Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Printing a Problematic PDF

I have a PDF file that just won’t print every time I try. Even though I can open it in Adobe Reader, I assume the file is corrupt in some way — but is there any way to get a printed copy of it?

It is possible that the PDF file contains some element that the program or the printer is having a problem processing, like damaged fonts or images within the document. If possible, you might try downloading a new copy of the file (or recreating it, if it was one you made yourself) from the original source and seeing if the replacement version will print.

If you cannot get a new copy of the file, you can try a workaround Adobe has built into its software. With the problem file open on screen in Adobe Reader, go to the File menu and choose Print. But instead of clicking the Print button in the box, click the Advanced button. On the Advanced screen, turn on the check box next to “Print as Image.” Click the O.K. button and then click Print.

Although it is not guaranteed to succeed, you may get a copy of the file printed because Adobe Reader is basically sending a picture of the document to the printer instead of the PDF itself. This method could bypass any internally corrupted elements within the PDF. If it does print, the resulting document may look a little fuzzy (much like some low-resolution photographs or Web-page graphics do when printed) but you might be able to adjust the resolution in the printer’s settings to get sharper results.

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