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Question

print to .pdf

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
September 14, 2017
7 replies
2918 views

I have a Photoshop picture I have been working on at an exaggerated large size so I can see details. Now I finished the pic and I need to a) print it to .pdf and b) shrink it to a more normal size. No biggy, right? I just print to .pdf setting my scale to 25%, right? I tried that and it came out okay but tiny because silly me forgot for a second that on screen size 100% and print size 100% are not the same thing. No big deal, I'll just print it again scaled to 60% instead, right? Nothing happened. Pdf file still has first size. Okay, maybe I need to delete first print to .pdf, then reprint? Nope, nothing. When I try and search for it: "file not found". So... how do I print it to .pdf?

(PS I have tried the workaround of adjusting image size, then saving as .pdf. When I adjust the image size it gets REALLY blurry - don't know why. But even if I go with it, when I try to open in Acrobat I get a "drawing error". I'm not trying to solve the blurriness problem though, I'd rather print to .pdf)

print_to_pdf_issue

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T

Test Screen Name

Legend

I think you may be using sizing in a way that is unusual. Not necessarily wrong but it makes it hard to understand and help and sometimes if you do unusual things you push software beyond its limits. You say "made it larger so I could see the fine details". Can you explain how/why that helps in a way that, say, just zooming in wouldn't help?

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

I don't know if you've opened/looked at the file, but there is a symbol overlaying each color where each color is a small pixelated cell. When I'm actually using the file later, I just need to be able to distinguish one symbol from another - they do not need to be very big (each square edge represents 1/18"). To create the file, the squares had to be big enough where I can click each color cell. I used the magic wand to select all squares of a specific color. At 500% at this larger size, the squares are just big enough to select without fat fingering everything. When I blow it up bigger than 500%, my system shows individual pixels - in the color patches as well as the symbols. It's still possible to select colors this way, but the screen is busier and generally more confusing to follow.

mglush

Community Expert

Did it work to flatten the image? Are you still getting the same error message?

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Curious. The file is enormous (over 1GB) but opens fine for me in Acrobat DC 2017.012.20098.

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

Every Photoshop document I've ever created is enormous. This I made a bunch of changes to, but I've had others that I was just opening a 10MB file and resaving with Photoshop and it's come out close to or over 1GB. I just assumed Photoshop wasn't a very efficient - or more accurately was a highly detailed - program. Yes, I do tend to save a max quality. Is this setting/file size not normal?

mglush

Community Expert

If your pdfs are over a gig, wha size is your psd file? What is the normal measurements and resolution of your images? he file size does seem out of the ordinary, but I would love to know a little bit more info. Whatever screen shots you can show us really helps.

Michelle

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Sorry not clear. I'm asking if you can share it publicly and post the link here. Someone might've interested to take a look.

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

I'm 98% sure I'm okay to post. This is based off a famous painting, but I've changed color, added pixellation, and overlaid symbols. I think I've changed enough to not worry about copyrights. Link:

Dropbox - Transparent_Final Starry Night Symbols.pdf

mglush

Community Expert

One thing you might try before you save/print it to a pdf, is flatten your file (make sure you have the original file with layers saved before you do this) and after flattening your file, then save/print. We've had people do this in the past, and the error disappears.

Also, a couple of questions--it looks like you used the pen tool to create paths in your document--is that correct? Sometimes you can get an error because of the path order.

And, when you "print" to a pdf, what are your steps?

Michelle

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

That's very odd and unusual. Are you able to share a problem PDF? It would have to be on your own file sharing site, Dropbox etc.

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

Not sure what you mean. The attempted save is already in Dropbox, so yes, I can open it on other devices, but I get the same error message.

Again, I'm not really trying to save to .pdf. Print to .pdf worked really well the first time, just not sure why it's not working now.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

What error message? Please quote it exactly or post a screen shot (but please DON'T try to reply by email with a screen shot, it won't work).

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

It was something about "drawing error". I'm trying to re-save and get an exact quote, but at the large size it takes a while to save, bare with me.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Fix the blur by turning OFF resample image. Done. I agree, forget printing to PDF, that's so 20th century.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Oh and if your problem is really that the PDF is a different size on screen than in Photoshop, get used to it. Expecting the same size is a common mistake, causing much needless frustration.

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

I knew the size would be different. I just forgot for a second. It's very late where I am, I had a ditzy moment.

Printing to .pdf worked really well - when it worked. So far, I haven't been able to successfully *save* to .pdf. I'll try turning off "resample image", but I still have the problem of not being able to save to .pdf. I keep getting error messages.

Printing to .pdf worked without error messages - the first time. I just can't seem to replicate the process.

Derek Cross

Community Expert

Never print to PDF, save it as a Photoshop PDF and select one of the presets - for example High Quality Print for a desktop inkjet printer, which allows the printer's software to convert your RGB image to CMYK or CMYK +.

Regarding the size, keep your original, make a copy and reduce the size of this using the Image Size facility

mollykittiAuthor

Known Participant

I'm not worried about RGB vs. CMYK. The important part of this image is the fine details in black, the rest of the colors just need to be a reasonable approximation. There's never going to be a hard copy of this printed, so matching a printer's preset is not at all important. I'm converting it to .pdf because I need to be able to share the file across multiple phones, tablets, and laptops. Yes, I know, there are free Photoshop apps now. They kind of work, but .pdf works much more reliably across operating systems.

The problem with saving to .pdf is it doesn't work. When I try and open a "saved to .pdf" file I get the error message "drawing error". Printing to .pdf on the other hand, was working - at least at first.

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