Adobe Acrobat: Printing Errors (No Pages Selected, Document Can’t Be Printed, or Drawing Error)

Summary

When printing a PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, the print job may fail with errors such as “No pages were selected,” “The document can’t be printed,” or “A drawing error has occurred.” These issues are usually caused by a corrupted PDF, a problem with Acrobat/Reader, or the Adobe PDF printer driver.

Who This Article Is For

Employees using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Symptoms

  • “No pages were selected.”

  • “The document can’t be printed.”

  • “A drawing error has occurred.”

How to Fix It

 

Step 1 — Check if the problem is with the file

  • Try printing a different PDF. If other PDFs work, the issue is with that one file.

  • If the file came by email, download it to your computer before opening and printing.

  • If the file still fails, ask the sender to resend it.

  • If you have the original source file, re-create the PDF by saving it again as a PDF.

 

Step 2 — Update or restart Acrobat/Reader

  • Close and reopen Adobe Acrobat/Reader.

  • Make sure you are using the latest version (go to Help > Check for Updates).

 

Step 3 — Test your printing setup

  • Try printing to another printer (physical or virtual, such as Microsoft Print to PDF).

  • If only Adobe PDF fails:

    1. Open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners.

    2. Select Adobe PDF, then open Printer Properties.

    3. On the Adobe PDF Settings tab, uncheck “Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts.”

    4. Apply changes and try again.

 

Step 4 — Advanced (Acrobat Pro only)

  1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

  2. Go to Tools > Print Production > Preflight.

  3. In the Find bar, type syntax.

  4. Select Report PDF syntax issues, then click Analyze and fix.

 

Step 5 — Last resort (Workaround)

  • If none of the above resolves the problem, try printing the file as an image:

    1. Go to File > Print > Advanced.

    2. Check Print as Image and try again.

    Note: This option changes how the file is rendered and may reduce output quality. Use only if other steps fail.

Need Help?

If the steps don’t work, contact the IT Service Desk at 770.822.8915 or submit a ticket through the Service Portal.

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