Force Print to text from web browser

[JNDallace]

I frequently print to pdf from my web browser, usually Chrome. I noticed in a post that "Chrome tends to send a raster image to the printer." Is there a way to force Chrome & PDF XChange Standard printer to always output to text? After testing print options, I found that using 'Save as PDF' in Chrome creates a text image of the same page that print to PDF-XChange outputs as a raster image. Is that the only or preferred work around? Is there a way to know how the page will be output in advance? Also, other than attempting to select text, is there anything in the document properties that indicates the file is raster vs text?

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello JNDallace,

Thank you for the excellent questions, I will elaborate a bit below.

1. No, there is not currently any way to force Chrome to change the output method when printing, unfortunately it does the rasterization you are seeing before it sends any data to the printer, and at that point, we cannot undo it, you should see this same issue with any virtual printer.

2. Yes, currently the only way when printing from chrome, to get actual text content in the document, is to use its built in Save as PDF function.

3. This depends on what you mean by know how the page will be output, If you mean visually, yes, chrome's preview should show an accurate representation of the final output during the process of printing or saving. If instead you mean to tell whether or not text content will be present in the final document, as above, the only way is to use save as PDF, instead of printing. By extension though, if you know which function to use to get the desired output, than you certainly can know in advance what you are creating.

4. Unfortunately there is nothing in the document properties, no. you could also use the "content pane" in the Editor to view the content of the document and see if any text objects are present, but that would likely take just as long, if not longer, than choosing Edit > text, and clicking the passage directly.

I hope this helps!

[JNDallace]

Thank you for the clarity and detail in your answers. It's very helpful.

[Will - Tracker Supp]