How do I install the PDF Printer Driver?

[Dave_Tr.]

I no longer have the driver to print to a PDF. It had worked for as long as I can remember.  I have the latest version of Adobe Reader DC and run under Windows 8.1 (also tried a Repair).  I have seen the instructions below, but in step 4, the Documents\*.pdf (Adobe PDF) is not listed in the drop-down menu.  Looks like lots of other people are having this problem, but I've been unable to find a solution.  Thanks in advance.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Devices and Printers.
2. Select Add a printer.
3. Select Add a local printer.
4. Check Use an existing port and select Documents\*.pdf (Adobe PDF) from the drop down. ...
5. Click the Have Disk… ...
6. Click the Browse… ...
7. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\Xtras\AdobePDF.

[Atul_Saini]

Moving the discussion to Creating PDFs forum.

[Test Screen Name]

Acrobat Reader does not and never did include the PDF printer. It comes with the paid-for Acrobat product (Acrobat Pro, Acrobat Standard). Try a REPAIR on your paid-for Acrobat product.  Repairing Acrobat Reader will do nothing.

[Dave_Tr.]

Not true.  I've been able to print to PDF for many years.  It is not until the latest version of Adobe Reader that this is no longer possible.  Looks like another take-away from Adobe.

[try67]

Sorry, but you're wrong and TSN is right. Either you had Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) or you used a third-party PDF printer. Reader doesn't (and didn't) include this feature.

[Dave_Tr.]

Possibly I was using OpenOffice (free software) to do that in the past, but I don't think so.  Both OpenOffice Draw and OpenOffice Writer have a "File - Export as PDF" option.  I just tried that on a JPG file and it worked fine.  So I will use that.

Thanks.

[gwenw19906130]

Thank you for giving me a free option.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

On behalf of Adobe …

The free Adobe Reader never, repeat never, repeat yet again never provided the support to create PDF in any way whatsoever including the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver. That particular feature has only been available as part of Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Pro. The only other method by which this feature is installed is via an installation of Adobe FrameMaker which installs the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver in support of PDF creation.

No, Adobe has not taken any such feature away from the product.

          - Dov

[DamnDesert]

I may be late to the party, but you are not entirely correct. I represented Adobe and supported Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, Pagemaker, and Framemaker +SGML, plus a few other now deprecated products between 1991 and 1995. There WAS a free PDF print driver available that did not require the purchase of any Acrobat product. This was before PDF integration was native to the Mac OS and eventually Windows. It is no longer the case. The people here saying they had a PDF print driver without owning purchased Acrobat product are correct.

[Dov Isaacs]

In the timeframe of MacOS 9 and earlier, there was no such free PDF driver from Adobe, maybe other sources, but not Adobe. PageMaker and FrameMaker came with such a driver, but they were Adobe products.

          - Dov

[Ed1]

This is typical of Adobe Crap. Nothing works and it is all about the money. Screw the user,

[gwenw19906130]

I have purchased Adobe DC Pro and my adobe PDF printer has stopped working, too!  It has worked for years with no problems and just STOPPED FOR NO APPARENT reason about a month or so ago.  I want it back.  I was never given a disk for it so these instructions are meaningless to me.  I know how to install drivers and have been loading, installing, updating and repairing printers for 40 years now.  Please address the problem and stop deflecting.

[Dov Isaacs]

Assuming that the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance is not showing in the printers control panel, try the Help=>Repair Installation function in Acrobat. If it is showing, but not working, delete the printer, reboot, and then try the Help=>Repair Installation function in Acrobat.

          - Dov

[Test Screen Name]

What was that called please? I have followed Acrobat history keenly since 1.0. I remember a free PostScript printer driver. I remember PDFwriter, a non-Postscript printer driver included in Acrobat Exchange 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1, removed after Acrobat 5.0, but it was never free to my knowledge. PageMaker and Distiller bundled Distiller.