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Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
    6. Download Adobe Acrobat
    7. Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
    8. Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
    9. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
    10. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
    11. Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
    12. Update your Acrobat to the latest version
    13. Download Acrobat 2020
    14. Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
    8. Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
    9. Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
    10. Explore Acrobat tools
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
    18. Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPEG
    6. Convert PDF to TIFF
    7. Convert PDF to PNG
    8. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    9. File format options for PDF export
    10. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
    16. Edit secured PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
    7. Scale or resize PDF pages
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management
  20. Troubleshoot
    1. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
    2. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
    3. Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
    4. Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
    5. Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

Find solutions to common PDF document printing issues.

While printing a PDF, you might get an error "The document could not be printed, kindly use our help page to troubleshoot."

Print error dialog

The first step in solving a printing issue is to trace the source of the issue. The troubleshooting techniques below solve some of the most common issues and are grouped into three categories:

Three most common issues

Note:

If you’re facing issues in printing single-side or double-side on Mac, see Unable to print double-side or single-side in Acrobat on macOS.

Printer-related solutions

To fix PDF printing issues, check the printer status, connection, and settings, update the driver, or try printing another PDF. These steps can solve common problems.

Can you print this troubleshooting page?

Try printing this troubleshooting page. If you can't, follow these steps to check your connection to the printer:

  1. Make sure the cable that connects your printer to your computer is securely plugged in.

  2. If your printer is plugged into a USB hub, unplug the printer cable from the hub. Then, plug the printer cable directly into a USB port on your computer.

  3. Turn off your printer. Wait 30 seconds, and then turn it on again.

  4. Try to print the PDF again. 

Are you using the latest printer driver?

Make sure you update to the latest printer driver (a program that controls your printer). Printer manufacturers offer updated drivers to improve compatibility with newer software, such as newer versions of Acrobat Reader and Acrobat.

  1. Find your printer model number. 

  2. Go to the manufacturer's website, and browse or search for drivers or printer drivers. 

    Driver download pages for some manufacturers appear below:

  3. Find the correct driver for your model number. 

  4. Download and install the printer driver, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

  5. Restart your computer. 

Have you tried printing to a different printer?

If you've another printer, try printing the PDF on it. To switch printers on Windows®, see Change the default printer (Windows 10 and 8) or use Windows® help. On macOS, see Change the default printer (macOS) or consult Apple support.

PDF file solutions

Often printing problems stem from issues with the PDF file. Even if a PDF looks fine on screen, it can contain incomplete or corrupt data. 

Try printing as image

Print a simple document (such as a letter or form), and use the Print as Image option. To do this, select the Advanced button in the Print dialog box.

For step-by-step direction, see PDF printing quick fix: Print as image | Acrobat, Acrobat Reader.

Copy or download the PDF again directly to your hard drive

Sometimes a PDF file becomes damaged or contains corrupt data. If you downloaded the PDF from the web or received it in an email, download the PDF again or ask the sender to resend it. Copy the file directly to your hard drive, rather than a thumb (portable) or network drive.

Open the new copy on your hard drive and print again. 

Create a copy of the PDF using Save As command

In Acrobat Reader or Acrobat, choose File > Save As and give the PDF file a new name. Include only letters and numbers in the filename. Don’t include symbols such as %, $, or []. Try printing the new copy of the PDF.

Re-create the PDF file

If you have the original source file that the PDF was created from, re-create the PDF.

  1. Open the file in the original program (such as a word processing or a page layout program).

  2. Choose File > Print, and then choose the option to save the file as a PDF.

  3. Open the new PDF, and try printing again.

Check the file for syntax-related issues using Preflight

  1. In Acrobat tools, select Print production.

  2. Select Preflight.

  3. In the Find bar of the Preflight window, type syntax. Then select the profile Report PDF syntax issues. Then select Analyze and fix.

    Click Analyze and Fix PDF

Software-related solutions

Restart your computer

Restart your computer, then open the file again. It’s surprising how often simply restarting your computer solves a problem. Restarting a computer clears its memory and memory cache.   

Use the latest version of Acrobat Reader or Acrobat

Ensure your Acrobat Reader or Acrobat is updated. Adobe provides free quarterly security patches, often containing fixes for prevalent issues.

  1. Open Acrobat Reader or Acrobat.

  2. Choose Help > Check for Updates. If a new update is available, it installs automatically.

  3. Once installed, restart your computer. 

  4. Try to print the PDF again.

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