printing blank squares instead of foreign letters

[Tosteris]

Hi.

Recently bought new laptop and installed win8.1 64bit. Tried to print some documents in latvian language, but instead of printing the text as it is on document itself, printer prints non-english letters like ā ē ņ ķ as blank squares. Went to printer preferences in order to change to latvian language, but it doesn't exist on this printer. It printed everything well on previous laptop (win7 ultimate 64bit), so there should be some kind of missing software. Printer drivers are up to date and can't find anything in support as photosmart 2575v is in old printer list, therefore HP has deleted all info about it. Tried to go through some forums, but didn't find solution for problem I'm having at the moment. Any Ideas?

[Dragon-Fur · Accepted solution]

@Tosteris

Little squares indicate symbols / fonts / text that are not recognized by the operating system and / or printer.

Control Panel > set icon view > Fonts >> displays fonts included in the system (No Latvian, at least not on my USA born notebook running Windows 8.1 Pro)

Barring adding a Latvian font library -- and assuming the printer software could use it -- you can perhaps just print your document(s) as an image.

For example, for a PDF document >

Open PDF document in Adobe Reader DC > File > Print > Advanced > select to Print As Image

------------------------------------------------------------------

Adobe Reader DC can be updated with a Font Pack:

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Font Pack (Continuous)

------------------------------------------------------------------

If the document is (Office) Word, you could try printing the document with embedded fonts.

For example, Word 2013:

Open Word document > File > Options > Save > (last section) CHECK embed fonts in the file > OK

When you see a Post that helps you,

Inspires you, provides fresh insight,

Or teaches you something new,

Click the "Thumbs Up" on that Post.

Click my Answer Accept as Solution to help others find Answers.

[Tosteris]

Adobe Acrobat did the trick at the end when I changed that file to a borderless photo. I think that basically I had this problem because it was a .doc file, but Firefox opened it as .pdf, so I automatically assumed that it's a .pdf file without even looking and since I don't have MS Word at the moment, Adobe had problems with recognizing it. Thanks for your post,  I found it helpful 😉

[Dragon-Fur]

@Tosteris

Ah!  Makes sense!

I am glad it is "fixed".

Apache OpenOffice (free alternative to Microsoft Office software) does indicate that although the package is "outdated", that there is (apparently) support / version software for Latvian.

Apache OpenOffice - Native Languages

OpenOffice is not (of course) Microsoft Office software -- typically, though, the Office alternatives support the Office document types (.doc, .docx, etc).

Example:  OpenOffice Writer (Word)

Might be worth a look if you ever need a bit more than printing a completed document in the language of your choice.

Happy Printing!

When you see a Post that helps you,

Inspires you, provides fresh insight,

Or teaches you something new,

Click the "Thumbs Up" on that Post.

Click my Answer Accept as Solution to help others find Answers.