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I downloaded an Acrobat PDF, but unfortunately my printer flips out when I try to print it (seems to be able to print everyting else NP)... Literally all the lights start blinking and the file just sits in the queue. It is an older printer, but yeah.

So I thought, "No problem! I'll just save it as a 'normal' PDF and print it that way!" but I can't figure out how to do that.

Neither can I see how to "Save as PDF" using the print dialog, as usual.

I'm using Macbook Air M2 running 13.4.1. Printer is an old Lexmark E250d laser printer.

Very frustrating; definitely need some help, thanks.

PS - On the topoic, I also spoke with Staples and they tell me they likely can't print this file for me (they have issues with Adobe PDFs apparently).

EDIT: To respond better to music2myear's comments, the file cannot be opened by Apple Preview, or Google Drive's PDF viewer. Rather, the other viewers display the file as this message:

Please wait... If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download. For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

You can see a screenshot of it here:

enter image description here

https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ycx65.png

Drewdavid
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  • What's a "normal PDF" and what is it that you have now? An "Acrobat PDF" is not different from a "normal PDF". PDFs support forms. Have you adjusted settings in your print? What software are you using to view the PDF? Have you reviewed these steps to create a PDF? https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/save-a-document-as-a-pdf-on-mac-mchlp1531/mac – music2myear Aug 28 '23 at 23:36
  • Also, Preview supports PDF forms, because they're normal PDFs: https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/fill-out-and-sign-pdf-forms-prvw35725/mac Please review that link and let us know what you may have learned. – music2myear Aug 28 '23 at 23:39
  • I can't open this file in Preview or Google Drive PDF viewer. You can see the result here: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ycx65.png – Drewdavid Aug 28 '23 at 23:39
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    @music2myear I also edited my question; I hope that helps, thanks! – Drewdavid Aug 28 '23 at 23:41
  • So there's either some form of active content, or this is the actual PDF that you have, and there's nothing else in the file, or going to be in the file. Do you have any indication that this file is working correctly? Have you tried redownloading the original form from its source? Or, perhaps, this is using some features of PDF that Adobe has not licensed for use elsewhere? Going back to 2017 there's similar questions and the answer then was to use Adobe Reader. So, have you used Adobe Reader? – music2myear Aug 28 '23 at 23:44
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    The file opens and is fillable in Acrobat Reader... Sorry I guess I only implied that I could indeed open it since I could attempt to print it. The core issue is that I cannot print it, nor "export" it into a PDF that can be opened/printed by other applications. – Drewdavid Aug 28 '23 at 23:46
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    On PC I'd just tell you to open the file in Adobe Reader and use Microsoft Print to PDF. I don't know how printer selection works in MacOS and inside the MacOS version of Adobe Reader. – music2myear Aug 28 '23 at 23:52
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    Mac also has a "Save to PDF" in the pring dialog, but as per my experience, it seems documented that the Mac version of Acrobat doesn't support this (every other applicadtion does). But trying this on a Windows machine is a very good idea thanks! – Drewdavid Aug 28 '23 at 23:54
  • Try this: https://github.com/rodyager/RWTS-PDFwriter I don't have an XFA file to work with, but installing this PDFWriter I was able to get a PDF printer inside Adobe Reader. – music2myear Aug 29 '23 at 00:15
  • Yea, if the PDFWriter doesn't work, your root issue is probably to flatten an XFA file. There appear to be various tools for doing this, online and some utilities. – music2myear Aug 29 '23 at 00:25
  • In Windows using Firefox I was able to open and view that file in the browser, fill in a few fields, and print it to PDF, which I then confirmed was "flattened". – music2myear Aug 29 '23 at 14:28
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    Update: It worked on my neighbours Windows machine printing to an HP printer no problem. I suspect Acrobat offers limited support for printing on Macs (possibly in part due to the type of file it is / the "rules" of this specific file), and my older printer may have been a factor. Thanks all for journeying with me on this mysterious adventure into Adobe-land! – Drewdavid Aug 29 '23 at 22:13

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It is very likely that this file is a XFA form, wrapped in a PDF. In this case, you can forget Preview.app; it is too dumb. Follow the advice and get/use Acrobat Reader to fill it out.

A general warning about Preview.app and PDF forms: Do NOT use Preview.app with PDF forms. When saving the form, Preview.app messes up the file, so that it is no longer usable!

Max Wyss
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