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DaveRado
Known Participant
October 25, 2024
Question

Acrobat Pro printer not printing signature image correctly

  • October 25, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 2156 views

I'm using Acrobat Pro 2020 with Windows 10.

If I insert my signature as a Stamp (using Tools + Stamps) in a PDF and then print the PDF using the Acrobat print driver, then the signature doesn't print correctly. The colour changes from bright blue to dark blue and the quality of the image is significantly reduced - even if I select "press quality" in the PDF driver's printer options.

 

Is there any way to fix this?

 

Before.pdf attached is a blank PDF containing my signature, which I inserted using the Stamp tool.

 

After.pdf is how it looks after selecting File + Print, setting the printer to Adobe PDF and the the print quality to "Standard".

 

After-2.pdf is how it looks if I set the Adobe PDF driver's print quality to "Press Quality" - not noticably better than After.pdf and far inferior to Before.pdf  

 

Dave

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

MikelKlink
MikelKlink
Participating Frequently
October 27, 2024

A major change between the original graphics and the results is that a former RGB bitmap with transparency became a CMYK bitmap without transparency. Removing transparency is ok: The backdrop is known to be white, so the resulting appearance can be calculated. But the change from RGB to CMYK can change colors drastically.
A conversion to CMYK is plausible in the process of printing. Not using a printing approach likely helps preventing this issue.

Another approach would be to properly define transparency groups and color spaces in your PDF. Transparency can be really fickle, so telling the PDF more about the desired transparency handling may help here, too.

    D
    DaveRadoAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 25, 2024

    PS - I've just tried inserting my signature as an image rather than as a stamp, and exactly the same thing happens when I print the resulting PDF to a new PDF using the PDF print driver. So the print driver seems to have a problem with printing the signature image accurately rather than a problem with the stamp as such. 

    D
    DaveRadoAuthor
    Known Participant
    October 26, 2024

    Any ideas how to get round this problem?

    ls_rbls
    Community Expert
    ls_rblsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 27, 2024

    Hi @ls_rbls 

    Saving as a Tiff dramatically increases the file size. 

     

    Any idea why the Adobe print driver can't produce a PDF with a decent version of this signature image? Is it a bug? If so, can it be reported to Adobe as such?

     

    Is there any way of getting round it using Distiller?

     

    Or can you be specific about the virtual printer settings needed to get decent results using the Acrobrat printer driver?

    Dave


    And this is so far the best result, employing the Preflight Tool:

     

     

    Here's the sample file after using the Preflight Tool: 

     

     

    File comparisson (Left the file generated using Preflight, to the right the original file "Before"):

     

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