Printing pdf files- is it possible?

I'm trying to print a manual for my son and the only thing I can find online is a pdf file. I tried to print it and only got 1/2 of the title page. Thought maybe I needed ink so I tried to print something else. That was fine so I don't need ink!! The pdf pages came out with faint black lines and nothing else. Any hints? (Please don't use technical terms- I really am computer-stupid!!) Thanks for any help you can give me!!

 

Hi ttoadsmom,do you by any chance have Adobe reader7 or 8?The reason I ask is that when you open acrobat on toolbar,press file and there you have print and print setup,so you can configure how PDF file will look when you want to print.Plus,I don't know what printer you have,but every priter CD must have software for easy printing.Unless,you haven't install this software,I sugest to do.Good Luck!@

 

Hi Goran- thanks for answering so fast!! I have Adobe 7.0 and I looked under "print"- there's no place to make it show the page. The title page prints halfway then stops. Every page after that just has faint lines on it- no words. I have a Lexmark X3350 printer with no disc. I have printed other stuff just fine- even tried it today and got great print but not on the pdf file. No clue what is going on. :cry

 

Did the top of that title page of the PDF print good and then it got worse as it went down the page? In other words, some gradual degradation as it went down the page? How long was that test document you used? If it was rather short, I'm not sure your conclusion that you don't need to replace ink tanks is valid.

In addition to what Goran.P said about print setup in Adobe Reader, do you have a printer panel where you can do some printer maintenance and tests?

 

Hi usafveteran- yes- the top half is fine and gradually gets worse- I have printed the title page 3 times and get the same thing every time. The other page I printed wasn't a pdf file but it was a full page and had lots of colors and they all showed fine. I tried to go back and run a test page on the printer but can't figure out how to do it! I tried from control panel but... like I said before, I am computer-stupid!! LOL

On a completely different note, my dad was in the USAF for 27 years- he died in San Antonio, Texas in 1969. He was gonna go for 30 and get out but cancer got him first. But thanks for serving- I respect anyone that does!!

 

If you go to Control Panel, and open Printers and Faxes, then right click on your printer and select Properties, do you get a panel, something like this?:



Thanks for the comments on military service. I was in San Antonio in 1969 for basic training at Lackland AFB. I served one term and then got out. I have some good memories from that time.

 

Yes- I have that but it doesn't have a maintenance folder! It does however have a "print test page" so I did and it's fine. I guess I just have a corrupt file or something. Maybe I can find another copy online but this is from the manufacturer!

Dad was in Wilford Hall Hospital at Lackland in '69!! Small world!

 

http://search.lexmark.com/printer/US/en/23A0000
find here.Good Luck!

 

As a test, you might try printing some other PDF documents. Here's a tax form: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040a.pdf

 

Thanks Goran- I have already printed a test page and it was fine but I went ahead and changed the ink anyway. That's not the problem!! lol Jeez, I hate being such an idiot about this stuff!!! Not sure what to try now...

 

I'm about to give up!! I tried printing that tax thing and it says my printer is busy- but when I go to stop whatever it's doing, it says it's not doing anything! :cry

 

Woohoo!! Got the tax thing to print- nothing wrong with it. Any clue how to get the info off the pdf file and into a "real" file?

 

Maybe if I tell you what I'm trying to print- duh!! It's an owner's manual for Fostex X-28H High Speed Muti-tracker. I googled it and it sent me to http://www.fostex.com/index.php?file=support/documents

I scrolled down to the bottom and clicked X-28H. From there, I'm stuck- can't get it to print.

 

Try installing Foxit PDF reader. It is much faster than Adobe and has a print capability. Worth a try, even if you still have problems printing the document, you'll have a better PDF reading program.

http://majorgeeks.com/Foxit_Reader_d4763.html

 

Thanks Sachs- I'll get that right now!! A friend of mine suggested trying to print it as a picture- clicked on advanced, selected "print as pic" or whatever it said- and it worked like a charm!!! Thanks for all your help everyone! You are all great!!! I'd be lost without you!!!

 

The last statement seems to indicate you could not open the PDF document. That's not correct, is it? You mean it opens in Adobe Reader within your browser but you can't print it, right? Before this, you were saying it would not print right, not that it totally would not print. Have the facts changed or am I mis-interpreting the above statement?

I just printed page 4 of that manual and it printed poorly on my Canon BJC-3000 printer. I then printed page one of IRS Form 1040; it printed fine. So, we some evidence here that that manual is a poorly designed or defective PDF document.

So, let's consider this. Do you really need to print it? Adobe Reader has a search feature which works well. And, of course, it has a table of contents.

You can select text in Adobe Reader and copy it to a word processing file. But, it's does not actually copy the text as text; it creates an image of the selected text and pastes the image into your word processing file. However, if you really need to print this, that might be an option.

You could also try Foxit Reader, as suggested by sach2. Oh, wait. I have the portable version of Foxit Reader installed on a thumb/flash drive. I'll try that and post the results.

 

Well, I printed page 4 of that manual with Foxit Reader. It does look better than the one I printed with Adobe Reader, although not as good as the tax form. But, it's readable.

Please let us know whether you get better results with Foxit Reader.

 

Usafveteran has figured things out. You have opened the PDF in your browser and are using File>Print at the top of the browser. This only prints what is showing in your browser window not the whole document.

You want to save a copy of the document to your computer then print it from there. If you right click on x-28H and choose Save As you will get a window that allows you to save a copy--choose desktop so it is easy to find. Then double click the saved file and when Foxit or Adobe opens you can use the print function to print the whole document.