Why are my PDF files printing differently?

Question

I have an in-house application which generates PDF files for different reports. Now based on the report type, the PDF files are generated by 2 different applications - first one being neevia Doc Creator and the other being Oracle Reports.

If I open either PDF files using Adobe Acrobat reader and then issue a print command, then both the files print correctly, with all formatting retained.

However, if I copy the files directly to the printer ( the printer is shared on the network, and by copy files I mean issue copy <file> \\share_name), then the PDF files created by neevia Doc Creator print fine, with formatting retained.

If I do the same for the PDF files created using Oracle Reports, then the prints are off, the formatting is not retained.

At first, I thought this was a font substitution issue, and found that that the fonts were not embedded in PDF generated by Oracle reports. So I did some changes, and the fonts are being embedded now - but the prints still don't match.

Why is this so ? What am I missing out on ? Any way to determine what's so different about the other PDF that makes it to lose formatting ?

This is how the print looks, when printed from Adobe:

This is how the print looks, when printed directly ( ie, copied)

The printer is a HP Color LaserJet 4700 PS, connected to a dedicated print server running on Windows Server 2003.

Answer 1

Are the fonts embedded in the PDF?If not the printer could be using local fonts. I wrote a blog post explaining at http://www.jpedal.org/PDFblog/?p=635

Answer 2

There appears to be a new firmware release for your printer dated July of 2010. That's the first thing I would try.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=473039&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=473038&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005#290

Also installing the latest drivers on the Win2K3 box, if applicable.

Answer 3

There are several versions of the PDF format. Maybe neevia Doc Creator creates files suitable for an older version that the driver on the print server supports, while Oracle Reports uses some features of newer versions that the driver doesn't understand. When you print with Acrobat Reader, it produces the PostScript file to send to the printer (and unsurprisingly handles all versions of PDF without trouble).