Printer Output / Problems wanted

[da boens]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help me.
I'm working on the design of a dialogue between two artists. The transcript will be distributed for free over the internet. The challenge here is to design something that can be read on screen, but (if the reader wants to) can also be printed for further reading.

One of the first ideas I had was to design something that will have a different output when printed. I was thinking about the hard times most of us will have had when something comes out of the printer that doesn't look like the way we intended it to be. (ie. color, font, etc.)
So now I'm wondering if you know some 'defects' that will change the outcome of a design when printed, because it would be interesting to, for once, integrate these 'defects' on purpose.

thanks in advance

[budafist]

You could play around with overprints and non printing elements. Also paper colour - when you have a background colour that doesn't print. You may be able to experiment with things set in the paper colour so that when the viewer prints it some of the info disappears.

[doubting_thomas]

Remove embedded fonts from a PDF. Not the normal Times or Arial,
but make a document with less common ones. Make white overprints
in the piece. Resolution that looks fine on screen and prints chunky. Use
lots of transparency for no reason so it chokes most printers. Secure the
document so it can't be printed without a password. Promise to send a
disk, send it, but leave it blank.

Hmmmmm... What else have our valued clients done this month

[mkb.aus]

lol... sounds like you want 90% of the files we get.

[Ned]

How are you displaying this on-screen? Is it in a pdf, jpg, html? Really can't help you until we know what format you're talking about! :p

[Booger]

lol... sounds like you want 90% of the files we get. :D lol,

Oh, do some MS Word 3d text art, thats always fun!

[da boens]

It'l probably be a pdf…

[budafist]

What if you designed the whole thing at 10% of actual size? Then blew it up to actual print size. Happy pixelating!