Your problem may be associated with a failure in the Graphical Device Interface, or GDI, system.
The interface manages the way information, be it a letter, icon or graphic, is presented on your monitor.
But the interface also preps information so that it can be printed, no matter what program created the file.
So the first suspect is your video driver. It may be corrupted or unable to work with newer versions of your programs. Reinstall the driver. Better yet, update it.
You may also be having a problem because your printer driver is corrupted. Reinstall or update it.
If none of that works, copy and paste the text into a Word document, then save it as a "txt," or text only, document.
That will take all the fancy formatting out, making it simpler for your computer to digest and send to the printer.
That leads to another point.
The Graphical Device Interface is what is known as a System Resource.
When you boot your computer, the PC assigns a specific amount of memory to the GDI so it can do its work. But that amount of memory can't be increased.
So if you work with a graphics-rich environment - lots of icons, fancy fonts, buttons and other stuff on your screen - the resulting pressure on GDI as the computing day progresses can lead to a GDI crash.
One way to avoid that is to cut down on all the fancy stuff

John J. Fried
Computer Columnist
Philadelphia Inquirer

A book, FAQ: Sound Answers to Real Computing Questions, containing 270 topics culled from the column, is available by calling 215-854-5014 or online at http://newsstand.pnionline.com

Columns going back about a month can be found at
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/columnists/john_j_fried/