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Anonymous

Answered

How do I print an encrypted PDF file .... to PDF

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
December 4, 2017
12 replies
69740 views

I have finished making a form fillable PDF. I want to put some restrictions on the form, so that end users cannot edit the forms or add additional text/move text around. When the users complete the form, I want them to be able to print the document to PDF. My current encryption is as follows:

Printing = allowed at high resolution

Changes Allowed = filling in form fields and signing existing signature fields

Right now, when I print the document to a printer, there is no issue. But, when I print the document to PDF, I get the following message:

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%

This PostScript file was created from an encrypted PDF file.

Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted.

%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%

%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

I have read countless posts about not being able to print an encrypted PDF file to PDF, but that just is not accurate. I use form fillable PDFs all the time. Those PDFs have encryption, yet I can somehow print them to PDF.

This is beyond frustrating, so I figured I would ask to see if anyone knew how to make this work.

Thanks!

encrypt_pdf

Correct answer Test Screen Name

This is working exactly as designed, even if someone has found a loophole. Adobe will not change it.

H

haleh_5915

Participant

Instead of printing to Adobe PDF, try printing to a different kind of PDF from your (I use Microsoft print to PDF). Hope this helps.

D

defaultg36lnr7oiehy

Participant

Exactly. I am using Microsft print to PDF and it works find
And btw, the reason of wanting to print the original PDF is because it is password protected by a third party to my eyes only and that's the only way I found to unprotect it and store it on a secure place is to print it back to PDF.
I could also print it paper and scan it, I guess that's what Adobe wants... this Adobe security is obviously obsolete

D

defaultet0bl368vyht

Participant

I agree with you. This is ridculous. In your forms that you created, I am sure you have under Security, PRINT allowed, and you and I are still getting this error, and adobe WON'T FIX IT, making the program useless for forms. Also, for some reason they won't allow reader and acrobat to be installed on the same machine. It doesn't happen on another machine with reader, that does not have acrobat installed. I can fill in the forms and print with adobe. The USER filling in your forms won't know that. There are other print options that will load the form, allow the user to FILL IN THE FORM, and print it, because PRINT IS ABVIOUSLY allowed. I have used them as a work around in my business. HOWEVER, creating forms that you want your users to use that pull up on their computer in ACROBAT makes it useless for them, since they cannot print them and email them back to you as a filled in form. THIS IS INFURIATING Commerical forms I bought have the same issue. I can no longer fill them in and print them for the approrpiate client to a pdf and email them to the client. I have to print to a printer, scan, and then email OR use an alternate PDF printer to open the filled in form and then print to pdf and then email it. DOES ANYONE AT ADOBE USE THEIR OWN PROGRAM? YOU SHOULD ALREADY KNOW THIS ISSUE IS AN ERROR when the form is PRINT ALLOWED under security, but the rest of the form is ENCRYPTED. If you want examples, email me, and I will send them to you to see the error.

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Test Screen Name

Legend

"since they cannot print them and email them back to you as a filled in form."

But why would they do anything so weird (and frequently impossible). Why aren't they told to save and email?

Better still, since email is hardly a good way to send or submit most forms, have an actual submit to https.

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Minty25101846c2av

Participant

For others who may be searching, there is a "small" online PDF tool that will do this for you.

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default29238846zm00g5

Participant

It is 2023 and still has the same problem.
I created a fillable PDF form. It is a static pdf form and Adobe Reader Enabled. It has a sign field. It is encrypted so the layout cannot be changed. The end user who will fill out this form is not the IT people who know technical stuff.
So my intention is to make create a form with less hassle as possible. People can fill that with free Adobe Reader they can save it if they can complete that in one go, then they can either e-sign or attach signature image, then print that to normal PDF.

It works with Microsoft Print to PDF, but not with Adobe PDF converter. Same message appear many times.

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TruSake

Participating Frequently

Best solution is instead of using Adobe PDF as Printer, on the same drop-down menu, use Microsoft Print to PDF. This will work better as it will flatten the image and make it as small as possible.

