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Participant
March 16, 2021
Question

Only form field of fillable PDF will print

  • March 16, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 3273 views

I have completed a fillable PDF and tried to print it, but only the form fields will print. The "document and stamps" box is selected, and I have not had issues printing these PDF's before, until today. Is this an Adobe issue or an issue with my printer?

 

Shawn.

3 replies

Participant
October 21, 2025

I had the exact same problem and found two solutions to this. On Chrome, navigate to url chrome://flags and enable PDF XFA support. Then open the PDF via the Chrome browser.

If the solution above doesn't work for you, I did find a another solution (although it is an convoluted one that took me hours to figure out). I will tell you what worked for me on Mac.

If you don't have a printer connected to your computer, add a fake printer (aka one with dummy values like an IP address of 0.0.0.0). Not sure how to do on Windows, but for Mac, you go to Settings > Printers & Scanners > Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax... I'm sure there are tutorials on YouTube for both if needed.

Then on Adobe Acrobat, print the document to that printer. Open Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows). Now this part if where it gets a little complicated. Enter the following command to see what print jobs have been issued:

sudo ls -lh /var/spool/cups/

You will likely be prompted for you password. After you type your password and press enter, you will see something like :

user@KW2CRGQYPL ~ % sudo ls -lh /var/spool/cups/

Password:
total 21904
-rw------- 1 root _lp 2.1K Oct 20 21:57 c00001
-rw------- 1 root _lp 2.4K Oct 20 22:58 c00002
drwxrwx--- 9 root _lp 288B Oct 20 23:15 cache
-rw-r----- 1 root _lp 2.1M Oct 20 21:54 d00001-001
-rw-r----- 1 root _lp 2.1M Oct 20 22:58 d00002-001

What you want to look for is the file that corresponds with the time that you pressed print that begins with the letter 'd.' To copy that file as a normal pdf to your desktop, enter the command:

sudo cp /var/spool/cups/d00001-001 ~/Desktop/file.pdf

Keep in mind to change the "d00001-001" value in the command above to the one that you actually want.

file.pdf should be in your Desktop folder!

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2021

Can you share a sample file?

Participant
March 17, 2021

Sure. See attached. I get the same issues with these.

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2021

I can print both documents without any issues. 

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2021

It might be that the contents of the file are located on a non-printing layer.

You can verify if that's the case by looking under the Layers panel on the left-hand side of Acrobat.

Participant
March 17, 2021

There is no layers panel.  Below is a screen cap. Im using Adobe Pro XI.

 

 

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 17, 2021

"left-hand panel"