Need to flatten a document that has signatures so it will print. Using menu items please, no script super user suggestions please.

[sharon_3935711]

I've been told if I cannot flatten the pdf document, it will not print and indeed it stops the printer cold and the network (and unchangeable) printer has to be rebooted much to the annoyance of everyone else in the department.

How can I flatten and entire pdf document that may be multiple pages, I do not want to have to pick and choose different signatures or images, I just want to flatten the entire thing so it will print. I've been told this is in the Tools menu but I can't find it and don't know how to use it possibly if I do find it.

Please remember this is a network printer at a workplace and I cannot install add-ons to my computer or change printer settings and neither do I have the time in my workload to learn how to add script or lines of code; this is not allowed and is also why I requested and had Adobe Acrobat XI installed and that took a fair amount of time.

[Dov Isaacs]

We need much more information to answer your question.

Reader or Acrobat?

What operating system?

What printer manufacturer and model? And what type of printer is it? PostScript, direct PDF, what?

We know of absolutely no problems and restrictions in Reader or Acrobat's printing subsystem that prevents full and proper printing of documents with signatures of any kind!

And in terms of what you call “flattening” there are several meanings to that, all very different. One could be “flattening layers” of the PDF file, “flattening transparency” within the PDF file, “flattening annotations” into the PDF pages' contents, or using the word “flattening” as a substitute for the word “rasterizing” in which all content is turned into one, big honk'in image on each page. Flattening annotations might be associated with signatures, but it makes no sense to us at Adobe why this would be necessary for printing.

Please provide the above-mentioned information as well as the source of these instructions you have received such that we may further assist you.

          - Dov

[sharon_3935711]

I am using Adobe Acrobat Professional XI on a Windows 7 Professional PC.

We have people here that use Blue Bean to flatten multi page documents and they print just fine to the network printer, therefore I am not allowed to ask that the printer properties be changed, that is not the issue here.

I wish to be able to flatten an entire multi page document with added signatures (I deal with multi million dollar Contracts and Pay Applications) and nothing on the entire document may be changed, but it can't print because approval signatures gathered create layers and that will stop the printer dead in its tracks, however anyone using Blue Bean can print it with no instruction or script ability needed.

I do not want to get Blue Beam and have been using Adobe Standard until I heard that the flattening ability had to use Adobe Professional.  So after a week or so I managed to have Adobe Acrobat Professional XI installed. So seriously I do not need to be told that Adobe can't do it and now I need to get a Java script add-on or something, that just sounds absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary and would put me another week out completing time sensitive material.

I don't remember who told me, but I was told if I "flatten" the document then it will print.  If I did remember I would certainly call him or her and ask where under the Tools menu is it and how do I use it.

Since I don't want to spend an hour going through every document that crosses my desk for where on each page is the flipping signature, then yes, maybe I need that last suggestion to turn each and every page and everything on it into a big honkin image which is what pdf pages are anyway before layers are created with multiple signatures, because what ever Blue Beam does I'm sure is not as fully involved as all those other suggestions.

[sharon_3935711]

We use a program called eBuilder that lets contractors, vendors, etc do a "stamp sign" to the document and then doing a re-save creates a new document version, but since they have absolutely no IT support and if called I keep getting Customer Support, and since I want to keep what hair I have left on my head I gave up trying to connect with them asking why re-saved documents don't automatically flatten with new signatures....but here it is, evidently they don't flatten and I have to either take a snip-it of every single page and then put it all back together or I can't print it, I can't file it, I can't sent it on for payment to AP because they also can't print it. SO it's up to me, to flatten it by myself with tons and tons and tons of little pictures or since I was approved for Adobe Acrobat Professional, maybe, just maybe, it can be flattened. Flattened, flattened, flattened, keep it simple, I'm not a programmer.

[Dov Isaacs]

On behalf of Adobe …

We are trying to assist you and certainly want to provide a solution that actually works. Since we have never heard of a problem similar to what you are describing (signatures in layers stopping a printer dead in its tracks), we need the information requested to provide assistance.

