Using Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit dual-core system.

When I view a PDF file on my screen, it looks fine, but when I go to print
it, the page comes out in a totally different character set. Lines and
graphics are legible, but the rest is some kind of weird shifted character
sets. 

I'm in a real bind here, as I'm trying to do my taxes and when I attempt to
print a tax form directly from the Canada Revenue Agency website, I get
nothing on paper but garbage. 

To make matters even more confusing, some PDF files do not produce the same
problem; they will print to paper perfectly readable.

Is there some setting somewhere that I can adjust to fix this problem? I
desperately need this tax form, but can't obtain a printable copy of it. 

TIA,


Tom

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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:33:04 -0600, Tom Hall ci disse:

> When I view a PDF file on my screen, it looks fine, but when I go to
> print it, the page comes out in a totally different character set. Lines
> and graphics are legible, but the rest is some kind of weird shifted
> character sets.
[...]
Well, this is happened to me some times some time ago

in my case, problem was caused by incorrect font encoding

you can try to re-distill your pdf using

*pstill* (free on linux os)
- http://www.stone.com/PStill/PStill.html

or (more practically) you can try these workarounds:

- download inkscape - import pdf and resave
- download Gimp - import pdf - and save as image

- download xpdf-utils
- http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

with pdftoppm

pdftoppm -r 300 file.pdf 0

you will able to convert pdf pages in images you can print
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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:33:04 -0600, Tom Hall <aria1946@gmail.com.invalid>
wrote:

>Using Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit dual-core system.

Sorry - I meant to say Adobe Reader 9.3.1. I do not have the Acrobat system
installed.


Tom

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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:41:00 GMT, Lutrin <elicona@olympo.it> wrote:

>On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:33:04 -0600, Tom Hall ci disse:
>
>> When I view a PDF file on my screen, it looks fine, but when I go to
>> print it, the page comes out in a totally different character set. Lines
>> and graphics are legible, but the rest is some kind of weird shifted
>> character sets.
>[...]
>Well, this is happened to me some times some time ago
>
>in my case, problem was caused by incorrect font encoding
>
>you can try to re-distill your pdf using
>
>*pstill* (free on linux os)
>- http://www.stone.com/PStill/PStill.html
>
>or (more practically) you can try these workarounds:
>
>- download inkscape - import pdf and resave
>- download Gimp - import pdf - and save as image

Are you saying that BOTH are required, or just one or the other?
>
>- download xpdf-utils
>- http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html
>
>with pdftoppm
>
>pdftoppm -r 300 file.pdf 0
>
>you will able to convert pdf pages in images you can print

I'm somewhat confused by your suggestions. I don't know what you mean by
"re-distil". I'm not a programmer so please be gentle... :-)

The funny thing is, MOST of my PDF files are exhibiting this problem, but
not ALL. I have a virtual printer driver called PdfFactory which I use as
my default printer, and it shows me the garbage too when I print to it
(saves paper). 

I don't know if this is a problem that I'm just now discovering that has
been around for a long time. I rarely print documents on paper so this
could have been a problem lurking in the background that finally surfaced
when I needed to print a document directly from a website. 

I've uninstalled Adobe Reader and am about to download and reinstall.
Perhaps that will fix the problem?


Tom

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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:57:06 -0600, Tom Hall <aria1946@gmail.com.invalid>
wrote:

>I've uninstalled Adobe Reader and am about to download and reinstall.
>Perhaps that will fix the problem?

I downloaded and installed an older version of the reader, 8.2, but the
problem is still there. 


Tom

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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:41:00 GMT, Lutrin <elicona@olympo.it> wrote:

>- download xpdf-utils
>- http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

There appears to be no version of this program for 64-bit Vista. From
previous experience I`m reluctant to try the 32-bit version, since I really
don`t know what I`m doing. 

Tom

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On Mar 25, 6:48=A0pm, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:33:04 -0600, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> >Using Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit dual-core syste=
m.
>
> Sorry - I meant to say Adobe Reader 9.3.1. I do not have the Acrobat syst=
em
> installed.


