angeg
asked on
PDF files display fine but print garbage (sometimes).
I have a user that is having a problem printing some PDF files. Many print fine, but some print junk text... sometime the entire document and other times just part of the text. For example, on a document that prints incorrectly the word "Quotation" displays fine on the screen but prints out like this "œ´±¨ø¨∑±≤". It prints this way across every printer, including printing it back to a pdf file or to a Microsoft xps document. When other users on the network print the exact same document to the exact same printers (same driver) it prints out fine. Here's the steps I have taken so far:
- Completely uninstalled Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Reader and reinstalled both (and each one individually to see if that made any difference). One time I actually went though the registry and deleted every reference to Acrobat that I could find.
- Had the user print as an image.
- Verified all the printing and Acrobat settings against a machine that I know is working fine.
- I've replaced as many Windows system fonts that I could.
I've been working on this for weeks and there are probably other things I have tried, but those are the ones I can think of right now. My next step is to just go onsite to the client, format the hard drive and start from scratch, but I'd really like to avoid doing that. If anyone could help me out with a solution, I would be forever indebted. Thanks.
- Completely uninstalled Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Reader and reinstalled both (and each one individually to see if that made any difference). One time I actually went though the registry and deleted every reference to Acrobat that I could find.
- Had the user print as an image.
- Verified all the printing and Acrobat settings against a machine that I know is working fine.
- I've replaced as many Windows system fonts that I could.
I've been working on this for weeks and there are probably other things I have tried, but those are the ones I can think of right now. My next step is to just go onsite to the client, format the hard drive and start from scratch, but I'd really like to avoid doing that. If anyone could help me out with a solution, I would be forever indebted. Thanks.
dswatt
Have you tried updating the printer driver? I have seen that occur on HP printers where a PS driver was installed and when changed to a PCL driver it resolved the problem.
ASKER
I did update the drivers for the printers that the user prints to mostly. However, they are all network printers that are shared off the server, so the drivers are only installed on the server and everyone else on the network can print the documents in question without problems.
Also, even when I print the document to the pdf printer (and create a duplicate pdf file) it prints the exact same way and that's not utilizing any of the physical printer drivers... same goes when I print the pdf file to the Microsoft xps printer.
I should also say that everyone one is using identical versions of Acrobat:
Acrobat Standard X
Acrobat Reader XI
Also, even when I print the document to the pdf printer (and create a duplicate pdf file) it prints the exact same way and that's not utilizing any of the physical printer drivers... same goes when I print the pdf file to the Microsoft xps printer.
I should also say that everyone one is using identical versions of Acrobat:
Acrobat Standard X
Acrobat Reader XI
What OS is the desktop? is the driver a compatible driver for the OS, 32 bit driver on a 64 bit OS vice -versa? Are they HP printers?
ASKER
The OS on the desktop is Windows 7 (64 bit) and the drivers are 64 bit. No HP printers, she has the following installed:
Konica/Minolta C364
KIP 7100
Canon iPF755
And like I said, it happens even when shes printing to a non-printer.
Konica/Minolta C364
KIP 7100
Canon iPF755
And like I said, it happens even when shes printing to a non-printer.
Have you had a look at the advanced properties of the printer?
Sometimes the fonts get messed up in there,
Go to printer properties - advanced - printing defaults - advanced - image options - post-script pass through. Here it should say enabled. Change it to disabled. This will stop the printer from interpreting the information in the PDF (and thus stop it from getting confused and just putting a symbol in where it didn't interpret something correctly).
Printer properties - device settings, and check the font substitution table ( should be all set to <don't substitute>, I have seen some of those switched to different values)
Sometimes the fonts get messed up in there,
Go to printer properties - advanced - printing defaults - advanced - image options - post-script pass through. Here it should say enabled. Change it to disabled. This will stop the printer from interpreting the information in the PDF (and thus stop it from getting confused and just putting a symbol in where it didn't interpret something correctly).
Printer properties - device settings, and check the font substitution table ( should be all set to <don't substitute>, I have seen some of those switched to different values)
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ASKER
Thank You, Good Doctor! I installed the Foxit free PDF reader and it worked like a charm. It's strange because I had tried a different alternate PDF reader (Sumatra) when this first started happening and it worked for some files, but not others. Whatever... I'm just glad it's working now. Thanks again.