Printing worked yesterday. This morning the receipt comes out tiny, the report opens a blank tab, or the ticket printer spits out half a page. Nobody changed anything in Altru, and that’s usually the clue: when Altru printing breaks suddenly in Chrome, the cause is almost always on the browser or workstation side, not in your Altru data.
Chrome updates itself quietly and often. Those updates can change print preview defaults, pop-up handling, and how PDFs open. Windows updates can swap printer drivers or reset the default printer. Any of those is enough to break a print workflow that had been stable for months.
Below is how to narrow it down by symptom, starting with the fixes that take a minute.
First, rule out the one machine
Before changing settings, find out how widespread the problem is.
- Same workstation, different browser. Try the same print job in Microsoft Edge. If it prints correctly there, you’ve confirmed it’s a Chrome setting or extension, not Altru and not the printer.
- Same browser, different workstation. If every Chrome machine fails the same way, suspect a Chrome update or a change your IT team pushed through policy. If only one fails, it’s that machine’s profile, driver, or printer setup.
- Incognito window. Open Altru in an incognito window (extensions are usually off there). If printing works, an extension is interfering.
Those three tests take five minutes and save you from chasing the wrong cause.
Nothing happens when you click print
Reports and some print actions open in a new window or tab. Chrome’s pop-up blocker can stop that silently, leaving only a small icon at the right end of the address bar.
- Look for the blocked pop-up icon in the address bar after clicking print.
- Allow pop-ups and redirects for your Altru site address in Chrome’s site settings.
- Check for ad blockers or privacy extensions, which can block the same windows even when the built-in blocker allows them.
If your organization manages Chrome centrally, a policy may be overriding what you set locally. Ask IT to add the Altru domain to the allowed pop-up list in policy so it sticks on every machine.
The printout is the wrong size or cut off
This is the most common complaint, especially with receipts and tickets on narrow or thermal printers. Chrome’s print preview has its own settings that override what you expect:
- Scale. “Fit to page” or a custom percentage can shrink a receipt to a postage stamp. Try “Default” or 100%.
- Paper size. Chrome sometimes falls back to Letter even when the printer uses a receipt roll or ticket stock. Pick the size that matches the media under “More settings.”
- Margins. Set margins to “None” or “Minimum” for tickets and receipts.
- Headers and footers. Turn these off, or you’ll get a date, URL, and page number squeezed onto every ticket.
- Destination. Make sure the job is going to the actual printer, not “Save as PDF” or a printer Chrome remembered from a different station.
Chrome usually remembers the last settings per printer, but an update or profile reset can wipe them. If you have several stations, write the correct settings down for each printer type and keep them by the register.
Reports open blank or download instead of opening
Many Altru reports render as PDFs or open in a viewer before you print. If Chrome’s PDF settings changed, the file may download instead of displaying, or open blank.
- Check Chrome’s PDF document setting (under site and content settings) to see whether PDFs open in Chrome or download.
- If a downloaded PDF prints correctly from Adobe Reader or another viewer, the problem is Chrome’s built-in viewer, not the report.
- Clear cached images and files for the Altru site, sign out, and sign back in. Stale cached pages can cause odd rendering after an Altru or Chrome update.
Ticket and receipt printers specifically
Dedicated ticket and receipt printers are the most fragile part of this. They depend on the right driver, the right paper size definition, and sometimes a local component on the workstation that connects the browser to the printer.
We’re not going to guess at exactly which components your Altru setup relies on, because that varies by hardware and how your stations were configured. What’s worth checking:
- Print a Windows test page to the ticket printer outside the browser. If that fails, it’s a driver or hardware problem, not Chrome.
- Confirm a Windows update didn’t replace the manufacturer’s driver with a generic one. The generic driver often lacks the right stock sizes.
- If your stations had any helper software installed for printing when Altru was set up, make sure it’s still installed and running after recent updates.
- Check Blackbaud’s current system requirements and knowledgebase for your printer model. Supported browser and printer combinations change over time.
When to call Blackbaud
Open a case with Blackbaud support when the same print job fails in every browser on every machine, or when a specific report or receipt layout looks wrong even as a saved PDF. That points to the report or Altru itself rather than the browser. Give them the browser version (from Chrome’s “About” page), the printer model and driver, and exactly which print action fails. A short screen recording helps.
Keeping it from happening again
- Keep a backup browser ready. Have Edge signed in to Altru on front-desk machines so a Chrome problem doesn’t stop sales.
- Document printer settings. One page per station: printer, paper size, margins, scale, headers off.
- Coordinate updates with IT. If possible, have Chrome and driver updates land on one test station first, and avoid pushing them right before a big event or member day.
- Retest after updates. Print a receipt, a ticket, and one report after any browser or Windows update, before the doors open.
Quick answers
Is Chrome supported for Altru?
Blackbaud publishes supported browsers for Altru, and that list changes. Check their current system requirements rather than relying on what was true when your stations were set up.
Why did it work yesterday?
Chrome updates automatically, often in the background on restart. A new version can reset print preview defaults or change how pop-ups and PDFs are handled, with no change on the Altru side.