See also the thread started by me 2 days ago "How to create PDFs with
a
'similar-enough' font embedded if the original document's font
license
does forbid embedding?"

If AcroReader displays your file fine on-screen, then you could try
the
following to get a good-enough printout on-paper (back-translated to
English from German, from memory):

* Hit "[Ctrl]+[P]" to bring up the printing dialog
* Select the printer you want to choose (if you have more than 1) [*]
* Click button labelled "Advanced" or similar (on lower left of print
dialog IIRC)

That last action should bring up another small dialog. There you'll
find a checkbox "Print as image" (or similar). If you enable that,
AcroReader renders your PDF pages into bitmap images very similar to
the appearance on screen, and these should pose no font rendering
problems to your printer.

----------
[*] If your printer is a PostScript device, then the "Advanced"
printing dialog will offer even more choices to play with. You
could try them for optimal print quality: "Convert TT fonts into
Type1 fonts", "Font download policies:.." and some more.

Cheers,
pipitas

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:57:06 -0600, Tom Hall ci disse:

> Are you saying that BOTH are required, or just one or the other?
[...]
just one, it serves as temporary workaround

there are other programs able to rasterize pdfs like

*free pdfill tool*
- http://www.pdfill.com/

> Perhaps that will fix the problem?
[...]
I seriously doubt it can solve problem
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On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:08:55 -0700 (PDT), pipitas <pipitas@googlemail.com>
wrote:

>* Hit "[Ctrl]+[P]" to bring up the printing dialog
>* Select the printer you want to choose (if you have more than 1) [*]
>* Click button labelled "Advanced" or similar (on lower left of print
>dialog IIRC)
>
>That last action should bring up another small dialog. There you'll
>find a checkbox "Print as image" (or similar). If you enable that,
>AcroReader renders your PDF pages into bitmap images very similar to
>the appearance on screen, and these should pose no font rendering
>problems to your printer.

This solved the problem with some PDFs, but not all of them. The crucial
one, the tax form, still prints as garbage even with "Print as Image"
selected. The Canada Revenue Agency logo which I suspect is a bitmap
graphic prints correctly, but that's the only legible thing on the page.

My roommate's computer runs Ubuntu, and the tax form printed correctly from
that system. Of course, this gives him more ammunition in our ongoing
"Linux vs. Windows" debate...	:-)

Is there a way to restore all Windows fonts globally to their status at the
time Vista was installed without doing a complete system restore? I suspect
that this problem may have been around since day one and I'm only now
discovering it, as I seldom do any printing to paper. If it looks okay on
your screen, you assume that the printed version will look the same... :-/

Or --- a few weeks ago I suddenly started experiencing some problems with
fonts globally in my applications. I googled the problem and came up with a
"Vista Font Fix" .reg file which I applied and which solved my problem at
that time. I wonder if that registry tweak might be the culprit here? I
could send you the .reg zip file if you have the time and inclination to
take a look at it. 

Or -- is the problem I'm experiencing an artifact of the way the PDF files
were created originally?

Tom

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At Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:13:49 -0600 Tom Hall <aria1946@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:08:55 -0700 (PDT), pipitas <pipitas@googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >* Hit "[Ctrl]+[P]" to bring up the printing dialog
> >* Select the printer you want to choose (if you have more than 1) [*]
> >* Click button labelled "Advanced" or similar (on lower left of print
> >dialog IIRC)
> >
> >That last action should bring up another small dialog. There you'll
> >find a checkbox "Print as image" (or similar). If you enable that,
> >AcroReader renders your PDF pages into bitmap images very similar to
> >the appearance on screen, and these should pose no font rendering
> >problems to your printer.
> 
> This solved the problem with some PDFs, but not all of them. The crucial
> one, the tax form, still prints as garbage even with "Print as Image"
> selected. The Canada Revenue Agency logo which I suspect is a bitmap
> graphic prints correctly, but that's the only legible thing on the page.
> 
> My roommate's computer runs Ubuntu, and the tax form printed correctly from
> that system. Of course, this gives him more ammunition in our ongoing
> "Linux vs. Windows" debate...	:-)

Wondering: what PDF viewer is your roommate using?  Many of the PDF
viewers available for Linux are also available for MS-Windows.  It is
entirely possible that the problem is Adobe's PDF reader (strange but
entirely possible).

