic it prints a blank page or doesn't print at all, the same procedure has to be done for color printing, set to color and print. For some reason It does not read automatic setting. Here is a more technical explanation provided by Lexmark that one of our viewers shared with us:
"For Windows 2000/XP, to check the print processor, right click on the printer driver icon and left click on Properties. Choose the Advanced tab. Click the print processor button. The Lexmark Print Processor is the first choice of print formats, with the LEMF datatype best for use with Lexmark inkjet printers. Using RAW or NT EMF is also an excellent test. If this fails, try the WinPrint processor. This is the Windows resident print processor."
Another viewer was able to print the images by changing their print settings to "QuickPrint". - Also see help with graphics accelerator features.
If all of these options fail to correct the problem and you are unable to print from the browser there is another option to print a template. If you right click on the image and choose 'Save As' to save the image to your hard drive. You can then open the image in your favourite software and print from there. Depending on the software installed on your computer you may also be able to right click on the file you saved on your hard drive and choose 'Print Using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer'.
Q: Why am I unable to view or print the images / templates?
A: We have had new problems with viewers not being able to view or print the images.
We have discovered that the problem is with Internet Explorer or other
browsers using graphics accelerator features. The
fixes are found in the links below. By disabling/turning off the accelerator
features in the browser the images can be viewed and
therefore the viewer can print. It seems that that the
accelerator feature will either hide the images or convert
them into a different format that reduces its size - it depends
on the type of accelerator and browser the viewer has installed.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=181836
(Solution
#4 usually resolves the issue - turn off accelerator.)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817177
(In
some cases the only way to resolve the issue is getting this fix
from Microsoft or wait until the fix comes in the next update or
installing a different browser. A couple of viewers have switched to another browser to be able to print.)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/176945/EN-US/
(Some specific video cards that do not work with Internet Explorer.)
Q: When I try to print a page, I only get part of the page. Do I have to do something special to make the whole page print?
A: This problem can be caused by one of two things. In one case the template was interrupted while downloading and is showing incomplete on your screen and also prints incomplete. The second problem can be related to your computer memory. To solve the problem try these steps:
| Step 1 - Reload the template
page. Hold the CTRL key and press F5. This forces your browser to reload the page from our web server and ignore any cached information that may be saved on your computer. If this works the image will now show complete on your screen. Step 2 - Free up your computer memory. Some of our templates are quite large and require a lot of computer resources to print. (A good example are the mini-books on dltk-teach.com) Large images like these need a lot of free memory. When your page doesn't print or only partially prints try freeing up some memory:
|
Q. I use A4 paper. Do you have your projects available for this size?
A. No but you can right click on the image, save it to your hard disk and open in another program to scale and print.
Q. When I try to print some pages, I receive the error message "NO PAGES AVAILABLE TO PRINT". Why?
A. Not sure what the error message means but if you refresh your browser it will usually solve the problem. Click your browser's RELOAD / REFRESH button (or press CTRL+F5) and try printing again or right click on the image, save it to your hard disk and open it in another program to print.
If none of these questions/answers have helped to solve your problem please .