Catalina, Preview corrupts PDFs after making/saving changes disallowing Acrobat users from opening file.

I have the same problem, it occurs every time I delete some pages from a PDF and then save the file.

As a "solution" you can export the file and choose "Create Generic PDFX-3 Document" as Quartz filter, this solves the problem for me.

Of course, this is annoying to do and I wish Preview functioned as it used to.

A possible workaround is to use Automator app:

1) Open Automator and create new workflow

2) Go to "Files & Folders"

3) Drag "Get Specified Finder Items" in the actions flow and click on "Add..." to add images

4) Go to "PDFs" and drag "New PDF from Images" in the actions flow

5) Select output file name and location

6) If images are all the same size select "Make All Pages the Same Size"

7) Click on "Run" button on the top right window

This will create the PDF and will not decrease images quality.

I had the same issue with the Preview after upgrading to Catalina and found a solution, just select the file/files (JPG etc without opening in preview and right click -select quick actions and then select create pdf. a pdf with all the selected photos will be created.

For the error while printing, there are multiple threads here, among them:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250743000

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250739086

The possible workarounds are:

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.

This problem happens 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.

You can submit feedback to Apple about the issue with Preview corrupting PDFs here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html