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RWassell

Participant

Yes! Thank you. I had not thought of this before coming to the solution of opening the fillable in my Chrome Browser and then printing as a PDF from there. I went ahead and tried your suggestion and see that it works, too, which is really good to know. The only thing I see is that printing the fillable as a flattened PDF via Adobe from the browser created a smaller file than printing the fillable to a flattened PDF using the Microsoft PDF printer option. The browser Adobe printer option resulted in a 226 KB file and the desktop Microsoft printer option resulted in a 446 KB file. The original fillable file is 435KB. Who knows... 😄

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TwisterFed

Participant

As a note one of my users was recieveing this message and they need to fill out the form for a secured PDF then print the PDF to flatten it. What I ended up having them do is when they wnet to setting I would have them select print to PDF and then going to the Advanced setting and select "Print As Image".

J

Jaban

Participant

I tried it and it worked. Simple but genius...
The person (Test Screen Name) seemed a bit obtuse to not consider the "poster" had a very legitimate reason they needed a work around the issue without the reflex response being seen as an attempt to hack the software.

I for instance needed to signed a fillable PDF and didn't have access to a printer. Normally I would simply print to PDF, then sign the flattened document "on screen". I can do that with my Surface Book pen.

However this simple workaround is NOT possible, because the secured fillable form could not be printered to PDF. Alas TwisterAir clued me to a solution.

Thx.

S

Sh1t4brains

Participant

Try opening in chrome browser and print to PDF. One of my banks and only one decided to owner protect my statement so I can’t combine them. Why? No idea. Adobe wouldn’t distill it. Many other programs did but it made the file grow 4x.

Mr. Said

Participant

This is really helpful. Thanks

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Test Screen Name

Legend

Nice catch. I suspect, though, that taking the security off will be the answer.

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robertf42528692

Participant

Here is another common frustration along the same lines: I open a large secured PDF (call it several MB's worth of data in a single pdf) -- I want to excerpt and send via email only a couple of pages of the file. Sure, I can do this by printing only the desired page range to a physical paper printer, then scanning those paper pages, then creating a pdf from those pages. But excerpting directly from source pdf to destination pdf...fugetaboutit...this is just plain stooopid to me...

Bernd Alheit

Community Expert

Acrobat Reader can't extract pages from PDF files (secured or not).

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Test Screen Name

Legend

Adobe have a policy that _their_ software will not ignore the security settings in the PDF standard, even if everyone else's does. So they do not allow printing a secure PDF to PDF, since that would remove security. Simple. I suggest you examine the JavaScript route, it is the normal solution to this requirement.

try67

Community Expert

That's not going to work, either. The security policy will prevent JS from flattening the file.

The best you can do is set the fields as read-only.

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Test Screen Name

Legend

I certainly hope so. It shouldn't be easy to work around, for reasons that might (or might not) be evident.

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Anonymous

Ok, that's ridiculous, but ok. If someone wants to take my encrypted PDF ... print it to PDF ... and then use that PDF document (that now has zero form fields, calculations, etc) as a template ... and basically add back in all of the leg work (ie, new form fields, calculations, etc) ... then I say more power to them. But in 99.999999% of all other situations, people will fill out these forms, print them to PDF (ie, to clean it up) and then move on with their life. I'm not sure what we're protecting with this type of protection.

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RWassell

Participant

Thank you! I think, to most of us, the reason for "printing" from a fillable to a non-fillable seems evident. It's alarming that someone who is chiming in with "help" wouldn't grasp something so obvious. Yikes.

I was having the exact same issue and wanting to change a fillable to a non-fillable for the exact same reasons. It's such a silly feature because one can just print out the fillable to hard copy and scan it back in. I can understand restricting a secure non-fillable form from being edited or becoming fillable (although, even in that situation, again, one can just print to hard copy and scan back in and do whatever the heck they want), but the other way really makes no sense.

Anyway, I did figure out the best way to do this is just to open it as a PDF in the Chrome browser (or probably any browser), and then print to PDF from there. Worked like a charm.

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Test Screen Name

Legend

Use JavaScript to flatten the form when it is complete. Quicker and easier than printing to PDF and having two files to manage.

A

Anonymous

The end users for the form fillable I am creating won't be able to navigate that way. They are used to printing to PDF. Am I just out of luck?

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