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jreganprx
Participant
April 13, 2012
Answered

PDF flattening dialogue when printing PDFs that are coverted from powerpoints

  • April 13, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 172612 views

When trying to print certain PDFs that have been coverted from powerpoint to PDFs I am getting a flattening dialogue when printing. This dialogue takes forever and makes it nearly impossible to print. I only get this dialogue in Adobe Reader X and in other readers (like FoxIt for example) it doesn't happen. How do I fix this in Reader X so it doesn't happen?

The process used to convert these from powerpoints is to go to save and send, create handout (which opens in word) and then save from Word to PDF.

thanks in advance!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Mike_Settle

    The problem is caused by transparent objects. The file must be flattened to print properly. Reader has no option for flattening and no ability to save the file to an image format that will ignore transparent areas, but it can print the file as an image. In the print dialog box click the advanced button and then select "print as image".  File will process without any additional lag time and will print as it appears on your screen.

    4 replies

    S
    Stephanie29352407zjcr
    Participant
    December 1, 2023

    I am having the same problem. It use to take several seconds, now it is taking 45 minutes! I am creating a 36" x 48" map as a pdf from ArcGIS Pro and sending it to print on a HP T2300 plotter.

    M
    Mike_SettleCorrect answer
    Participant
    May 5, 2016

    The problem is caused by transparent objects. The file must be flattened to print properly. Reader has no option for flattening and no ability to save the file to an image format that will ignore transparent areas, but it can print the file as an image. In the print dialog box click the advanced button and then select "print as image".  File will process without any additional lag time and will print as it appears on your screen.

      KRuther
      KRuther
      Participant
      August 12, 2022

      This worked perfectly!  Thank you!

      R
      ramu8
      Participant
      April 19, 2024

      Thank you . this  helped me too

      D
      DRL2468
      Participant
      March 12, 2014

      Recently ran into this problem after converting a 130 slide presentation from PPT to PDF.  As a workaround, tried it again after removing the background in PPT, and no flattening was needed (i.e., printed immediately). 

      Am assuming the the overlap between background and content constituted multiple layers of images that needed "flattening" for each slide, taking a long time and generating a file too large to print.

      A
      Adobe Employee
      Ankit_Jain
      Adobe Employee
      April 16, 2012

      Hi,

      Could you please provide the following information:

      1. Are you using the MS Offices PDF converted to create the PDF from Word? Or are you using Adobe Acrobat's PDF Maker to create the PDF from MS Word?

      2. Would it be possible for you to share a screenshot of the dialog that you are getting while opening the PDF in Adobe Reader?

      3. Which version of Adobe Reader is installed on your system. You can check the same by clicking on Help > About Adobe Reader.

      4. Which OS are you working on?

      Thanks

      Ankit

      A
      Anonymous
      April 26, 2012

      I can confirm a similar problem where printing fails during the flattening stage.

      The PDF was created by "Adobe PDF Library 9.0" (as reported by Reader under "PDF Producer), PDF version 1.5, from application Adobe InDesign CS4 (6.0.1). Find it here if you want the exact file.

      My system is Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), running Adobe Reader X 10.1.3

      I'm not going to bother with screenshots since they're just standard error messages. Behavior is as follows:

      After clicking Print from the print dialog, a progress dialog appears and the status says "Flattening:" with a percentage. The progress moves very quickly to 44% (less than one second to get that far) and then basically stalls. It creeps along for the next 35 seconds, ending at 74%. The progress dialog closes and an error dialog opens stating, "The document could not be printed." Upon closing that error dialog, another shows with, "There were no pages selected to print."

      Tim

      A
      Adobe Employee
      Ankit_Jain
      Adobe Employee
      April 27, 2012

      Hi Tim,

      Can you please let me know which printer are you using to print the PDF?

      From the look of things, (since you are talking about flattening the PDF), it seems that you are using Adobe PDF printer. If so, please mention which version of Adobe Acrobat are you using.

      Thanks

      Ankit

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