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Options such as printing double-sided (back to back) and stapling are controlled by the printer, not by Adobe Reader or Acrobat. Check your printer documentation to ensure your printer is capable of this and make sure that these features are enabled.

(Windows) Enable duplex printing and stapling

  1. Choose Start > Printers And Faxes (Windows XP) or Start > Devices and Printers (Windows 7).
  2. Right-click your printer and choose Printing Preferences.
  3. Click Advanced.
  4. Expand Document Options > Printer Features.
  5. Select the desired options and then choose On from the drop-down menu. If you don’t find duplex printing and stapling in the options to turn on, then your selected printer doesn’t support those features.
  6. Click OK, and then click OK again to exit the dialog box.

(Windows) Print duplex

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Click Properties.
  3. Click the Layout tab.
  4. Make a selection from the Print On Both Sides pane. Note that depending on the printer driver, this pane may be called “Double-sided printing” or another similar name. If you don’t see a Print on Both Sides pane, then your selected printer doesn’t support duplex printing.
  5. Click OK, and then click OK again to print.

(Mac OS) Print duplex

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Make sure the Print dialog box is in the expanded mode by clicking the arrow to the right of the Printer drop-down menu.
  3. In the Print dialog box, choose Layout from the dialog box mode drop-down menu.
    The Print dialog box with Layout selected from the mode drop-down menu. Long-edge binding is selected from the Two Sided drop-down menu.
  4. Make a selection from the Two-Sided drop-down menu.
  5. Click Print.

NOTE: You may have searched for “front and back”, “print front and back”, “print both sides”, “2 sided”, or “two sided” to find this document.


Print pages larger or smaller than the original size (page scaling)

Page scaling lets you shrink or enlarge pages when you print. If your PDF prints larger or smaller than you wanted, you can scale it to print at the size you’d prefer. Enlarging a single page so that it requires multiple sheets of paper to print is called tiling. Tiling is helpful for printing banners and other large format items across multiple sheets of paper.

The Page Scaling options allow you to:

  • Print an oversized PDF on smaller paper
  • Print a small PDF on larger paper
  • Print a multi-sheet banner

Set page scaling

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Select an option from the Page Scaling drop-down menu. For a complete description of each option, see “Options in the Print dialog box” in Acrobat Help.

TIP: (Acrobat only, not Adobe Reader) You can set up a PDF to always default to specific scaling options. You can do this for any of the other print options in this dialog as well.

  1. Open a PDF in Acrobat and choose File > Properties.
  2. Click the Advanced tab and select the desired options for the Print Dialog Presets.
  3. Click OK to dismiss this dialog.
  4. Choose File > Save, or File > Save As to apply the new defaults to the PDF file.


Print a PDF as an image

Problems can occur when you print a PDF file. For example, a PDF file can contain damaged content such as images or fonts that Acrobat cannot process during printing. Choosing Print As Image bypasses that processing by sending the printer a simple image of the document instead. Note that this can cause images and fonts to look slightly rougher, especially at the edges.

  1. Open the PDF file in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat.
  2. Choose File > Print.
  3. Click Advanced.
  4. Select the Print As Image option.
  5. Click OK, and then click OK again to print.



Print multiple pages per sheet

You can print more than one page of a PDF file onto a single sheet of paper.

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Select Multiple Pages Per Sheet from the Page Scaling drop-down menu.
  3. Select your desired options from the Pages Per Sheet and Page Order drop-down menus.
  4. Click OK or Print.
    The Print dialog box with Multiple pages per sheet selected and a thumbnail preview of 2 pages per sheet.

NOTE: For information about booklet printing, see Print a booklet in Acrobat Help.


Print a PDF file with mixed page sizes (Windows only)

If your PDF file contains different page sizes, like letter and legal, you can set up print options to accommodate this.

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Select Choose Paper Source By PDF Page Size.
  3. Click OK to print.


Print selected pages (non-consecutive pages)

In Adobe Reader and Acrobat, you can designate non-consecutive pages to print by selecting their thumbnails before opening the print dialog box.

  1. Open the PDF file in Adobe Reader or Acrobat.
  2. Open the Pages tab on the left side of the document window if it isn’t already open (View > Navigation Panels > Pages).
  3. Use Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac OS) to select desired page thumbnails.
  4. Choose File > Print. In the Print dialog box, “Selected pages” is highlighted in the Print Range pane.
  5. Click OK or Print.

TIP: You can also specify individual pages in the Print dialog box. For a range of pages, use a hyphen. Separate each page or range with a comma or space (such as “4, 7, 15-34, 56”).


The Print Range section of the Print dialog box with non-consecutive pages and ranges indicated.


Print Comments (Adobe Acrobat only, not Adobe Reader)

You can print comments from Adobe Acrobat in these ways:

  • By printing the page with the comments in place on the page. This is appropriate when there are only a few comments. Only opened comment pop-ups will print. Overlapping comment pop-ups will also overlap in the printout.

    Comments printed in place on the page.
  • By summarizing comments in a separate PDF file, which can then be printed. This is appropriate for larger numbers of comments, especially if there are multiple comments per page that would overlap if printed in place on the page.

    Comments printed on a separate page.

Print pop-up comments in place

Print your comments as sticky notes on the page.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat > Preferences (Mac OS).
  2. Select Commenting.
  3. In the Commenting pane, select Print Notes And Pop-ups.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In the Print dialog box, choose Document And Markups from the Comments And Forms drop-down menu. Your pop-up comments are visible in the Preview pane.
    NOTE: If you don’t see the Comments and Forms menu on Mac OS, make sure the Print dialog box is expanded by clicking the arrow icon next to the printer name.
  6. Click OK or Print.

Print a comments summary

A comments summary is a separate PDF file containing a compiled list of the comments in your document.

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. In the print dialog box click the Summarize Comments button.
  3. Choose a layout and other desired options.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In the Print dialog box, click OK or Print.

Note: To preview your comments before you print, choose Comments > Summarize Comments.


Print color as black (Adobe Acrobat Pro, Extended, and 3D only | Windows only)

On Windows, you can print all of the non-white colors in your PDF file as black, resulting in a simple black and white printout. For example, choose this option when you don’t want to waste color ink on an early draft.

  1. Choose File > Print.
  2. Select Print Color As Black. This prints colors as black, not grayscale.
    NOTE: If the checkbox is dimmed, click the Advanced button and make sure Acrobat Default is selected in the Settings menu of the Advanced Print Setup dialog box.
  3. Click OK to print.
    The Print dialog box with Print color as black selected. Note the preview showing color as black.