> 
> Is there a way to restore all Windows fonts globally to their status at the
> time Vista was installed without doing a complete system restore? I suspect
> that this problem may have been around since day one and I'm only now
> discovering it, as I seldom do any printing to paper. If it looks okay on
> your screen, you assume that the printed version will look the same... :-/
> 
> Or --- a few weeks ago I suddenly started experiencing some problems with
> fonts globally in my applications. I googled the problem and came up with a
> "Vista Font Fix" .reg file which I applied and which solved my problem at
> that time. I wonder if that registry tweak might be the culprit here? I
> could send you the .reg zip file if you have the time and inclination to
> take a look at it. 
> 
> Or -- is the problem I'm experiencing an artifact of the way the PDF files
> were created originally?
> 
> Tom
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
                                                 

BTW -- which printer/driver do you try to print this document with?

On Mar 25, 8:13=A0pm, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

> Or -- is the problem I'm experiencing an artifact of the way the PDF file=
s
> were created originally?


What does Acrobat Reader show in the "Document Properties" dialog,
"Fonts" tab for the different fonts used in the file? (in the menu,
"File" --> "Document Properties".

For each font used there should be an entry with the font name.

For printing to work (nearly) guaranteed WYSIWIG, the entry should
give an indication (in braces) if the font is embedded into the PDF
(it could say "Embedded subset"). It does also give info about each
font's type and encoding. If there is no indication of the font being
embedded, AcroReader will say which is the "original font" and which
other substitution font it uses instead for display.

Lubrin previously suggested XPDF to use. Now this is a set of tools
and a PDF viewer used on Unix/Linux. However, some commandline tools
have been released for Windows as well. They don't need installation,
unzipping and running the *.exes is good enough.

Noteably you may want to see if (in a "command window"/"DOS box")

=3D=3D>  "pdfinfo.exe c:\path\to\your.pdf"
=3D=3D>  "pdffonts.exe c:\path\to\your.pdf"

will complete their run without any errors. These two commands don't
do any harm to your files; they just try and parse them and output
useful general and font info about the PDF.

If there's a problem, the two tools may be able to tell you. You may
want to run it against the different types of PDF files you have to
see if there is a systematic difference between the ones that print OK
and the ones that don't.

Cheers,
pipitas

On Mar 25, 11:33=A0pm, pipitas <pipi...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> Lubrin previously suggested XPDF to use. Now this is a set of tools
> and a PDF viewer used on Unix/Linux. However, some commandline tools
> have been released for Windows as well. They don't need installation,
> unzipping and running the *.exes is good enough.

ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdf-3.02pl4-win32.zip

> Noteably you may want to see if (in a "command window"/"DOS box")
>
> =3D=3D> =A0"pdfinfo.exe c:\path\to\your.pdf"
> =3D=3D> =A0"pdffonts.exe c:\path\to\your.pdf"
>
> will complete their run without any errors. These two commands don't
> do any harm to your files; they just try and parse them and output
> useful general and font info about the PDF.
>
> If there's a problem, the two tools may be able to tell you. You may
> want to run it against the different types of PDF files you have to
> see if there is a systematic difference between the ones that print OK
> and the ones that don't.

On Mar 25, 8:13=A0pm, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

> Or --- a few weeks ago I suddenly started experiencing some problems with
> fonts globally in my applications. I googled the problem and came up with=
 a
> "Vista Font Fix" .reg file which I applied and which solved my problem at
> that time. I wonder if that registry tweak might be the culprit here? I
> could send you the .reg zip file if you have the time and inclination to
> take a look at it.

