svkrzn

Q: Some PDF are printed out with empty squares replacing the text

I have some bills from my electricity and gas provider and all the bills are printed out with squares being displayed instead of text. I already restored the Font Book to default fonts. I have no problems with viewing any of those bills on my computer. I have other PDFs and they are all printed out correctly. If I open up the PDF which is printed out badly and export it to PDF within PREVIEW app, the output is same as on my printer. I tried to restore all fonts to default ones and I tried to reinstall last OSX update with combo update, still the same.

What else can I do to restore the normal printing?

 

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MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), Crucial 8GB DDR3, Samsung 840 Pro 256MB

Posted on Jul 31, 2016 1:36 AM

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Q: Some PDF are printed out with empty squares replacing the text

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  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 5, 2016 1:24 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 5, 2016 1:24 AM in response to svkrzn

    Anyone have ever had the same issue guys?

  • by andrew_clark,

    andrew_clark andrew_clark Aug 5, 2016 9:51 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Aug 5, 2016 9:51 AM in response to svkrzn

    Are you printing the PDF from Preview or from Adobe Acrobat Reader?

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 5, 2016 1:24 PM in response to andrew_clark
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 5, 2016 1:24 PM in response to andrew_clark

    Preview app, as written in first post mate...

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 5, 2016 2:20 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 9 (71,578 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 5, 2016 2:20 PM in response to svkrzn

    Did you validate the fonts? Is this the procedure you used to restore standard fonts?

     

    Font Book (El Capitan): Restore standard fonts

     

    Font Book – Validate Fonts

  • by andrew_clark,

    andrew_clark andrew_clark Aug 5, 2016 3:16 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Aug 5, 2016 3:16 PM in response to svkrzn

    IT may be worth trying to print the PDFs from Adobe Acrobat Reader instead. Also, have you tried repairing disk permissions?

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 6, 2016 1:48 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 6, 2016 1:48 AM in response to Eric Root

    I did, that was the first solution I found online. Restored all the fonts to default and then validated them. No change.

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 6, 2016 1:50 AM in response to andrew_clark
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 6, 2016 1:50 AM in response to andrew_clark

    I would rather not install adobe product on adobe free computer just to print out PDFs... Google Chrome uses it's own PDF preview within the app and it prints out the same thing as Preview.app does. Permissions are fine too.

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Aug 6, 2016 8:16 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 7 (23,633 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 6, 2016 8:16 AM in response to svkrzn

    It is a PDF problem, not a local problem. 

     

    Command i will get info, on the PDF, maybe you can see what generated the PDF to begin with may be a clue.

  • by andrew_clark,Helpful

    andrew_clark andrew_clark Aug 7, 2016 12:43 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Aug 7, 2016 12:43 AM in response to svkrzn

    I get what you are saying about Adobe, but you're asking for help and part of the process of trying to find the problem is troubleshooting the possible causes by eliminating things that are not the problem. Maybe you can fix it on your own without any help from the forums? Or maybe you could try installing Adobe Acrobat Reader and try to print out the PDFs. If it doesn't work, just uninstall the offending Adobe app. If it does work, well then… But if you're unwilling to try something just because you don't want any Adobe on your Mac, then you might as well stop right now and forget trying to get the issue resolved. After all, what else are you unwilling to try? Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to offend you, rather I'm trying to get you to see this from a perspective of trying to get the issue resolved. In that view, you have to be willing to try things as part of a process of elimination to narrow down to what the actual problem is. If you're still unwilling to try new things, then you may be unwilling to move forward to find the resolution to the problem. In that case, best wishes.

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 7, 2016 12:45 AM in response to andrew_clark
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 7, 2016 12:45 AM in response to andrew_clark

    Thanks, Adobe Acrobat Reader indeed prints the file out as it is. No problems.

    Although I'd rather not keep Acrobat Reader just for my energy provider bills. That's why I wanted to find the solution within the OSX. Might be missing fonts? But I wouldn't be able to view the file at all on my computer if it was that.

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 7, 2016 12:46 AM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 7, 2016 12:46 AM in response to leroydouglas

    Apparently made by 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x). No other info.

  • by andrew_clark,Helpful

    andrew_clark andrew_clark Aug 7, 2016 11:23 PM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Aug 7, 2016 11:23 PM in response to svkrzn

    Not sure what the actual issue would be. I have found a lot of times that using Preview (or other PDF viewers) instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader can cause weird issues — especially when printing. Apple is obviously doing something different with Preview than Adobe does with Acrobat Reader. I would be curious to see if the issue still exists on a new user account on the same Mac. You could try just creating a “test user” account and then try to print out the PDFs using Preview. If it’s still printing them out weird, then it’s definitely Preview vs. Acrobat Reader. If they do print out fine, then there are some corrupted preferences holding the show up. A lot of times, I have found corrupted preferences to be the underlying issue on things like this as well. You might give it a try and see what happens…

  • by svkrzn,

    svkrzn svkrzn Aug 7, 2016 11:25 PM in response to andrew_clark
    Level 1 (36 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 7, 2016 11:25 PM in response to andrew_clark

    Same thing on the new account. I think the only thing I need to try out is a completely different computer with the same OS. This way I'll know if it's El Capitan messing with PDFs or it's just the provider with their PDF maker program.

  • by andrew_clark,

    andrew_clark andrew_clark Aug 8, 2016 3:46 AM in response to svkrzn
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Aug 8, 2016 3:46 AM in response to svkrzn

    Another option would be to revert to the previous Mac OS (10.10 Yosemite). If you didn't have the issue when running that version it might be worth a try. Although, unless you wipe your startup drive, it may be inconclusive. Do you have another Mac running less than Mac OS 10.11? Either way, like you said, try printing out the problem PDFs with both Preview and Acrobat Reader.

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