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Printing onto pre-existing forms

Forum Index > Forms: Acrobat > Printing onto pre-existing forms
2008-11-21 07:45:09
GBK9Cop
Registered: Apr 16 2007
Posts: 11

I scanned a proprietary form into a pdf and now I am putting form fields in it. My intention is to have the individual fill in the forms in Reader then print only the form fields onto a proprietary form. The form they are printing on has to be used and I cannot just print the one they fill in.

The problem I am having is that when I fill in the forms and print it the text fields don’t line up where they did in Reader. I have tried trimming and cropping but I can’t get them to line up. The proprietary form is pretty detailed.

I hope someone can help me with this headache.

Matt

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 7.0, Windows
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2008-11-21 16:46:35
#1
ecoliguy
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 19
Sounds similar to an issue I had, where the pre-printed forms we used HAD to be used. It ended up being an issue with the printer dialog box, where the user had the option to scale the printing. "Page Scaling: Fit to Printable Area" was the default choice, but choosing "Page Scaling: None" fixed things nicely.

Note that this pritner dialog was specific to the printer itself, not to Acrobat.
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2008-11-22 06:56:04
#2
Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
ecoliguy wrote:
"Page Scaling: Fit to Printable Area" was the default choice, but choosing "Page Scaling: None" fixed things nicely.
Now, this default choice can be settled using Acrobat 8+ > File menu > Document properties > Advanced...;-)

abracadabraPDF.net

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2009-03-24 15:58:01
#3
wmorton
Registered: Mar 24 2009
Posts: 1
Regarding this subject, what needs to be done so that only the filled-in text is printed. I scanned the form and then setup the text fields. Now, the printer has the pre-printed form and I just need to print the filled-in text. Thanks
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2009-03-24 18:28:35
#4
ecoliguy
Registered: Nov 19 2008
Posts: 19
Try scanning in and using it as a background graphic while you set up your form. Once you've got it all set, you can set the properties of the graphic to be visible but not print (available from the Properties box, I think)
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2009-03-25 03:12:28
#5
Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
Yes, put the background graphic on a not-printable layer.

abracadabraPDF.net

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2009-03-25 05:38:51
#6
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
wmorton wrote:
Regarding this subject, what needs to be done so that only the filled-in text is printed. I scanned the form and then setup the text fields. Now, the printer has the pre-printed form and I just need to print the filled-in text. Thanks
You can also select "Form fields only" from the pulldown menu under Comments and Forms: in the Print dialog.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-03-25 06:22:51
#7
Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
lkassuba wrote:
You can also select "Form fields only" from the pulldown menu under Comments and Forms: in the Print dialog.
This is not available in Reader !

abracadabraPDF.net

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2009-03-25 07:04:51
#8
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Good point. Did the post mention using Reader?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

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2009-03-25 07:12:41
#9
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
Using the scanned form as a non-printable watermark would allow for the display but not printing of the scanned form. There could be problems with scaling and registering the location of the form fields text on the preprinted form.

George Kaiser

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2009-03-25 07:50:24
#10
Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
See that sample PDF containing printable form fields and a not-printable layer :
https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=b8ec14be-97b1-4015-a40b-43e50ef77445

Obviously, end-users must print at 100%.

;-)

abracadabraPDF.net

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2009-03-25 08:01:13
#11
Merlin
Acrobat 9ExpertTeam
Registered: Mar 1 2006
Posts: 766
lkassuba wrote:
Good point. Did the post mention using Reader?
Yes : see the first one.

Lorie, I was close to reply the same thing than you, but before I needed to launch my Reader (in English) because my Acrobat is in French an I must know english menu item before posting.

And I didn't find this function in Reader... So I remembered why I made a PDF with a not-printable layer for my customer instead of using this tip.
:-)

abracadabraPDF.net

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