Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Printing PDF files

This is topic Printing PDF files in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 09-15-2010, 08:57 AM:

My printer prints everything but PDF files. Any ideas on what to look for? The files are emailed to me and are quotes and invoices. When I try to print them, the printer spits out a page with headers and footers and a single black line bordering where the content should be.

Thanks, Rick

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 09-15-2010, 10:21 AM:

Hello Richard,

I had that problem once and discovered that there are two ways to print. If you use the usual method with the print from the upper left corner "file" drop down you will get what you are talking about.

There is another "print" in the PDF viewer and that is the one you should be using. It may be just a printer icon in some programs. It is located on the right side at the top of the page.

Hope this helps

KEN

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 09-15-2010, 10:34 AM:

Thanks Ken, That was it. Not sure why it doesn't print from the drop down menu [Confused]

, it brings up the same print menu either way. Thanks again, Rick

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-15-2010, 11:32 AM:

Remember, a PDF is not truly a file but more of a "container."
Think of PDF as you would an envelope which contains a message to be read by the recipient. Thus a PDF can contain many kinds of data, not just text.

Therefore, it is dependent on the reader to be able to understand the message inside the envelope. For example, you could send me a letter through the mail. From the outside, it would look like any ordinary letter would but when I open it and take out the paper inside I might discover that you wrote the message in Chinese. If I don't understand Chinese, the letter is unreadable to me.

So, it seems that you have received an "envelope" in the form of a PDF file that contains data that your computer can not display correctly.

A couple of solutions.

Try a different way of displaying the file or use a different application to read it. For instance, "File Viewer" or "Preview" applications might not read all forms of PDF files correctly or they might read them but not print them properly. Try using Adobe Acrobat Reader instead.

Try a different computer. Try it with Vista or Win-XP instead of Windows 7. If you use a Mac, try it on a Windows machine... etc... etc... etc...

Finally, don't forget... It is the sender's responsibility to send documents that the recipient can read easily. It is NOT the recipient's responsibility to decode whatever crazy system or format that the sender decides to use.

Bottom line: Try a few things like different apps or computers but, if you can't read it ask the sender to reformat and send the file again.

Posted by Richard Hamilton (Member # 321) on 09-15-2010, 11:51 AM:

Randy,
Thanks for the info. Kens suggestion worked.

When my trial date for MS Office expired, I downloaded OpenOffice to work with any MS files that I get. When the trial version of MS Office,which was preloaded on my laptop expired I could open any files I had or received, but couldn't make any changes [fu]

MS

Rick