Black background when printing as bitmap

thank you for the report,

- which OS ?
- which version of Inkscape ?
- could you submit a sample .svg file ?

Windows Vista (64 bit) - home premium edition
Inkscape v0.46

Nothing special about the svg file, just as I mentioned - just throw some elements on the canvas and try to print as raster.

Itai.

I have the same problem

Ubuntu 9.04 64bit
Inkscape 0.47pre0 r21549, built Jun 12 2009

The document here is a simple shape with a drop shadow (Filters->Shadows and Glows->Drop Shadow...) applied.

My guess would be that this is an issue with the Gaussian blur filter.

- running Inkscape 0.47pre2 on Windows, if I use the option File->Export Bitmap at 300 dpi, I get the following .png file, which looks reasonable.
- would you be willing to try a recent build to see if this resolves the problem?

I had the same problem, but it only happens with my laser printer (HP P1505). I hever had this problem with my old Epson inkjet printer.
The problem appears when there is transparent background. If I set the alpha of the background to 100% it prints fine.
The black background appeared both in vector and bitmap print.

I'm running inkscape pre2 on Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

Alvin, the problem isn't when using File->Export Bitmap. When going to print you are given the option to change the rendering backend from vector to bitmap.

When printing with the backend set to Vector, the shape is not printed at all.
Although setting the backend to Bitmap, I get the yellow circle with a black background.

As such there is an issue whichever backend you use. Its probably more noticeable with the bitmap one.

Actually using Export Bitmap is what I have been using as a workaround.

ah yes, finally I get it. I had not noticed before the tab that says "Rendering". So now if I choose "Rendering"->bitmap at 300 dpi, I get a printout that looks normal as far as I can tell. It must be system-dependent.
- Windows XP, Inkscape 0.47pre2, printer HP Deskjet 895Cxi

Alvin: In my case the problem appears with imported bitmaps with alpha.
I'm attaching a photo of a printed page showing the problem (the drawing of the two kids is an imported PNG).

     cannot reproduce this problem on Windows XP. I have loaded the image 'black-background.jpg', and printed it with vector backend, and bitmap backend at 300 dpi, and also exported as .png. All three output methods yield a result that is identical to the screen display in Inkscape.
    The screen display in Inkscape shows two children with a black background and a red circle, but I assume this was deliberate.

Ouch! Sorry for making you waste paper, but the image was a photo I took of the printout, not a file to print and reproduce the error. I just wanted to show how the print look because of the bug.
The circle is deliberate, of couse, a mark to point the transparent PNG that was printed with a black background instead of its transparency.
The actual file is just a design with an imported transparent PNG. Try to reproduce with that.
I suspect that the printer model and drivers may have something to do with this problem, because iirc I hadn't had this problem in my previous printer (an old epson inkjet)

@Freddie - can you test if resetting the opacity value of the yellow circle to 100% (in the 'Fill and Stroke' dialog) in 'shadow.svg' changes the printed result? The opacity value doesn't get set by the default 'Drop Shadow' filter.

(I am thinking of other reports about issues with PDF/PS export of objects with reduced opacity like bug #427226, bug #336638, bug #378760 - SVG opacity seems to be handled differently from alpha transparency when exporting to PS/PDF)

Oops, I didn't realise that I had set an opacity.

In any case, after setting the shape opacity back to 100%, I still get the black background behind the circle. This is independent of the rendering backend that I use (vector or bitmap).

Confirmed on Ubuntu 9.04 - Inkscape 0.47 rr22560
Print, rendering bitmap 15o dpi (Epson DX 5050)

I think I see the same issue on 10.4 - I imported a PDF (which in turn contains a bitmap image) to use as background, but printing this resulted in just a black page. Printing the PDF from evince worked fine, and choosing "bitmap" instead of the default "vector" in the Rendering tab in inkscape's print dialog also worked.

Reproduced on Windows XP, Inkscape 0.46.
Not reproduced with 0.47, 0.48.2 and trunk revision 10948.

Tests on other operating systems needed.

Fix confirmed on CrunchBang Linux, Inkscape 0.47 and trunk revision 10951.