Reader printing garbled text

[hugoSAP]

Acrobat Reader was working fine on my previous printer but with my new HP 500 with automatic duplexing Acrobat prints something garbled that looks like a twice reversed poor image of my original document.

The same document prints fine in Word, also when I copy the PDF document back into the Word document.

On another PC everything works fine. So it not the printer, not Word on my PC but Acrobat on my PC.

I reinstalled the printer, reinstalled Acrobat, rebooted etc but nothing seems to fix this problem.

Are there any options I have not explored?

My PC is a Sony Vaio VGN-CS21S running Windows 10 and the printer is HP laserjet 500 pro color mfp m570dw

[Adorobat]

Hi hugosap,

Could you please try checking update for Reader and see if that works:

Launch Reader>click Help menu>select Check for Updates.

What is the version of Reader installed on the machine?

To check the version- under Help menu>select About Adobe Acrobat Reader 

[hugoSAP]

Hi Adorobat,

I don't know the number but the title reads "Acrobat Reader DC"

Check for Updates says "No updates available"

Now, this is odd because the version installed (downloaded yesterday) is

2015 release 201.020.20042

File version 15.020.20042.8920

AGM version 4.030.0066

Cooltype version 5.014.00015

Core 15.5120

Is 2015 really the latest ?

And if this is the case can I go back to version 9?

[Adorobat]

Thank for you sharing the info.

Would it be possible for you to share the screenshot with us?

You may visit the following link which explains how to insert the screenshot here in the forums: https://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-7043#jive_content_id_How_do_I_attach_a_screenshot 

Yes, Version 2015.020.20042 is the latest. Going back to Reader 9 would not be a good idea as Reader 9 is not compatible with Windows 10 .

[hugoSAP]

Sure! What do you want to see on the screenshot? The garbled text - that would be a photo, not a screen shot.

What else?

[Adorobat]

Hi hugoSAP,

I would like to mention that the method given above is valid for photo as well .

Also, you might try repairing Reader and see if that works, follow below mention steps to do so:

Launch Reader>click Help menu>select Repair Installation, when repairing is done, restart the computer, launch Reader and try to print.

If that doesn't work, download and run Cleaner tool from here: Download Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool - Adobe Labs

Restart the computer.

Download and install Reader DC from here: ​ Adobe - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Distribution 

[hugoSAP]

Dear Adorobat,

Please answer my question: do you want a photo of the garbled text Yes or no?

Kind regards

[Adorobat]

Yes, that would be helpful.

[hugoSAP]

I cleaned Acrobat Reader Cleaning tool as suggested and reinstalled Acrobat Reader DC for Windows 10

Same result .

Here is the text I printed:

---

This is

                                   Page

                                                                       Number two        

1234567890 The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

---

And this is the image of what was printed:

[hugoSAP]

Dear Adorobat,

After posting my reply #8 with the screenshot I took the following actions:

Installed Acrobat Reader XI (after cleaning, reboot etc).

Printed the pdf and got the same garbled result on page 2.

On an impulse, I then installed Adobe Reader Touch and printed the document

PAGE 2 CAME OUT PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT!

Just for the sake of it, I tried it again with Acrobat Reader XI and the same page came out garbled.

The problem is clearly with Acrobat Reader DC and XI.

As stated above, the problem does not occur on the newer laptop Lenovo 64 bit.

I did another test: I printed to my ancient HP LaserJet 4 with duplexer. The page comes out all right (just as before).

Next, I installed the new HP 500 printer driver on my old 32 bit Dell Desktop running Windows XP, and the problem occurs: page 2 garbled.

Could it be a compatibility problem of DC and XI with the 32 bit version of Windows 10 on my x64 processor Intel Core 2 duo T6400 ?

[Adorobat]

Hi hugoSAP,

I am sorry for the delay in response.

Could you please try installing the latest patch and see if that helps?

Launch Reader>click Help menu>select Check for Updates

You can also download the latest patch 2015.023.20056 from here: Release Notes | Adobe Acrobat, Reader

Thank You,

Shivam

[hugoSAP]

Hi Adorobat, Two years later... after an update (I guess) , a couple of days ago ,the old problem re-occurs.

I am now on Acrobat DC  Version 2021.007.20099 64 bits

I re-installed Acrobat DC from scratch, printed Adobe's test file but all to no avail : the backside of every page is garbled...

On my old PC (whiich is a 64 bit processor also)  I have the 32 bit version of Acrobat DC  Version 2021.007.20099 and when I print the same document to the same printer (on my LAN) it prints OK.

