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xz_xu
xz_xu
Participant
April 30, 2021
Question

Adobe Acrobat DC Pro Print to PDF with Editable Textfields

  • April 30, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 1142 views

Hello - I am trying to print a webpage into pdf format using Adobe's Print to PDF "printer". However, whenever I do so, the text of the resulting pdf seems to be uneditable as the pdf is in like an "image" or "scan" form. Highlighting anything on the pdf highlights weird shapes rather than the text, and attempting to edit the text using the edit tool messes the entire format up.

 

However, printing this exact same webpage on another PC using the exact same process leads to a clean pdf where every text paragraph is in its own textbox and can be edited without affecting the document provided the font is installed. I transferred the resulting pdf from this PC to my initial PC, and was still able to edit everything. This leads me to believe it is the problem with the distiller rather than the reader/editor.

 

Is there some sort of setting in the distiller/printer that forces it to recognize text as actual text and print the document with text fields vs making it into a scan/image?

 

Thanks for the help!

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2021

Hi XZ_XU,

 

If you are using "Print to PDF" or "Save as PDF," you are not using anything from Adobe. To print to PDF with Adobe Acrobat, you need to select "Print/Save to Adobe PDF"

 

 (this screenshot is from a Mac, the PC view may be different)

 

When you do this via the former approach, you are relying upon the Operating System to do the process which, as you have noted, may not always provide the desired results. And you are correct, the problem IS with the distiller, it's just not Adobe's distiller.

xz_xu
xz_xuAuthor
Participant
April 30, 2021

Hi Gary_sc,

 

Thank you for your reply. This did actually help me narrow down the problem. I double checked with my other PC and it was indeed different distillers. However, the issue is it's actually Adobe's distiller that is making weird pdfs.

 

I have "Adobe PDF" as a printer, which I assume is the Adobe's distiller. I also have "Save to PDF", which thanks to your confirmation, is the Windows native distiller. The Windows one seems to process the pdf with text fields properly on both machines, while the Adobe one produces weird files.

 

Any ideas? Thanks again.

gary_sc
Community Expert
gary_scCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 30, 2021

Well, at least we're making progress! ;>)

 

What/where is the original document/application?

 

Are you doing anything special in preparing the document? Are you taking any shortcuts?

 

Thanks

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