Conceivably, eBuilder could be adding layers to the PDF file that are marked as not printable, but that wouldn't in any way stop the printer or the printing process; it would simply not print the added layer(s).

Again, there are multiple operations that can be considered as flattening. If in fact your PDF file indeed has PDF layers, clicking on the layers icon on the left side of the window should show those layers and from that pane, you should be able to access an option to flatten the layers. Perhaps that's what you mean?!? Try that and see if that solves your printing issue although we know of no good reason why it should.

          - Dov

[sharon_3935711]

I don't know why oh why this is so difficult, I am a simple person, just an accountant, and someone tells me I need to flatten the document to print, now Blue Bean understands what "flatten" means and without this college degree of interrogation for a myriad of different methods of flattening. Granted Blue Bean is a baby program, I don't care, I don't want to change to Blue Beam but I do want the baby degree of flattening so documents and stamped signatures will print.

Granted ok, depending on the size, may be the ability to print, but I need a document that prints everything on the page, an Executed Contract just isn't executed without signatures. Printing is not the issue here, I've said this, I don't need anyone to dwell on why it won't print, it just doesn't, trust me. But regardless of the size, Blue Beam seems to be able to just plain old "flatten" and voila documents will print and with signatures too.

I do not have a layers icon on the left side of the window. On the right side, I didn't have Preflight either until I clicked on the little doc pic in the upper right corner and added it, but I don't see a similar feature on the left side to add a layers icon.

And thanks for sticking with me by the way. I'm sure I sound very trying, but I have been told this is a simple thing to do, to just out and out "flatten" a document. Apparently it is simple in Blue Beam, but I don't use Blue Beam, and I don't want to use Blue Beam, and taking another week to get Blue Beam on my computer as a solution I don't think would work anyway because I don't think they are compatible on the same computer.

[sharon_3935711]

Oh, forgot to mention, the printer, sometimes prints and sometimes doesn't, but when it does it will never include the eBuilder's "stamped signatures" and those times it doesn't print and stops the printer dead, the display on the printer notes it as a firmware error.

[Dov Isaacs]

What you “forgot to mention” is of very critical importance!

If you are indeed getting a message on the printer's display that says “firmware error,” that indicates that the printer's internal software is defective and has nothing to do whatsoever with the contents of the PDF file or Adobe software. We have seen such messages on various Hewlett-Packard printers that emulate PostScript (i.e., don't have Adobe PostScript). Often, you are able to download and install updated firmware from the printer manufacturer that fixes such bugs.

          - Dov

[sharon_3935711]

Then why does printing work perfectly for Bluer Beam users printing pdfs with stamped signatures in eBuilder?

[Dov Isaacs]

And no, we have no idea which type of flattening was referred to by “someone.” And without knowing what they meant, we can't fully and properly advise you as to what you should or could do. Based on your later response, it looks like the real problem is the software in the printer.

          - Dov

[Stephen Marsh · Accepted solution]

Sharon, I am just going to throw out a whole list of things to try, with luck one of them will be the answer that you are looking for:

* Tools > Print Production > Preflight > PDF Fixups > Flatten annotations and form fields

* Tools > Print Production > Flattener Preview: Apply to all pages in document

One last thing to try if all else fails, when you select Print, see if the Advanced > Print as Image option helps (this will be slow and it is sticky, so make sure to print again and turn it off if this does not help).

Good luck!

[sharon_3935711]

Thank you! Print as Image option worked fine, I just did a single page test, and I'm used to slowness so no worries. I n ever would have thought to just simply print as image because I've always been told that pdf pages are images anyway, so why do we have to tell it twice? Odd if that is true, but who am I to argue, it worked! Thankee thankee thankee!

[randym72960871]

This one worked for me 🙂   [Print,  Advanced > Print as Image]

My employer got me a new and improved laptop and if the PDF document is password protected AND has a signature, and I try to Print to Adobe PDF as a 'Smallest File Size', I get an error message in notepad that won't stop - I have to force reboot my laptop as the error message won't stop looping.

Thank you Stephen.