Placed .psd prints with gray background

[knowntime0]

I have an Illustrator file with a placed .psd logo.  That logo is transparent; when I hide the black background in my Illustrator file, it is transparent white from the Artboard.  I have tried changing the document from RGB to CMYK, turning off Simulate Colored Paper, exporting as a .pdf.  This issue doesn't appear on my screen at all, only on my printer and I am pulling my hair out now because I've tried everything.  There is also no fill and no stroke on that placed file in Illustrator.  I even tried putting a totally black background in the .psd to no avail.  I would really appreciate some help on this!

[federico platon]

File is placed at 100% Opacity? 

Simulate Color paper is just a display feature for previewing.

What you see when you turn on View>Show Transparency Grid, on those areas where a grey prints?

[knowntime0]

Yes, there is no background at all in the placed file, and in Illustrator when I Show Transparency Grid, it looks like I would expect it to being transparent.

[Monika Gause]

Probably this: https://indesignsecrets.com/eliminating-ydb-yucky-discolored-box-syndrome.php

[knowntime0]

That actually worked! I am so curious why, could you explain it to me please?

[Monika Gause]

The explanation is on the InDesignsecrets page.

If that is not enough, there is the "Transparency for designers" PDF that floats around the WWW (please do a search for it, it wanders from page to page and I would have to search for it as well).

[knowntime0]

Ok, after a lot of trial-and-error, figured it out...it was the print driver in using black only for black or cmyk for black.  If I went from Auto to CMYK for black for everything, it printed as it should have.  Auto set Text to black only, and I guess it found the logo to be text and so printed that square in black instead of a rich blac (CMYK).  Noted, however, that in AI setting it to raster for flattening made it look better overall but the color settings in the print driver was causing that issue.