stuff in .pdf missing after document printing?
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2004
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 883
Likes: 34
From: Berkshire, UK
stuff in .pdf missing after document printing?
Win8 laptop. I downloaded a standard letter in the form of a .pdf. The bulk of the text is locked as I don't have either a full version of Acrobat or access to the document password. The document has sections top and bottom with some unprotected text which you can edit to make it your own letter, ie name of intended recipient, your name, phone, email etc.
So, I installed Adobe Reader (freeby) and proceeded to enter the correct contact info. I then saved it with a new name and then did a print preview. All looked OK. Then, I emailed it to an account I use on my mobile phone and saved the edited document in the phone. I don't have access to a printer at home. I toddled down to my local library where, for 10 pence, they will print off a page in black and white. At the library I logged into the local council stuff on my phone and from there a member of staff can grab the document and send it to their printer. She did.
When the paper popped out we found that the locked info from the original .pdf had printed correctly but all of the stuff I edited was blank spaces.
We opened the document on my phone and it was complete.
What did I do wrong?
Rans6..............
So, I installed Adobe Reader (freeby) and proceeded to enter the correct contact info. I then saved it with a new name and then did a print preview. All looked OK. Then, I emailed it to an account I use on my mobile phone and saved the edited document in the phone. I don't have access to a printer at home. I toddled down to my local library where, for 10 pence, they will print off a page in black and white. At the library I logged into the local council stuff on my phone and from there a member of staff can grab the document and send it to their printer. She did.
When the paper popped out we found that the locked info from the original .pdf had printed correctly but all of the stuff I edited was blank spaces.
We opened the document on my phone and it was complete.
What did I do wrong?
Rans6..............
Gnome de PPRuNe
Joined: Jan 2002
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
Posts: 15,197
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From: Too close to Croydon for comfort
If you can, try printing your completed PDF form to a PDF file rather than saving it. Then if the missing info is present, use that to print your hard copy. I used to do that a lot to get around all sorts of PDF issues...
Joined: Oct 2004
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 421
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From: California
You may have done nothing wrong. Fields in a PDF can be marked no-print, so maybe that's the case with your document. Opening the file in a browser (Chrome, Firefox) may be printable, as browsers aren't very careful about honoring field flags.
Joined: Nov 2022
Posts: 251
Likes: 81
From: SW England
I use Nitro PDF, seems to be able to unlock anything in a PDF, allows editing of supposedly locked fields, removes watermarks, etc and makes filling in badly constructed PDF forms a doddle, if a little time consuming. The version I have is old, and there was a one time subscription to unlock the "professional" features, but it has been worth it just for the frustration it has alleviated over the years. The real fix would be for people that send out PDF forms to format them correctly, but sadly that seems to be beyond the wit of many companies that still use them (including the solicitors we used recently, who clearly had no idea that PDFs aren't really very secure).
