How to Fix a PDF That Will Not Print

A PDF that opens fine and refuses to print has a small number of causes. Work through them in order and one of them is the answer.

Check these in sequence

1. 1Print a different document. If nothing prints, the printer is the problem, not the PDF.
2. 2Check document properties for printing permission — the file may be restricted.
3. 3Try a different reader. Browsers print PDFs reliably and are a good test.
4. 4Enable "print as image" in the advanced print settings.
5. 5Print one page rather than the whole document, to find whether one page is at fault.
6. 6Clear the print queue and restart the print spooler.

Printing restrictions

A PDF can carry a flag asking readers to disable printing. Document properties will show printing as "Not Allowed". This is an advisory restriction rather than encryption, and it can be removed from a document you are entitled to print — though if you received it from someone else with that restriction deliberately set, it is worth asking rather than circumventing.

What "print as image" does

It renders each page to a bitmap on your computer and sends that to the printer, instead of sending the page description for the printer to interpret. It is slower and slightly lower quality, and it works when the printer's own interpreter is choking on something — a complex transparency, an unusual font, a malformed object.

Other things that stop a print

• A stuck job at the front of the queue blocking everything behind it.
• A driver that needs updating, particularly after an operating system upgrade.
• Insufficient printer memory on an older network device faced with a large page.
• A corrupted PDF that renders on screen but fails when interpreted for print.
• A network printer that has silently gone offline.

The reliable fallback

Convert the pages to images at 300 DPI and print those. It bypasses every rendering issue at once. Quality is slightly lower and the job is larger, and when you need the document on paper today it works.