Faculty/Staff Printing: Flattening PDFs Before Printing to Reduce Printing Errors

Summary

How to flatten PDFs to avoid PDF printing issues

Body

Introduction

To help avoid issues when printing PDF documents, always flatten your PDFs before submitting or releasing a print job. Flattening a PDF means converting it into a final, non-editable format.

Do not submit fillable or editable PDFs for printing. These types of files can cause printing errors and may even cause the printer to malfunction, preventing you and others from using it until it's reset.

Instructions

How to Flatten a PDF

  1. Open the PDF in a program that allows you to view and print PDFs, such as:

    • Adobe Acrobat Reader
    • Google Chrome
    • Microsoft Edge
  2. Select “Print” from the application’s menu.

  3. In the Printer dropdown, choose one of the following options:

    • Adobe PDF
    • Microsoft Print to PDF
    • Save as PDF
  4. Click Print or Save to generate a new, flattened PDF file.

  5. Once flattened, send your print job to the printer.

 

Details

Details

Article ID: 159131
Created
Thu 10/30/25 3:55 PM
Modified
Thu 10/30/25 3:55 PM