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PDFs are a great way to save and share documents because they stay properly formatted on every computer system. Students and workers are bound to encounter them on a regular basis, especially when documents include important information.
Picture this: You’ve decided to print a hard copy of your PDF. It’s easier on the eyes, it’s easier to take notes on, and you’d like to file it away when you’re done with it. The problem? The PDF won’t print.
Now for some unknown reason the PDF of the newsletter won’t load to the media library. I haven’t done anything differently from previous months. I’ve closed and re-opend the PDF, the website, and WordPress, I’ve deleted the PDF from my computer and made a new one, I’ve rebooted the computer. Often, just refreshing the page in your browser allows the PDF to load fully. Hold down the Shift key and press the Refresh or Reload button in the browser. Try to view a different PDF Try viewing a different PDF. And you need to open a PDF file with a third-party PDF reader. Fix 3: Use a Third-Party Extension – PDF Viewer. It is reported that some users have fixed the issue of Chrome failed to load PDF document by downloading and enabling an extension called PDF Viewer in Google Chrome. If your PDF won’t open in Chrome, you can also try this method. As a quick test, users may click the Adobe PDF icon to the right. If you have a working PDF reader, an example PDF should open in a new window. If it doesn't, download Adobe Reader or try an alternative free PDF reader. If you don't want to install any programs, an online reader is your best solution. Free alternative PDF readers to Adobe Reader. It doesn't matter how many times I refresh or reopen a particular tab, the pdf still wouldn't show. Strangely, if I close and relaunch chrome after it has loaded the crashed pages, after reopening it all the pdfs would load properly and almost immediately, as if they were saved somewhere.
As convenient as PDFs are, they can require some troubleshooting. It’s frustrating, but don’t throw your computer out the window just yet.
Read on for a few easy hacks to get your pesky PDF to print!
Rule Out the Printer
Before you start messing with the file, itself, try printing something else. It might not be that your printer can’t print anything, not just that your printer won’t print PDFs.
![Pdf Wont Load Pdf Wont Load](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119789623/128443901.png)
Adobe Pdf Won T Open
Open your settings window and click on “Printers and Scanners.” Make sure that the printer you are trying to use has a green checkmark next to it, indicating that this your computer’s default printer. If it’s not, right-click the printer you want to use and select the option, “Set as default printer.”
Once this is complete, try printing something else. Open the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of your browser. (Look for the three vertical dots and click.)
Click on “Print.” This should bring up a screen asking if you want to print this webpage. Say yes and see what happens.
If it prints, then the issue is, in fact, with the PDF file. If it doesn’t, then you’re going to need to use another printer.
Save the PDF Again
Sometimes PDFs become corrupt when they are saved from an online source. Go back to the download and try saving it again.
If you usually save downloaded documents to a thumb or network drive, try saving the document to your hard drive. Right-click the link to the document and select “Save Link As.” This will give you the option to save it to your computer’s hard drive rather than the external drive your documents usually save to.
Go to the copy that you’ve just saved and click print.
Create a New PDF
If you have access to the original document (such as a Microsoft Word document), open it.
Go to the File tab in the upper left-hand corner and choose the option, “Save As.” Pull down the drop-down menu that will bring up different file saving options and choose “.pdf.” Doing so will create a new PDF from the original file.
Once the document has converted to a PDF, click print.
Print the PDF as an Image
To do this, you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Open the file in Acrobat Reader and click the printer icon located in the toolbar.
This will bring up a new screen. In the upper right-hand side of the screen, you should see an option that says “Advanced.” Open this and select the box next to the option, “Print as Image.”
Now select “OK” on that same screen and “Print” on the first screen that appeared when you hit the printer icon. If the PDF wouldn’t print because of an issue with the file, itself, this should allow you to get past that issue. You’re basically sending a signal to your computer that you’re not printing a corrupt file but rather a complete image, and what is printed will look exactly the same.
Troubleshoot Adobe Acrobat
![Pdf Wont Load Pdf Wont Load](/uploads/1/1/9/7/119789623/849550388.jpg)
The issue may not be with the PDF, but with your Adobe software. It may need updates that will either take care of themselves with a system reboot or that you will have to install manually.
