TechNote

What's covered

• Print comments
• Print as image
• Print multiple pages per sheet
• Scale page (page scaling)
• Print PDF with mixed page sizes
• Print discontinuous pages
• Print duplex and staple
• Print color as black

This document provides tips for easily performing common printing tasks.

Print comments

You can print comments from Adobe Acrobat either by printing the pop-up comments as they appear on the page or by summarizing comments in a separate PDF file, which can then be printed.

Print pop-ups

To print your comments as sticky notes on the page:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat > Preferences (Mac OS).
2. Select Commenting.
3. In the Commenting pane, select Print Notes And Pop-ups.
4. Click OK.
5. In the Print dialog box, choose Document And Markups from the Comments And Forms menu. Your pop-up comments will be visible in the Preview pane.
6. Click OK or Print.

Print comments summary

A comments summary is a separate PDF file created from a compilation of the comments in your document.

To print a comments summary:

1. Choose File > Print. In the print dialog box choose Summarize Comments, or Select Comments > Print With Comments Summary (Shortcut CTRL+T).
2. Choose a layout and other desired options.
3. Click OK.
4. In the Print dialog box, click OK or Print.

Note: To preview your comments before you print, choose Comments > Summarize Comments.

Print as image

At times, you may encounter problems when printing a PDF file. For example, a PDF file can contain damaged content such as images or fonts that cannot be rendered by Acrobat during the printing process. Choosing Print As Image bypasses that rendering operation by sending the printer a rasterized image of the document.

To print as image:

1. Open the PDF file in Acrobat.
2. Choose File > Print.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Select Print As Image near the top of the dialog box.
5. Click OK, and then click OK again to print.

The Adobe Captivate demonstration below illustrates how to use the Print as Image feature. For more information about viewing this demo, see Viewing Adobe Captivate Demos in Knowledgebase Documents (TechNote kb403894).

Print multiple pages per sheet

It is sometimes convenient to print more than one page of your PDF file onto a single sheet of paper, much like the multiple slide feature available in applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint.

To print multiple pages:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. Select Multiple Pages Per Sheet from the Page Scaling menu.
3. Select your desired options from the Pages Per Sheet and Page Order menus.
4. Click OK or Print.

Scale pages (page scaling)

Page scaling reduces, enlarges, or divides pages when you print. If your PDF file does not print at the size you expect (that is, the output is either larger or smaller than you anticipated), then select Page Scaling in the Print dialog box. To select this setting, choose File > Print, and then select an option from the Page Scaling menu. For a complete description of each option, consult the section entitled "Printing Adobe PDF Documents" in Acrobat Help.

You can also set a default page scaling on a document-by-document basis as well as some other Print dialog options:

1. Open a PDF in Acrobat and choose File > Document Properties.
2. Click on the Advanced tab and select the desired options for the Print Dialog Presets.
3. Click OK to dismiss this dialog.
4. Choose File > Save, or File > Save As to apply the new defaults to the PDF file.

Print PDF with mixed page sizes (Windows only)

To print a PDF that contains mixed page sizes:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. Select Choose Paper Source By PDF Page Size.
3. Click OK to print.

Print discontinuous pages

In Acrobat, you can designate discontinuous pages to print in the print dialog box (see Acrobat Online Help Prining>basic printing tasks). You can also choose the pages you wish to print before opening the print dialog box.

To print discontinuous pages by choosing pages:

1. Open the PDF file in Acrobat.
2. Click the Pages tab.
3. Use Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac OS) to select desired page thumbnails.
4. Choose File > Print.
5. In the Print dialog box, "Selected pages" will be highlighted in the Print Range pane.
6. Click OK or Print.

Print duplex and staple

Options such as duplex printing and stapling are controlled by the printer, not by Acrobat. The information for such options is stored in the printer driver and PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file associated with a particular printer. If your print driver supports these features and you are using Windows, you must also make sure the features are enabled.

To enable duplex printing and/or stapling:

1. Choose Start > Printers And Faxes.
2. Right-click your printer and choose Printing Preferences.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Expand Document Options > Printer Features.
5. Select the desired options and then choose On from the drop-down menu.
6. Click OK, and then click OK again to exit the dialog box.

To print duplex on Windows:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. Click Properties.
3. Click the Layout tab.
4. Make a selection from the Print On Both Sides pane.
5. Click OK, and then click OK again to print.

To print duplex on Mac OS:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. In the Print dialog box, choose Layout from the Copies And Pages menu.
3. Make a selection from the Two-Sided menu.
4. Click Print.

Print color as black (Windows)

In some cases, you may wish to print all of the non-white colors in your PDF file as black. For example, you may want to choose this option for printing to an ink-jet printer when you don't want to waste color ink on an early draft of a project.

To print color as black:

1. Choose File > Print.
2. Select Print Color As Black.
3. Click OK to print.

Additional Information

kb403914: Troubleshoot printing problems in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 (Standard, Pro, Pro Extended on Windows)

kb403864: Troubleshooting Acrobat 9 Printing Problems on Mac OS X

316508: Troubleshoot printing problems (Acrobat 5.0-7.0 on Windows)

315727: Troubleshoot printing problems (Acrobat 5.0-7.0 on Mac OS)