How to print PDF, avoiding pitfalls

Before considering how to print a PDF, let's find out what kind of format it is, how it differs from other types of documents, and why it is gaining more popularity these days.

Literally "PDF" means "portable document format " (portable document format). The program on which this type of file is based is the Acrobat Adobe Acrobat. If you discard all technical subtleties, you can conclude that the PDF document is the best (and perhaps the only) type suitable for printing documents in the form in which they were created, without the distortion of the formatting that usually occurs when viewing documents In Word on a third-party computer. Typically, PDF files are used to optimize the printing of documents with images and complex formatting, since PDF implies the impossibility of editing an existing document and freezes a complex document in its original visual form. In principle, this editing is still possible, but only when using a special professional version of the program Acrobat. In general, the PDF format is a guarantee that the document will be printed exactly as it was originally created.

In order to print a PDF file, it is necessary to press the standard combination of Control + P (Command + P for Mac) or the file / print, then select the necessary printer and print the entire document or separate pages. Everything, it would seem, is simple. However, here and there may be questions and subtleties. First of all, sometimes the document on the screen of the computer looks correct, however, when printing, instead of some characters, hieroglyphs are obtained. This can happen because the driver is not installed correctly or because the printer does not have the fonts contained in the document on the computer from which it is printed. To solve this problem, you can use the additional functions of the program Acrobat. After clicking Fail / Print, go to the Advanced item in the lower left corner of the print window and tick the Print as Image box in the upper right corner. In this case, the computer will perceive the document as an image (which follows from the name of the function), and there will be no problems with visualization and printing.

This option is also useful if the color solution of the printed document does not match the image on the screen. When you select Print as Image, this problem is also often solved.

Some files are protected from printing, apparently in order to protect copyrights and copyright. How do I print a PDF file in this situation?

There are several options. First of all, you can use the excellent recognition program ABBYY FineReader 7.0 (or earlier versions of it), which allows you to convert a file from Acrobate to a Word document format, in addition to enabling editing. It takes a few minutes to convert, but it is a universal tool for solving a variety of issues caused by the slowness and obstinacy of the PDF format.

How to print PDF in the case of a multi-page file, if the above methods are not suitable for some reason.

For small files in several pages, you can use the "Print Screen" option by simply opening the problem file on the whole screen and clicking on this key, which is located in the upper right corner of the keyboard. Then you need to copy the image on the screen to Photoshop or any other image editor and save the necessary part of the resulting image in a separate file. For multi-page documents this may take a little longer, but the problem will be solved.

You can also try to open a disobedient image in Photoshop itself, page by page saving it as a jpg file, and then in Word create a multi-page document with inserted pictures and minimize the size of the fields for optimal use of page space.

The answers to the question about how to print PDF files are mass. Each of them is effective and permissible for use, it is only in the matter of which of the above options is suitable in each specific situation.