Any  ideas?

How can I get the 32 bit version on my new 64 bit PC ?

[KnifeMSTR]

Hi!

I have the same problem as You, with different Windows 7 machines and HP LaserJet Pro 500 színes MFP M570dw.

From Acrobat Reader 9 to DC, all versions is affected by the problem.

Have You since solved the problem?

[Abambo]

Could you share a scan of a print?

Try "Print as image" (Advanced button of the print dialogue). This renders the page with Acrobat and send an image to the printer. Printer and printer driver interactions can so be minimized. This is a work around, not exectly a solution.

[KnifeMSTR]

Its the same as hugoSAP's.

[Abambo]

Did you try the print as image?

[KnifeMSTR]

Yes.

I have changed the driver, the firmware, and tried Adobe 9, 11, DC.

It works on 64bit PCs, but not on 32bit.

[Abambo]

Just to get it right: Print as image solves the problem on 64bits Windows?

[KnifeMSTR]

No.

On 32 bit Windows:

- Normal print is wrong

- Print as image is the same, wrong.

On 64 bit Windows:

- Normal print is correct

- Print as image is also correct.

[Abambo]

OK! Print as image does the following: Acrobat rips the PDF file and sends it as an image to the printer. This means that the printer cannot change the document. Either it prints or it does not print.

What is the size of the document?

[Jeff31760055wpg7]

So, after 5 years, the answer to the problem everyone is having is to stop using Acrobat Pro and go to Acrobat Reader.  They couldn't find an easy fix for this in 5 years?

Why am I even paying for the full version of a program that doesn't work?

[Shaka Da Man]

So I hope this helps, I had the same problem today at my law office and if you can imagine after using Adobe Reader DC for months, this just started happening. It only happens when printing from Adobe Reader DC 64 bit on a Windows 10 machine to our HP LaserJet 500, when I print to out other printer which is an HP OfficeJet MFP it doesn't happen. To solve it, I uninstalled Adobe Reader DC 64 bit and reinstalled Adobe Reader DC 32 bit. It's a little tricky to do that on a 64 bit machine because Adobe wants to you to install their 64 bit software, so you need to select the little link that states download older versions from the download page. Once you select that link you are then able to choose your Operating System and specifically what version of Adobe you want to install. Don't be fooled this is OBVIOUSLY an Adobe issue, as it was their update that caused this issue to happen, as everything else on my machine has been status quo. Anyway I hope this saves someone some time.

[hugoSAP]

Thank Shaka Da Man, I did the same but didn't tell anyone : reinstalled the 32 bit version of Adobe. And it worked obviously.

Message to all: Beware of Adobe updates !

[hugoSAP]

Here's how to get the 32 bit version:

First uninstall reader dc 64 bits

Manually delete Adobe Acrobat files left after uninstall !

     C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat

     C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat

     C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe (don't forget this beauty !)

     Make sure Adobe ARM is deleted

Kill all tasks and services (see below how)

Now get the 32 bit version

https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Bottom of the page : Do you have a different language or operating system? 

Fil in the required field and select the NOT 64 bit version.

That should download readerdc_en_xa_cra_install.exe  

Run it but DO NOT LAUNCH ACROBAT READER just close the installation program . If you do : all your efforts have been in vain !!!

First uninstall reader dc 64 bits as described above

Then install 32 bit with readerdc_en_xa_cra_install.exe   

Do not launch use or even look at Acrobat Reader before executing the next steps :

Stop automatic updates

Then… DISABLE AUTOMATIC UPDATES FOR ACROBAT

(This is done with the Task Scheduler  and the Services as described here: )

https://www.wintips.org/how-to-disable-automatic-update-in-adobe-reader-dc/

Tricky but it works !

DELETE THE AUTOMATIC UPDATE PROGRAMS

All programs in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\

and armsvc.exe in particular. Also the associated ddl armsvc.dll service

 

 

MANUALLY DELETE C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\armsvc.exe

That still isn't enough ! Somehow the process armsvc.exe and everything in Adobe\ARM\1.0 gets restored "automatically " and the process armsvs.exe is running !

So I try this here:

As explained here : https://winaero.com/enable-disable-inherited-permissions-windows-10/#Disable_Inherited_Permissions_f...

Change the owner of armsvc.exe from System to your own user name

, then Disable inheritance

Result:

And for good mesure, I did the same for AdobeARM.exe