Landscape pages rotating to portrait using Adobe PDF printer

[m2ramos]

I'm noticing that when I use the Adobe PDF printer in Acrobat during a print job, some of the landscape pages are rotating to portrait.  Is there a way to keep them as landscape during the print process?

[Amal.]

Hi there

Hope you are doing well and sorry for the trouble. As described the orientation of the pages change when you use the Adobe PDF printer.

- Is this a behavior with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs that you try to print using Adobe PDF printer? Please try with a different PDF file and check.

- What is the version of the Adobe Acrobat DC you are using? To check the version of the application go to Help > About Acrobat and make sure you have the latest version 21.07.20091 installed. Go to Help > Check for Updates and reboot the computer once.

Also try the steps below:

• Choose File > Print.
• In the Page Handling area of the Print dialog box, deselect Auto-Rotate And Center.
• Select the new page orientation and click OK.
• Click OK to print.

Regards

Amal

[m2ramos]

The only pattern I saw was in the properties of the documents (there were thousands I had to print).  The ones that seem to rotate pages (even vice versa, so some portraits rotated to landscape as well), all shared one specific property.  In the PDF metadata, the PDF Producer field had this entry "Adobe Acrobat DC (32-bit) 21 Paper Capture Plug-in".  Which I assume means that this specific plug in created the documents in question.  All other documents that had no issues had different entries in this field.  I tried to Google this plug in but could not find much information about it.

Currently Acrobat is on version 2020.006.20034.  However, I tried this on multiple versions (some older and newer) and it still happens.  I also tried the suggestions you mentioned in terms of adjusting the print dialogue settings, still same issue.

[Amal.]

Hi there

We are sorry to hear that the issue still persists. We see that you are using quite an old version of the above Acrobat DC, please update the application to the latest version 21.07.20091 go to Help > Check for updates and reboot the computer once.

Also, as described its an issue with some particular files, would you mind sharing a sample PDF file with us so that we can try to check it at our end.

Regards

Amal

[defaultmwpt18gsh7qs]

Was there a final resolution to this problem?

I have been having problems with the rotation of my pages in Adobe for a couple of months now and the problem seems similar.  When I print a pdf using the Adobe PDF Printer sometimes it rotates all of the pages to be landscape even if I have explicitly clicked the portrait button and the print preview shows that the orientation is correct. 

Once this happens I have not been able to ever rotate the resulting pdf to be the correct orientation- even if I can change the view, the document itself is still rotated so when it is opened on another computer or even in an online application everything is rotated. 

I have checked to make sure that my version of Adobe is up to date/there are no updates available- and am hoping that there was a fix found for the original poster's problem that I could try.

[Test Screen Name]

Printing PDF to PDF is generally considered extraordinarily bad practice, and is unsupported. If you let us know why you want to do this thing, we may be able to suggest a better alternative without the disastrous side effects (of which rotation is just the most obvious).

[The One With No Name]

I am having the same issue with printing pdf to pdf. My role at work requires me to take a scanned 300+ page pdf file and break it up into smaller parts. As my company is not willing to pay for an adobe subscription, my only choice is to use the "print to pdf" option. For example, I can print pages 3-16 specifically and save it under a new file name, thus extracting the needed pages into their own file. However, this page rotation issue is causing me A LOT of grief. I'm at a loss at what to do now.  

[JR Boulay]

The only solution in your case is to explain to your company the difference between a cost and a profitable investment that saves its employees time and peace of mind.

[Abambo]

May be scanning smaller parts would be a solution? 

You can also buy a licence of Acrobat 2020 if you do not want to take a subscription. 

https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog.html#category=pdf

[Martin37356228srtb]

I am having a similar (the same?) issue when I use Adobe PDF printer in a different application: I print the page with print setting "landscape". The output is oriented correctly relative to the page, but will be displayed 90° rotaded (i. e. portrait) in Adobe Acrobat. As the according print dialogue has no option for Auto Rotate, I cannot deselect it. Any idea how to solve this?

Fun fact:
If I use Microsoft Print to PDF, I get a 3.5 times larger file, which is displayed in the original orientation (i. e. landscape). So I would prefer the Adobe solution if I could make it work in such a way that pages printed in landscape will be displayed in landscape orientation as well.

[Amal.]

Hi there

Is this an issue with a particular PDF file or with all the PDFs? Please try with a different PDF file and check.

Please check for any pending/missing updates for the printer driver and firmware and try updating them.

You may also try to remove the printer driver/firmware, reboot the computer and reinstall them from the printer manufacturer's website and see if that works.

Also, check the help page https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-pdf-printing-acrobat-reader.html

~Amal

[Martin37356228srtb]

Amal,

thank you a lot for your quick response!

Please consider that I am printing directly from a CAE application using the Adobe PDF printer. The PDF is created by the PDF printer. I. e. there is no original PDF source file. Printing from the same application using MS Print to PDF results in a PDF that is displayed in the correct orientation. Therefore, to me this issue seems to be rather related to Adobe PDF printer. Would you agree? Is my question now clearer? Do you have any ideas how to solve this?

[Amal.]

Hi there

Thanks for elaborating, please collect the print logs as described here https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/collect-print-logs-for-acrobat.html and share them via any cloud storage of your choice, for further investigation.

~Amal

[Martin37356228srtb]

Amal,

thank you for your support! Just to give you an update:

I enabled the print log right after you latest message. However, I couldn't reproduce the problem any more (although I tried it at that time). In the meantime I didn't need to print landscape from the CAE application. So far the issue has escaped incognito.

[Amal.]

Hi there

We are glad to hear that the issue got fixed. Feel free to contact us if you require any assistance in the future.

~Amal

[mole24629000]

Is there a solution to this issue? I have had the same thing come up. I am needing to use the print to PDF function because it's the only way to reduce the file size down by a sensible amount. We have a lot of inDesign reports that contain PDF drawings, and when these are exported the file sizes are huge. Compressing only shaves off a small amount, whereas print to PDF reduces it by 75%

[Abambo]

This proves that you do not use InDesign as it could be. Indeed, InDesign has all the possibilities you can have with printing to the virtual Acrobat PDF printer. You just need to set the correct parameters.