TikZ shadings and printing incompatibility
The shading is troublesome in all regards. It still does the rendering in the viewer, hence the shading is computed at "show-time". :)
See for instance the file: pgflibraryshadings.code.tex.
Generally when dealing with shadings, transparency, fadings, etc. you should convert it to an image to be able to print it.
Unless of course, the printer-driver supports the rendering features and has enough computational power/memory. This is rarely the case, which you also experience.
The best thing would be to use the external library or create the image in a single TeX-file and use: convert -trim <in.pdf> <out.png>.
Then you can include that in your document by a simple \includegraphics and the problem is gone.
I usually supply my PDF's in two versions:
- On-screen with full capabilities
- Easy printing - with all figures converted to PNG for safety.
So the answer is yes, there exist ways to go around, but you do need to convert to explicit colors.
I had such problems with a TikZ picture using color gradients, the page with the picture did not print on three different office printers.
Selecting "Forcing Rasterisation" in the printing dialogue finally helped. Then the printer gets a rastered image and has not do it by itself.