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Pdf to Pdf Printing problem

skypilotpete
Registered: Jul 11 2008
Posts: 6

I am using Acrobat Professional 6.0. I have created PDFs from Microsoft Word 2003 without any problems. Then, I annotate the PDF using a variety of tools, including text boxes, highlighting etc. In order to fix all the annotations and turn them into a document which cannot be changed, what I have always done in the past is send the file to Distiller and print it as a new PDF file. I have never had difficulty doing this in the past. However, now it won't work and I can't work out why. The error message from the Distiller log seems to suggest that there are problems with the fonts, but I can't see why this should be the case, as I am just using the default fonts in the various Tools.

You may say that I should just password protect the document to prevent changes, but there are free tools available on the web which strip password protection out of Adobe Acrobat files (I've tried one and it works without any difficulty).

The only way I have found to make the comments etc an integral part of the file is to print to a new PDF file, and now it won't work. (If there is a better way to do this, please let me know - I am very much a beginner!!!)

I would really appreciate some help with this, as my deadline to send these documents off is only a day away.

I am using Windows XP Home SP2. Acrobat Pro 6.0.

The Distiller Log is:

%%[ Warning: Helvetica not found, using Font Substitution. Font cannot be embedded.]%%
%%[Page: 1]%%
%%[Page: 2]%%
%%[Page: 3]%%
%%[Page: 4]%%
%%[ Error: undefinedresource; OffendingCommand: findresource ]%%

Stack:
/FunctionDictionary
/N108
/Function
[/DeviceRGB]
/ColorSpace
2
/ShadingType
-mark-
/Shading
2
/PatternType
-mark-
-save-

%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%

gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
PDF do not print well to PDF even with a simple document because you lose so much quality. You should "flatten" the PDF either using JavaScript or add [url=http://abracadabrapdf.net/articles.php?lng=en&pg=15]AbracadabraTOOLS 2.5[/url] which will add a number of useful menu items including a "flatten' option.

George Kaiser

skypilotpete
Registered: Jul 11 2008
Posts: 6
Thankyou for your helpful reply. I have downloaded and installed AbracadabraTOOLS_2.5, but I cannot get it to work. The tools options show up in the menu, and I select Tools -> Flatten -> Document. I then get the message saying that if I continue I will not be able to undo changes. I select OK, but nothing happens. I save the document and reopen, but all the comments etc are still there, fully editable.However, the "Flatten Page" option DOES work. I can now go through each document, flattening each page individually, but this is rather a hassle with large documents.

In the AbracadabraTOOLS_2.5 installation instructions, it says to to enable Acrobat JavaScript in preferences, and I have done that. However, it also says to select "Enable menu items JavaScript execution privileges" under JavaScript Security. I cannot find this option anywhere. It does not appear under Preferences -> Javascript in my version of Acrobat Pro 6.0.Do you have any suggestions?
Dimitri
Expert
Registered: Nov 1 2005
Posts: 1389
Hi skypilotpete,

Here is an article with step by step details on how to flatten comments in Acrobat with JavaScript-
http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/2007/flattening_comments/

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
WindJack Solutions
www.windjack.com
skypilotpete
Registered: Jul 11 2008
Posts: 6
Hi Dimitri,

thankyou for your kind help. I have gone through the article and installed both the scripts you suggest. There is clearly something not quite right about my setup, as Lori's Script for the Documents menu does the same thing as the others I've tried - the "Flatten Current Page" command works, but the "Flatten All Pages" doesn't. However, all is not lost, because Thom Parker's script "JavaScript Form Field and Annotation Flattener" works perfectly.

Thanks again. I would love to know why the other scripts don't work correctly, but maybe I should just be satisfied that I have found one that does.