pdf form won't work in Preview

[joycew32134240]

I just created a fillable PDF form and it works in Acrobat and Preview. In Preview, however, I am unable to clear the form. Is this a known issue with Preview and should I worry about putting it on our website for use by the public?

[George_Johnson · Accepted solution]

Preview has very limited support for PDF forms and actually corrupts them (and other PDFs) in a number of ways when it saves them. This corruption is irreversible. I would suggest informing your users that they should not use Preview and instead use Adobe Reader/Acrobat, or certain other PDF viewers that have sufficient support for your form.

[joycew32134240]

George,

Thank you so much. This is very disturbing since I use a mac and my default app for PDFs has been Preview for years. I wonder if you don't save the forms but just close Preview if the corruption still occurs. Good to know.

[George_Johnson]

Yes, but the problem is Preview can save without the user explicitly saving. For more information, see: Preview.app - Killer of PDF Files - KHKonsulting LLC