Restart your computer and try printing the PDF again. If that doesn’t work, the Adobe software may need a little more work.
Type “features” into your computer’s search bar and open the window for “Apps and features.” Find your Adobe Acrobat Reader app and click “Uninstall.”
Go to the Adobe website and download the most recent version of the program onto your computer. Once the download is complete and the app is fully installed, open the PDF again and try printing it.
You may want to delete the file you saved under the outdated version of Adobe and go back to the PDF download. Save it again now that you are working with an updated Adobe Reader program and try printing it.
Print the PDF Without Adobe Software
If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader or don’t want to get the latest version, don’t sweat it. There are ways to access and print PDFs without Adobe software that are safe and easy to use.
Pdf Won't Load In Chrome
Try the c# print PDF option. This will let you print a PDF in a .net application by sending it silently to your printer. This is a stable and secure way to print your PDF without having to add a ton of additional software onto your computer.
Ask the Original Sender to Troubleshoot the PDF on Their End
Pdf Files Won't Open In Windows 10
If you don’t have the original document that was converted into a PDF and none of these steps are working for you, you may want to contact the person who created and sent the document if possible.
If they find that they can’t print it, either, they may need to create a new PDF and send that out, instead.
Don’t Give Up When a PDF Won’t Print
We live in a world of instant gratification–instant downloads, instant information, and even instant printing. It can be incredibly irritating when something doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do right away.
Before you lose your cool when a PDF won’t print, try some of the steps we’ve listed above. They may sound complicated, but none of them will take that long, and hopefully you’ll be printing in no time.
For more useful tips and life hacks, check out more of our posts that will make your life a little easier!
When trying to view e-journal articles or files on Blackboard Learn, or from other sources, some files may open inside a browser window but display as a blank, or grey space, or the file may not finish downloading. Try right-clicking the link to the file and open it in another tab or another application like Adobe Acrobat DC Reader.
There are several other remedies to try listed below...
1. Open Adobe Reader, go to Edit > Preferences > Internet and either tick, or untick, “Display PDF in browser”. Then close down Adobe Reader so that the setting change takes effect.
Try to open the file again. Depending on your new setting the PDF should open, either inside the browser or, if you selected Open PDF outside the browser, a new Adobe Reader window should open, this time outside the browser with all the content displayed.
2. Alternatively, use a different browser. Firefox is available from the Start menu > All Programs > Central Software folder > Browsers folder > Firefox 24.0 (or later versions). Firefox may report that the Adobe Reader plug-in needs updating - just click on the grey icon to open the PDF. If you still encounter a problem you can also fix it by choosing Tools > Options > Applications tab > look for a drop down for Adobe Reader (or Adobe Acrobat) which should be switched to 'Use Adobe Acrobat in Firefox'. Refreshing the page will change the behaviour to read the PDF inside the browser frame.
3. If you still have a problem opening a PDF please also try changing your connection speed setting: open Adobe Reader, go to Edit > Preferences > Internet and under 'Internet Options' change the connection speed from 56 Kbps to 112 Kbps.
4. Another thing to try, in Internet Explorer, is to add the host site to the Trusted sites policy, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security tab > Trusted sites (green tick) > Trusted sites button > add the host to the zone, for example *.ingentaconnect.com > click on Add button and Close and OK (server verification is not required). This should permit the download to go ahead next time you download a file from the host.We have done so for Ingenta - see the link to a separate FAQ on this.
5. Look also for pop-up alerts near the top of the browser and enable the pop-up if you trust the site - the publishers' sites that we link to may be trusted as they are known to us. Once the pop-up is enabled, it may open automatically, or you may need to refresh the page you were on.
6. If you see an error message: 'Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server' open Adobe Reader and select Edit > Preference > General, and uncheck “Enable Protected Mode”.
If no solution works for you, please email [email protected] with a description of your problem, including the full citation of the article that you are trying to obtain and, if possible, send us a screenshot.
[This answer applies to Adobe Reader versions 9 and X. For Adobe Reader XI it is different: the settings must be changed in IE8 (or IE9). Please note: the default setting on campus is to open PDF files outside the IE8 browser. Note also, on campus, Adobe Reader X opens a PDFaloud alert in a separate pop up box - you should OK this or the PDF may not download successfully.]