Step By Step Guide to Print a PDF on Mac

Printing a PDF is the easiest way to save any kind of information or data in its default layout. The word “printing” must have gotten through your mind with all the information that we are going to provide you in the article but this is not the case. Though you are not going to physically print any pages or other information but you are going to store it for future use.

So, you must be wondering as we can also have the files in hard copies but why print to pdf document. Its greatest advantage lies in the ease of sharing these pdf files with anyone around the world. There is not a single external app needed when it comes to exporting pdf. Printing a pdf can be done in many operating systems like Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc.

If you are looking for the same, then you are just at the right place but today In this article, we will only guide you on “How to Print a Pdf in MacOS.”

Print to PDF

MacOS provides a range of options in case of print as pdf . The user can save almost any type of file in pdf format whatever be the application supporting the pdf or not. Firstly, we will get to know about exporting pdf.

Export PDF

Many applications within macOS automatically support the saving of data as pdf. You just have to follow the instructions below.

Go to the File menu.
Now select Export.
After this, select the PDF as the file format.
You just have to choose a directory location to store the pdf on your Mac

* (Safari and Mail are some of the native macOS applications used to export emails and web pages as PDFs through the “Export to PDF” Menu.)

Note: Applications like Google Chrome have a separate Print window, and Save as PDF checkbox option is available beside the Destination option. Now the open document or web page will be saved as PDF via the virtual printer engine of Mac.

Print as PDF Mac

MacOS has always supported printing file to pdf but still in case your inbuilt- applications are unable to process the pdf mac file. MacOS print framework support is needed to carry out this process below. Now you can follow these commands.

Double click on the PDF file.
From the file menu, access the print dialog box.
On the bottom left of the screen, you will see a drop-down menu and from this menu, you have to choose Save as PDF.
Now you have to browse the pdf which you want to access.

Selecting Folder automatically and Print on Mac

In case you are not able to follow the above method, then you can also follow the method below. Do as per the steps below.

Click on the Edit menu beside the File menu.
Now, you will see an Add option (+) and choose it.
Browse the file and tap Enter. Now you have completed the process of print to pdf in MAC.
Now you can print the exported file by going to the File menu.
A drop down box will appear and you need to select option Print
Print dialog box will be opened and you have to make the desired settings for printing.
Press Enter and you are done.

You can also open the print dialog box by using the keyboard shortcuts. Follow the steps below.

After the print to the pdf Mac process, access the file.
On your keyboard, hold COMMAND + p
The print dialog box will be opened.
Make the desired settings as per your preferences.
Click on Print or hit Enter.

Preferences in Print Settings

You can also set the preferences in the print dialog options box as per your requirements. The settings that can be changed by a user are given:

Layout: The orientation of the document is also dependent on your preference as landscape or portrait orientation can be chosen on the basis of your needed work.
Margins: The margins or page measurements can be easily selected from the margins option.
Copies: This option means that it will print out the specific number of times you want the document to be printed out. For instance, you type 1 in front of the copies option then you will have 1 extra copy of your pdf file.
Pages: You can select the number of pages or just a selected page number to carry out the print option. There is no limit you can even print a single page of a pdf on Mac. Read the steps below to carry out a print for a single page or a specific page.

How to use the Pages option in Print Mac?

Hold COMMAND + p
A dialog box will appear and you can see the pages option.
In front of the option, type 1 and click on Print. This means that only the first page of your pdf document will be printed.
In case of specific print out of pages, you just need to type the page number in front of the pages option and tap Enter.

Print to PDF on Mac Using PDFelement

You need to have the application ‘PDFelement’ in your Mac to carry out this method given below. After a successful download and installation of the application on your Mac, use the options below.

Click on the File menu and choose Create. Several options will pop up there. They are as follows:

Create PDF from File: used for making a PDF from a specific file on your PC.
Create PDF from Window Capture: Used for generating a PDF file from the desktop window displayed on Mac.
Create PDF from Selection Capture: Used for creating a PDF by a selection of an area of your Mac window to capture.
Create PDF from Screen Capture: Used for making a PDF file from a Mac computer screen capture.
Blank Document: used for opening a blank PDF document.

Using Adobe PDF on Mac

The Adobe PDF save option is used on Mac as the Adobe pdf Printer unavailable on MacOS. We will guide you below on how to use this option.

Double-click on a file in a Mac OS application.
Tap on the PDF option and select Save As Adobe PDF.
Select the Adobe PDF Settings and tap on Continue.
Name your file and click on the Save option.

[*Note: In macOS Mojave (v10.14), as you print a document to PDF via the System Print Dialog box and then on selecting Save As Adobe PDF, an error message will come as: “The workflow contains Save As Adobe PDF action provided by the third party.”]

Why am I Unable to Print PDF on MAC?

This problem can arise in case of incompatibility with the built-in printing software for Mac, and the only thing that can be is connecting a printer to use printing software.

From the Apple menu, go to System Preferences option.

Within the System Preferences option, click on Printers & Scanners.

Under the Printers & Scanners window, tap on + and choose Add Printer or Scanner option.

From the Add option, click on the IP tab on the top left side, type in 0.0.0.0 in the Address field.
Choose AirPrint in the Protocol drop-down menu, and from the Use drop-down menu, select Select Software.

In the Printer Software option, select your printer driver and tap OK.

Under the new Add window, click on Add on the right side.

A warning pop up message can come that your PC is “Unable to verify the printer on your network”
Select Continue for setting up the network.

Within the Setting up ‘0.0.0’ window, click on OK.

The printer setup will now be added and Maple’s “Print to PDF” option can now be accessed as discussed above in the article.

Conclusion

In this article, we have provided all the important information associated with printing pdf in MacOS, exporting pdfs, print settings and preferences, printing in Mac via Adobe option and PDFelement, etc. We are hopeful you will be able to use all the valuable information above to resolve your issues with how to print a pdf on Mac. In case, you are still stuck somewhere then you can check our other articles that will surely assist you in solving your existing issues.

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