Can't print PDFs?


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I play a lot of PFS, so I print out lots of scenarios and the odd module every now and then to GM for others, as wel as a home AP. The scenarios have always printed fine for me, but the bigger files always seem to cause problems. I had to print an adventure path in batches of 8 pages, that's quite a slog when the printer needs to process it for 2 minutes each time. But now I'm trying to print a module, and I can't even print one page without the printer spitting out an error message.
Speaking of which, I don't have a printer available to me, so I print off my university's computers, so I can't really fiddle much with the settings, I can't even find out why my files are being rejected.
So, do you know why these files are being rejected, and how I can fix it? I think the problem lies in the flattening process, as that's where I see a big loading bar whenever I print.
I could also run it off my laptop, but it's old and slow and I don't really use it anymore. >_>

Thanks in advance.

TLDR: School printer can handle PFS scenarios just fine, seems to get stuck on modules and bigger files. Might be flattening process. Anyone help remedy this?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Normally, I'd suggest making sure you have the most current version of Adobe Reader, but since you probably don't have control of that in your environment, I'd suggest trying a different PDF application if you can.


I think Adobe is fairly up to date, but I'll try a different application, thanks!

Also, I see I accidentally posted this in Website Feedback, I meant to post this in Product Discussion. I'm sorry for the screwup. If someone could move it, that'd be great.

EDIT: I should look before I post. Product Discussion is for specific products. Still, if anyone thinks there's a better place for this, feel free to move it.

Liberty's Edge

Take it to a print shop.

Sczarni

How are you printing it? I've seen school computers that limit the speed in which data can transfer from a USB key to the computer before masked as an attempt to prevent viruses. Maybe if you transfer it to the computer and then print?

Also there is possibly a setting on some printers themselves that colleges libraries and hospitals usually set called a max print duration. This means that if the print job is connected to the printer for over that length of time, it will terminate the print job. Usually this is to prevent run-away print jobs from using whole reams of paper, so is set to 5 minutes, but with the 2 minute transfer time, that might be effecting you as well.


I've tried through Google Drive, USB, and plopping the file onto the computer's drive itself.
I know there's a long timer, possibly for the duration of the entire day. Should last at least for an hour, if not more. There are computers intended for printing only right next to the printers, so I can print it within a minute from pressing "print."

I guess I can go to a print shop, but they're so expensive. At school, printing is like 2.5 cents a page, actual print shops charge like 10 cents a page.

More info: The print job still appears on the printer and is selectable, but gives an error and refuses to print. And, as I said, it only happens with the bigger files, even if I select a smaller amount of pages. And with this module (Midnight Mirror) I can't even print a single page. Might be the pages are more intricate and the printer is having trouble flattening it, so maybe there's another way of flattening it, myself.
D'oh, I know, I can simplify PDFs in Foxit, I'll try that tomorrow.

Dark Archive

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Hello! Professional printer here! A couple of things to try:

Make sure you aren't printing as an image. In some older versions of Reader this could cause a massive slow down when trying to print. To check to see if "Print as Image is turned on or not, from the print dialogue box, click the advanced button (should be to the right of the printer pull down). The check box should be somewhere in the upper right corner of the box. This is a good place to look for any other odd print specs someone may have turned on and not turned off after printing.

If you are getting errors, try closing every other program running. The machines might not have the horsepower to plow through an image rich file. Also, if you continue to get errors, there may be only one page that is causing the print driver fits. Try printing one page at a time until you locate which page is the offending image/page. You should then be able to print the rest of the document and reserve the troublesome page for the end.

If you are able to look at the print queue dialogue, try deleting the errors. If there is a corrupt file clogging the line, nothing sent after that will print. You may need to be patient for this part. The machine could take a while to cycle through the process of deleting from the queue. When it does, try again using the method I suggested up top. You may need to restart the computer as well.

Good luck! PM me if you have any other questions.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Leg o' Lamb wrote:
Make sure you aren't printing as an image. In some older versions of Reader this could cause a massive slow down when trying to print. To check to see if "Print as Image is turned on or not, from the print dialogue box, click the advanced button (should be to the right of the printer pull down). The check box should be somewhere in the upper right corner of the box.

What this setting really does is determine whether the bulk of the processing is being done by your computer (Print as Image is on) or by the printer (Print as Image is off).

It actually sounds to me like the printer is the one erroring out, so I suspect that Print as Image is off (which I'm pretty sure is the default setting) but you might actually want to try turning it *on*.

I guess what this really adds up to is this: whichever way it is set now, try the other way.

Dark Archive

Vic Wertz wrote:
Leg o' Lamb wrote:
Make sure you aren't printing as an image. In some older versions of Reader this could cause a massive slow down when trying to print. To check to see if "Print as Image is turned on or not, from the print dialogue box, click the advanced button (should be to the right of the printer pull down). The check box should be somewhere in the upper right corner of the box.

What this setting really does is determine whether the bulk of the processing is being done by your computer (Print as Image is on) or by the printer (Print as Image is off).

It actually sounds to me like the printer is the one erroring out, so I suspect that Print as Image is off (which I'm pretty sure is the default setting) but you might actually want to try turning it *on*.

I guess what this really adds up to is this: whichever way it is set now, try the other way.

Agreed.


"Print as image" fixed the thing, thanks!
To elaborate, I tried a few things. Apparently, several pages caused the printer to error, both in the mode it's usually in, and in "Print as image" mode. I fixed it by printing in batches. First page was the culprit, among others. "Print as image" made the printing process take much longer, but at least it was printing, so I shouldn't really complain. And I tried several ways of reducing filesize, but nothing really helped, the "print as image" really was the only way to go.

Dark Archive

Woo hoo! Success!

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