Why won't my Mac save pdfs?

April 5, 2005 7:27 AM

The "Save as PDF" option in the Print dialog box on my Mac has mysteriously become disabled. How do I get it back?

I'm on Panther. I've tried the obvious (rebooting, repairing permissions, google) and nothing's changed. The buttons are there, but they're dimmed.

posted by O9scar to computers & internet (3 comments total)

You might want to check this
For some possible solutions, a number of causes are discussed.
posted by HuronBob at 7:47 AM on April 5, 2005

In at least one case, this can be a side effect of making a new printing "preset" at the wrong time. If you're looking at a password-protected PDF file in Preview, then all of the options in the "Print..." dialog box that might allow you to create an unprotected copy of that PDF file are disabled.

If you create a new print "preset" while that's the case, then at least sometimes, those "disable PDF" settings can get saved with the preset and carry through to other applications. Try backing up your "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plist" file and deleting the original, then relaunch the application in question and see if PDF printing is back.

(This comes from an idea by DG himself, posted to Apple's printing development mailing list back in January.)
posted by mdeatherage at 9:20 AM on April 5, 2005

Thanks for the help. Trashing the prefs did the trick.
posted by O9scar at 6:55 PM on April 5, 2005