How to Save a PDF File one Page at a Time Using Reader and PrimoPDF

I know this one’s an 11 on the dull-o-meter but here’s some help for questions I get asked all the time.

When buying the party printables in my shop, often my clients don’t have a color printer at their disposal and would like to send only the pages they need to their local office supply store for printing.

The nature of a pdf file makes that a bit tricky to achieve. Although the newest release of Adobe Reader allows saving the whole file (FINALLY!), it does not allow for saving only 1 page or 2.

To do that, you’ll need to install a very handy free program called PrimoPDF. Once installed, a new printer driver will appear as an option in your printer dialog box. You will be able to PRINT just the pages you want to pdf. Here’s how:

First, install the newest version of Adobe Reader: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Second, install PrimoPDF: http://www.primopdf.com/

Next, open your printable file in Adobe Reader and make your changes. Here I’ll be printing a banner one page at a time:

Type your first 2 letters of your banner: Here H, A as the start of HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Go to File>Print, the print dialog box will open. Change your printer to PrimoPDF.

Make sure you’re only printing the current page and click on “Print”.

The PrimoPDF dialog box should open. If it doesn’t, it will be at the bottom of your screen like so:

In the PrimoPDF dialog box make sure “Print” is highlighted and click on “Create PDF”.

A “Save As” dialog box will open. Highlight the name of the file and change it to what you’d like. Here I changed it to “Banner page 1”.

Ta-da! Now you have a pdf file with your first 2 letters for your banner. Continue in this manner until you have all the pages you need to e-mail or bring to your local office supply store for printing.

I know the process seems complex but once you’ve done it a couple times you’ll be a pro.

Have a fun party!