[Max 2] Printing annotations in exported PDF

[lensmann]

Hi all,

I'm having difficulty getting handwritten annotations made on the Max 2 to print. In summary, I'm using the Max 2 to annotate PDFs, which I export using the Max 2's built-in export function. I can transfer the annotated PDF to my computer (running Windows 10) without any problem, and the annotations appear perfectly when I view the file on screen in Adobe Reader. However, the annotations don't print when I print the PDF. Pages with handwritten annotations print without the annotations, and notes pages print as blank.

I've tried a range of print settings in Adobe Reader. I've tried setting the "Comments & Forms" to "Document and Markups" and every other option. I've tried the 'Print as Image' option, the 'Simulate Overprinting" option, and every combination thereof. I've also tried with the "Print notes and popups" option enabled and disabled. I've tried it in Adobe Reader and Acrobat Pro. Nothing helped.

Has anyone had similar issues and is there an easy fix? Apologies if this has been discussed before - a forum search brought up a few posts about a similar issue on the M92, but nothing more recent than that.

[M4H35H]

I use PDF Xchange Viewer to flatten comments. It works with my M92

[lensmann]

Thanks very much, M4H35H. That was a very helpful suggestion! PDF-XChange Viewer works beautifully, although the 'flatten comments' function requires a pro license if you want to save the flattened file (which I will need to do for some files).

However, your post also helped me to find a solution in Acrobat Pro (which I already have via work). The built-in 'flatten comments' function in Acrobat Pro's 'preflight' menu does not work well at all well - around 60% of the pen strokes simply disappear. However, running the following command in Acrobat Pro's interactive javascript console flattened all the comments correctly.

this.flattenPages();

The resulting PDF prints perfectly.

For a FOSS solution, I assume ghostscript can be used to do this. I'll give it a try on my Linux machine at home this weekend.

But anyway, thanks very much. That's resolved my problem.

[MadAstra]

If you figure out how to do this on Linux I'd love to know. I don't have Acrobat Pro and this has been driving me nuts. Thank you.

[lensmann]

Originally Posted by MadAstra

If you figure out how to do this on Linux I'd love to know. I don't have Acrobat Pro and this has been driving me nuts. Thank you.

In that case, you'll be happy to hear that it turns out to be very simple to do it with ghostscript. All you need to do is create a new PDF forcing ghostscript to use the file's 'screen' options rather than its 'printer' options, by setting -dPrinted=false.

gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dDOPDFMARKS -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -dPrinted=false -dPassThroughJPEGImages=true -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

This gives you a new PDF where the annotations print perfectly.

Note that I tried this on gs version 9.18. If you're using version 9.21 or later and find this doesn't work, you may need to also add -dPreserveAnnots=false.

I've only tried this on Linux, but it should work on any platform where you can install ghostscript.

[MadAstra]

Thank you so much, lensmann. That's a lifesaver. I was playing around with ghostscript's options and couldn't get it to work. But your incantation did the trick. This is the best tip ever!

[lensmann]

Ah, excellent. Glad to have been of assistance.

I've done a bit more digging, and have finally figured out what the problem is. The PDF files produced by the Max 2's 'export' function turn handwritten notes into annotations of the type 'polyline', but do not set the 'print' flag for the annotation. According to the PDF specification, annotations will not print unless the flag is set to true. Fortunately, this can be done in Acrobat Pro by running the following in the javascript console:

var annots = this.getAnnots() 
for (var i = 0; i < annots.length; i++)
     annots[i].setProps({print: true});

The advantage this method has is that it does exactly what is necessary to fix the precise problem, and does not require you to flatten the PDF.

In Linux, it should be possible to achieve the same result with pdfedit, but unfortunately I don't know its scripting language so I can't help further. However, this only matters if for some reason you need to avoid flattening the PDF. If all you want to do is to print and don't care about flattening, just use gs as discussed above.

[MadAstra]

Excellent. I love understanding the root of the problem. This is great investigation.

[smc88]

Hi everyone, I read and make highlights to a lot of academic papers. I store these in MEGA cloud app which syncs them across my devices. Am I correct in thinking that since MEGA is available on the Google Play store, I could download it on the Boox and Max2 Pro, open up a PDF, make some highlights and scribbles, save them in the PDF, and then have them synced back through the cloud and see the changes on my other devices? Does the Boox Max 2 allow for overwriting the PDF file you're reading when you save it?

Alternatively, if opening up the files with Neo Reader directly from MEGA is an issue, I imagine using an app like FolderSync to make the folder from MEGA seem like a regular folder on the Boox, which would enable me to directly open and annotate PDFs.

[KarlVoit]

Hi,

I've reported an issue which might be similar: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=322755

Although: the provided "ps"-command did not result in a PDF where Okular/XPdf is displaying my handwritten notes. PDFedit is not installable any more. So I could not test this.

[grandnez]

Originally Posted by smc88

Hi everyone, I read and make highlights to a lot of academic papers. I store these in MEGA cloud app which syncs them across my devices. Am I correct in thinking that since MEGA is available on the Google Play store, I could download it on the Boox and Max2 Pro, open up a PDF, make some highlights and scribbles, save them in the PDF, and then have them synced back through the cloud and see the changes on my other devices? Does the Boox Max 2 allow for overwriting the PDF file you're reading when you save it?

Alternatively, if opening up the files with Neo Reader directly from MEGA is an issue, I imagine using an app like FolderSync to make the folder from MEGA seem like a regular folder on the Boox, which would enable me to directly open and annotate PDFs.

Do you know now the answer to these questions? If you bought the boox Max, which is your impression regarding these questions?