Trouble Printing Large PDFs

Question

I'm on a 2021, 14" MacBookPro, Apple M1 Pro, Sequoia 15.6.1.

A few months back, it stopped printing full versions of large pdfs. If I send a 2-3 page pdf to my printer (HP Laster Jet Pro MFP M428fdw), it prints fine. If I send a large, say, 30 page pdf, it will print one or two pages and then stop. I noticed that when it prepares the doc for printing, the Print Center dialogue reports "Printing, [my name], Waiting for job to complete." It just stops after 2 or three pages. However, if I go into advanced on the print dialog and switch to "Print as Image", it will print the entire document. When it prepares for printing, the Print Center dialogue will show the number of pages being printed. However, there are other issues with printing as an image, so it's not a great work-around.

Printing Word documents works fine.

Any ideas why this is happening? My IT department can't figure out the problem. I've searched through Adobe's site and googled, and haven't found anything on this issue.

creative explorer · Answer

@Moosbrugger5 because you can 'Print as Image' and it prints the first few pages and then stops suggests that the failure is triggered by something on a specific page. This could be a complex image, a font that's not fully embedded, a layer with transparency, or even a subtle form of corruption that isn't visible to the eye.

You could check for the Transparency Flattener. In the Print > Advanced dialog in Acrobat, look for options related to "Transparency Flattening." Sometimes, complex transparency in a PDF can cause issues. Adjusting these settings can help.

Sicnce your IT can't figure it out, try the following:
1. Make sure you have the latest and greatst update of Acrobat
2. Update the Printer Driver and Firmware
3. Reset the Printing System on Your Mac (this one is kinda more drastic but often effective step that can clear out corrupted printer queues or settings!)

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