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athena8888
athena8888
Known Participant
October 31, 2015
Answered

How to center an image in Acrobat DC Pro?

  • October 31, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 59957 views

What I need to do seems so simple, but it has been astonishingly frustrating.  I just want to center an image horizontally on the page.  I select the image, go to the edit menu, and all the options are available in Objects *except* align option, which is greyed out (see link for screenshot).  What am I doing wrong?  This REALLY should be more intuitive.

http://puu.sh/l4my1/c0b31011fc.png

Thanks for your help!

    Correct answer try67

    The Align option is only available when you select multiple objects and want to align all of them with one another.
    PDF files were never really meant to be edited in such a way to begin with, so the editing capabilities of Acrobat are quite limited (although they get better all the time), and some features which would seem basic in an editor might be missing.

    3 replies

    J
    Joshua3855316756d8
    Participant
    July 11, 2024

    I totally agree, adobe boasts a robust suite of tools and yet you cant create simple PDFs from scratch, you need to create your document in another program, such as microsoft word, and then turn those files into PDF. Extremely frustrating I agree. 

     

    try67
    Community Expert
    try67Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 11, 2024

    PDFs were never meant to be created from scratch in Adobe. Doing so is a very bad idea.

    T
    The Big Beekeeper
    Participating Frequently
    July 11, 2024

    You receive a PDF in an email.  You notice one image is slightly off and it needs to be centered.  You open your $25+/month paid Adobe PDF editor software to take a look.  Oops, looks like the only way to properly make that tiny change is to export this pdf into Word (destroying half the formatting in the process), performing the incredibly simple operation, and then importing it back as a pdf (further compromising any formatting albeit to a lesser degree).  No thanks.

      JR Boulay
      Community Expert
      JR BoulayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 23, 2024

      Cut-paste the image in another software, then cut-paste in Acrobat which places it at the centre of the page.

      Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
      J
      Joshua3855316756d8
      Participant
      July 11, 2024

      Wow, we need third party programs to center an image on adobe PDF... 

        T
        The Big Beekeeper
        Participating Frequently
        July 11, 2024

        Adobe is basically an add-on for Microsoft Office or a similar suite.  It's sad to see them charge such a premium for a service such as Adobe PDF that essentially requires Word or an equally competent program to operate properly.

          try67
          Community Expert
          try67Community ExpertCorrect answer
          Community Expert
          October 31, 2015

          The Align option is only available when you select multiple objects and want to align all of them with one another.
          PDF files were never really meant to be edited in such a way to begin with, so the editing capabilities of Acrobat are quite limited (although they get better all the time), and some features which would seem basic in an editor might be missing.

            athena8888
            athena8888Author
            Known Participant
            October 31, 2015

            This is such a basic function that it astonishes me it isn't available.  I *strongly* suggest it for future revisions.  I wish there was a plugin that could do it.

            Is there at least any way to keep the ruler turned on from document to document so I don't have to go through all the steps to turn it on each time I open a document?

            Thanks for your help.  Truly.

              G
              George_Johnson
              Inspiring
              October 31, 2015

              The keyboard shortcut to toggle the display of the rulers is Ctrl+R on Windows and cmd+R on a Mac.

              If you really need to center an image, there is a method, but it's a bit convoluted. First add a button and set the background color and border color to nothing. Then set the Layout to Icon Only and set the icon to the image. Right-click the button and select: Align, Distribute or Center > Center Horizontally

              You can either set the button to read-only, or flatten it so it's converted to regular page contents. The following free JavaScript-based utility makes this easy: UVSAR : Selective Flattener tool for Adobe Acrobat 8, 9 and X

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