Preview doesnt let me create pdfs since catalina

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isoloate issues with your Mac) and try printing to PDF from there. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. ss

PREVIEW application issue in Catalina 10.15 with supplemental update - SAVE AS PDF ISSUE - opened files in Preview, selected "save as" PDF I get an error message "error while printing" since upgrading to Catalina (including the supplemental update). I've tested various files on my iMac and also on an external hard drive - jpegs, screen shots, scanned documents - ranging from a single image to 23 images opened in Preview>Save As>PDF and always get the same error message "error while printing." Never had this issue before upgarding to Catalina 10.15. I've checked my "permissions" in Finder for example on files on my Desktop and it says "read and write" so I'm assuming it's not a Permissions issue. I've submitted this bug report to Apple Feedback - MacOS. IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING A TEMPORARY FIX: A workaround is to go up to the Preview "File" menu and select "Export as PDF" but note that this reduces the final file size considerably (from a 100MB file of 23 images to 4MB) - so if you need it to remain a high quality image, do not use this. The link to submit feedback is here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

I had part of your issue - I got the "Error while printing" when attempting to Save As PDF. I also had the issue where I selected to open screen shots via Safari since Safari seems to have no issue saving PDFs - but that only gave me the top image saved as the PDF which was not helpful. And I had some other erratic behavior - where Save As PDF gave me the error message 10x in a row, then after a restart it worked once, then again stopped working - all before deleting my printer driver and adding it back - since then I have created many PDFs from jpegs, screen shots, etc... and all have worked as it used to (before the issue reared it's head in Catalina). Know that Apple is aware of this issue and working on a fix - but I would suggest going to https://www.apple.com/feedback/ and under the macOS input let them know your issue, every person that tells Apple about this will escalate the problem further in scale. Am I right in assuming you tried all 3 options I suggested to you? The other option I read from another user with same issue is that selecting an AirPrint printer in the Preview dialogue box, even though you are NOT printing anything, fixes the issue - you may not own an AirPrint printer, so that won't help you. And I will add my Epson printer is an older printer, definitely not an AirPrint printer and when I selected it instead of my newer Canon printer my issue was solved. But out of curiosity, all this made me think to try deleting my Canon printer driver and add it back - and that has fixed my issue fully at least the past week and have done dozens of PDFs without issue.

RichardMMathews wrote:

The new **** security model really *****. The problem here is that you can't save in a place protected by the new security system such as anything under Documents. Putting Preview into the list of applications with full disk access does not help.

That's not so. You must have bad settings on your Documents or Home folder. Try the fixes in this Apple document: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support



Fair enough! He's what the error is. If you can glean anything from this let me know! Incidentally this is the least helpful error message I've seen on a MAC. I flashed back to my Windows days when I saw this.

The "Error while Printing" error?

If so, there are a few workarounds:

1) Use an AirPrint or generic PS/PCL printer, not a printer added with vendor drivers; it doesn't need to be real printer

2) Use "Open in Preview" from the pdf menu in the print dialog

3) Use Preview, File->Export as PDF…

4) Open the PDF in Safari, where Print->Save as PDF works.

Hope this helps.

Thanks John, it does. I open in Safari, print as PDF. Then open in preview, edit, then save. Then open THAT pdf again in Safari, and print to PDF. Very annoying.

Also, Preview won't let me open locked PDFs. Typing the correct password doesn't open the PDF. Again, safari can be used as a workaround. I really hope they fix this.

To further test the original issue, I created a Temp user with standard permissions and tried to Save As a PDF of a single screen shot on my Desktop and I got the same error message “error while printing.”

Yes, it's a problem when you have a vendor driver as the default printer in Preview. This is new to Catalina because Apple now allows the vendor PDEs to be shown in their proprietary PDEs instead of in Printer Features. The only app this affects is Preview, and there are several workarounds above.

earlier in this thread:

1) Use an AirPrint or generic PS/PCL printer, not a printer added with vendor drivers; it doesn't need to be real printer

2) Use "Open in Preview" from the pdf menu in the print dialog

3) Use Preview, File->Export as PDF…

4) Open the PDF in Safari, where Print->Save as PDF works.

"It gives me an error"... what is the error message, exactly? Post a screenshot if possible

Also, where are you trying to save the pdf? In another thread a problem with saving to the desktop was mentioned. Are you saving to the desktop, or some other folder? Try saving to a different location - any difference?

FWIW, I print to pdf just about every day, and Catalina did not change that for me.

Hi Luis,

It doesn't give any specifics when it errors out. It just says something about an error printing. To be clear, this is only happening with Preview as far as I know. You can print to PDF from a web browser or document or email, but not from Preview App.

You’re right, that is a really unhelpful error message.

I suggest you try this:

1) In the Finder, press command-shift-G and type

~/Library/Containers

2) Drag the com.apple.Preview folder out of the Containers folder (place it on the Desktop, for example)

3) Logout and login again

4) Launch Preview and see if the problem is solved

I use "Print -> Save as PDF" to extract only selected pages of a file, so Export doesn't work for me. While it is resolved, I have to make a copy of the original file, and delete the pages I don't need

This doesn't solve anything.

I have this problem and need an urgent fix as most of my work requires that i screenshot many pictures, convert these into one pdf with "save as pdf".

Exporting to PDF only exports one picture of the file, when i can have dozens to convert.

Seems that lately every OS update brings more problems every time.

This update made me think of reverting back to windows.