No, thanks    :-)

However, you can open a .reg file in a text editor. (I always do,
before I
apply any. And I always make a backup of the tree in questions before
I do
any change to the registry. Just to be able to roll back if there are
side effects later...)

If the .reg is not too big/long (say: no more than 50 lines), and if
it
does not contain binary blobs, you can put these inline a posting so
someone
can look at it....

Tom Hall wrote:
> Using Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit dual-core system.
> 
> When I view a PDF file on my screen, it looks fine, but when I go to print
> it, the page comes out in a totally different character set. Lines and
> graphics are legible, but the rest is some kind of weird shifted character
> sets. 

What happens if you choose "print as image"?

Tom Hall wrote:
> Using Adobe Acrobat 9.3.1 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit dual-core system.
>
> When I view a PDF file on my screen, it looks fine, but when I go to print
> it, the page comes out in a totally different character set. Lines and
> graphics are legible, but the rest is some kind of weird shifted character
> sets.
>
> I'm in a real bind here, as I'm trying to do my taxes and when I attempt to
> print a tax form directly from the Canada Revenue Agency website, I get
> nothing on paper but garbage.

Use

Use an older version of Adobe Reader and see if that solves the problem.

You could try this Java reader
http://www.gnostice.com/downloads/freepdfreader.zip

http://www.gnostice.com/nl_article.asp?id=158&t=Free_PDF_Reader_-_A_Portable_PDF_Reader_for_Windows,_Linux_and_Mac

-- 
  Bwig Zomberi

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:33:30 -0700 (PDT), pipitas <pipitas@googlemail.com>
wrote:

>BTW -- which printer/driver do you try to print this document with?
>
>On Mar 25, 8:13�pm, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Or -- is the problem I'm experiencing an artifact of the way the PDF files
>> were created originally?
>
>
>What does Acrobat Reader show in the "Document Properties" dialog,
>"Fonts" tab for the different fonts used in the file? (in the menu,
>"File" --> "Document Properties".
>
>For each font used there should be an entry with the font name.
>
>For printing to work (nearly) guaranteed WYSIWIG, the entry should
>give an indication (in braces) if the font is embedded into the PDF
>(it could say "Embedded subset"). It does also give info about each
>font's type and encoding. If there is no indication of the font being
>embedded, AcroReader will say which is the "original font" and which
>other substitution font it uses instead for display.

There are 6 fonts listed, and all say "Embedded subset"

However, I've solved my problem by installing a freeware reader called
Foxit. It displays my PDF files and prints them properly. 

I am about to uninstall Adobe Reader and hopefully never look back... :-)


Tom

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At Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:06:37 -0600 Tom Hall <aria1946@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:33:30 -0700 (PDT), pipitas <pipitas@googlemail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >BTW -- which printer/driver do you try to print this document with?
> >
> >On Mar 25, 8:13 pm, Tom Hall <aria1...@gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >> Or -- is the problem I'm experiencing an artifact of the way the PDF files
> >> were created originally?
> >
> >
> >What does Acrobat Reader show in the "Document Properties" dialog,
> >"Fonts" tab for the different fonts used in the file? (in the menu,
> >"File" --> "Document Properties".
> >
> >For each font used there should be an entry with the font name.
> >
> >For printing to work (nearly) guaranteed WYSIWIG, the entry should
> >give an indication (in braces) if the font is embedded into the PDF
> >(it could say "Embedded subset"). It does also give info about each
> >font's type and encoding. If there is no indication of the font being
> >embedded, AcroReader will say which is the "original font" and which
> >other substitution font it uses instead for display.
> 
> There are 6 fonts listed, and all say "Embedded subset"
> 
> However, I've solved my problem by installing a freeware reader called
> Foxit. It displays my PDF files and prints them properly. 
> 
> I am about to uninstall Adobe Reader and hopefully never look back... :-)

I have noticed that Adobe Reader has gone from bad to worse, while the
freeware/open source PDF readers have been steadily improving.  It seems
that the paths have crossed recently and now Adobe Reader is the
lower-end product...

> 
> 
> Tom
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/