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I posted this to the Acrobat Win user forum on the Adobe site and then to the planet pdf beginners list, but didn't get a response. For those of you who are subscribed to those, I apologize for the cross-post.
I read the Adobe FAQ and searched the Adobe user forums and planet pdf archives about this problem, but didn't find a solution. In the techwr-l archives, I found some tantalizing hints that I'm hoping one of you may be able to expand upon.
The Problem: When I print a pdf to either one of the printers we have here (an HP LaserJet 5000 N and an OfficeJet G55xi) the content shrinks, making the bottom margin about .5" larger than normal. The pdf looks normal on-screen, though.
Background Info: The problem isn't a restriction of the printer, because the documents print fine directly from Word (97 SR2). Also, the "fit to page" option is not checked, and I set the default printer to Distiller before I created the pdf. I'm using Acrobat 4.0 0312 08:06 with Windows 2000.
Another (related?) Problem: When I print an 11x17 AutoCAD drawing to pdf with AutoCAD's scaling set to fit to page, the pdf comes out with the drawing contents too big for the paper (both on-screen and when I physically print it out). If I estimate the scaling to fit, then tell AutoCAD to center the contents on the page, they come out off-center.
Another Perhaps-Related Problem: For a while, sometimes when I would print to pdf, I would get a physical memory dump error that looks a lot like the blue screen of death. IT first had me re-install Acrobat, which didn't help, then they changed a setting in Windows, which seemed to fix it.
A few postings in the techwr-l archives talk about tweaking/replacing ppd files. If I understand correctly, the ppd file controls what the software thinks the hardware's physical margin limitations are. Is this right? So maybe the ppd file for the HP PCL drivers I have says that the paper is .5" or so shorter than it really is? (I checked the ADIST4.ppd file I found on my hard drive. For letter paper, it has "PageSize [612 792]" if the units are points, then this would be 8.47x11, so maybe that's not the problem.)
Another posting reads: "Check your distilled margins... they might not be what you
expected." Would one of you please tell me how to do this?
I would very much appreciate any ideas or suggestions about how to address this problem. Also, please cc me on any responses, as I'm on digest.
Thanks!
-Eva
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