Have You Ever Encountered PDF files that cannot be printed?
 

Is it due to permission settings?

I believe there is an internal (to the pdf file) flag that can be set to non-printable.

As I recall, read on the web, most open-source software either ignores the flag or somewhere in the options is a way to tell the software to ignore it.

Google is a good bet :-)

Adobe Acrobat Pro gives the option to restrict certain features (printing, highlighting/copying text, password-protect, etc.) when creating PDFs.

Does that answer your question?

Hello,

You can print it using the "Print as image" option. Click the Advanced button in the Print dialog box to find this option.

Or, you can do like, save a copy of original pdf file with a new name and try printing that copy of original one.

It is possible that document is made not to be printed.
Still, on one machine I have random problems on printing PDF, (with Adobe Reader or Document viewer) and I'm never sure is this problem with CUPS or with PDF readers... :eek:

I've got one pdf file that resolutely refuses printing or any kind of copying. It was certainly designed that way.

But it's relatively rare.

I have a pdf that will not print on Ubuntu. When I try to print, it only prints weird characters. However, it will work on windows.

You may want to try a different pdf viewer. I have found that my credit card statements downloaded from Chase as pdfs are almost impossible to print even in Windows with the Acrobat viewer. There does not seem to be a restriction on printing, just that the viewer does not want to print to my Brother laser printer. I have found that epdfview http://www.emma-soft.com/projects/epdfview/ will do the job.

As far as Acrobat restricted pdf files... Some years back I downloaded a course book from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. It would not print with Acrobat under Windows. As I had signed up AND PAID for the course I felt justified in printing a copy. So I transfered the file to a Linux machine (which did not have a printer attached), printed the pdf to a pdf using whatever viewer was installed on Linux in those days to print to cups-pdf and copied the reprinted file back to my Windows PC which was connected to the printer. I was able to produce a hard copy. The point being that Linux pdf viewers may not respect Acrobat "do not print" properties in the file.

Ken

Some files are protected by copyrights - there is workaround for it (find software that can add count pages number...after adding count page number you will have new document and can print it...tried it under windows)

Some people like to read a hard copy offline. Reading many pages on the screen strains the eyes.

If the original author did set the pdf file to be non-printable, they should at least allowed a one-time printing option, if this feature is available in adobe pro.

Do note that circumvention of copyrights is not a valid topic for LQ, TIA.