Basic PDF printing tasks

Common printing tasks

Print a PDF

Print on both sides of the paper

Print in black and white

Print at a different size

Print posters and banners

Print multiple pages on a sheet

Print booklets

Print comments

Print a portion of a page

Print to file

Options in the Print dialog box

Most options in the Acrobat Print dialog box are the same as other applications. However, some options vary depending on the printer and what you've selected to print.

Comments & Forms

The Comments & Forms options control which visible content prints.

Prints the document contents and form fields.

Prints document contents, form fields, and comments.

Prints the document, form fields, and stamps, but no other markups, such as note comments and pencil lines.

Prints interactive form fields but doesn’t print document contents.

Creates a separate, printable PDF of the comments in a document. This option is unavailable when you print from a web browser or print multiple documents in PDF Portfolios.

Pages to Print

The Pages To Print options specify the pages or range of pages to print.

Prints the page that is visible in the current view.

Specifies the range of pages to print. Use a hyphen to separate numbers in a range. Use a comma to separate individual pages or ranges (for example, 6, 10-31, 42). How you specify the numbers depends on the Page Display preference. If Use Logical Page Numbers is selected, you enter numbers that match the numbering on the pages. For example, if the first page of a document is numbered iii, you enter iii to print that page. 

Displays additional options to control which pages print.

(Click More Options under Pages To Print.) Prints the area currently visible, the selected pages, or the text and graphics copied with the Snapshot tool. The option name changes depending on if you have selected pages or used the Snapshot tool.

Choose which pages to print: All Pages In Range,  Odd Pages Only, or Even Pages Only. For example, if you set the range to 2, 7–10 and choose Even Pages Only, only pages 2, 8, and 10 print.

Prints pages in reverse order. If page ranges are entered, the pages print opposite of the order in which they were entered. For example, if the Pages box shows 3–5, 7–10, selecting Reverse Pages prints pages 10–7, and then 5–3.

Orientation

Automatically selects the page orientation that best matches the content and paper. For example, a spreadsheet could print horizontally, while a newsletter could print vertically. The Auto-Portait/Landscape option overrides the orientation selected in Page Setup.

Additional resources

For more information on printing, see the forums on printing and prepress.

Print Layers

Normally, when you print a PDF that contains layers, just the content that is visible onscreen is printed. However, the creator of a layered PDF can control what prints, regardless of its visibility onscreen. The PDF creator can require that watermarks print or prevent the printing of confidential information. If the document is designed to print differently from how it currently appears onscreen, a message may appear in the Print dialog box. The Preview image in the Print dialog box always shows the page as it will print.

View how layers print

Change print settings for a layer

Create print presets

A PDF can contain a set of print presets, a group of document-specific values that is used to set basic print options. By creating a print preset for a document, you can avoid manually setting certain options in the Print dialog box each time you print the document. It’s best to define print settings for a PDF at the time that you create it. However, print presets provide a means to add basic print settings to a PDF at any time.

The next time you open the Print dialog box, the values will be set to the print preset values. These settings are also used when you print individual PDFs in a PDF Portfolio.

Print Dialog Presets

Prepopulates the Page Scaling menu in the Print dialog box with the option you choose:

Uses the application default setting, which is Shrink To Printable Area.

Prevents automatic scaling to fit the printable area. Use this setting to preserve the scale in engineering documents or the point size required for legal reasons.

For best results, the selected printer should support duplex printing if you select a duplex option.

Prints on one side of the paper.

Prints on both sides of the paper; the paper flips along the long edge.

Prints on both sides of the paper; the paper flips along the short edge.

Selects the option by the same name in the Print dialog box. Uses the PDF page size to determine the output tray rather than the page setup option. This option is useful for printing PDFs that contain multiple page sizes on printers that have different-sized output trays.

Prepopulates the Pages box in the Print Range section of the Print dialog box with the page ranges you enter here. This setting is useful in a workflow where documents include both instruction pages and legal pages. For example, if pages 1–2 represent instructions for filling out a form, you can set up your print job to print only the form.

Prepopulates the Copies box in the Print dialog box. Choose a number from 2 to 5, or choose Default to use the application default, which is one copy. This limitation prevents multiple unwanted copies from being printed.

Why can’t I print my document?

Start with these troubleshooting tips

Printing problems can have various causes. To identify the issue, start with this helpful TechNote: Troubleshoot PDF printing | Acrobat, Reader.

The PDF is password protected, and printing is not allowed

If you receive a password-protected PDF, enter the designated password to print the document. Some protected documents have restrictions that prevent you from printing, editing, or copying content in the document. If a document has restrictions on printing, contact the PDF author.

(Windows only) Protected Mode is interfering

The default Protected Mode greatly enhances the security of Reader. To determine if Protected Mode is interfering with printing, temporarily disable it: Right-click the document, and choose Page Display Preferences. Then click General on the left, and deselect Enable Protected Mode At Startup. Close Reader, restart it, and try to print the document again.

What should I do if Acrobat Reader is asking to save a file when a document is printed?

If Adobe Reader is prompting you to save a file when you click Print, then click Advanced in the Print dialog and deselect the Print to File option.

Note:

• Make sure have selected a physical printer to print to and not Adobe PDFXPS/Send note or any other virtual printer.
• The Print to File option was available on the Print dialog itself until Acrobat 10.X versions.

What should I do to print comments available on the PDF document?

There are certain annotations (example: pop-up notes) which are available on the PDF document and the annotations do not print by default unless you want them to be printed.

This has been intentionally designed so that such annotations do not hinder the view of the content available behind them.

However, there may be cases when you do want them to be printed. To print the pop-up notes and other annotations:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences.
2. Click Commenting.
3. Enable the option "Print notes and pop-ups."

Acrobat Reader crashes on printing / Acrobat Reader does not Print after clicking Print button

This could happen due to an Adobe Acrobat installation file corruption. In order to resolve this issue, ensure you are using the latest version of Adobe Reader/ Acrobat application.

If you are seeing this issue with the latest version:

1. Uninstall the Acrobat Reader using the Acrobat cleaner utility.
2. Re-install Adobe Reader.