Export difficult PDFs with this macOS printer driver

This is a macOS compatible print driver that enables you to “print” your documents directly to a PDF file.

✅ Updated for Apple Silicon (ARM64) support!

Click to download the installer pkg

Have you ever seen this in Preview?

Please wait...

If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document.

You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting

This happens for PDFs containing XFA Forms which only Adobe Reader can read and print.

If you want to export such a PDF into a normal PDF that even Preview can open then install this printer driver and get Adobe Reader to print to it. That's all there is.

Installation and Usage Instructions

Download the installer package by clicking on the printer icon above and install as usual. After installation, your new printer will be ready for use.

Usage

Simply print your documents using PDFwriter as your printer.

The “printed” PDF files produced will be stored in the directory

/Users/Shared/PDFwriter/<your user name>

For convenient access to this folder, simply drag it to the right hand end of your dock.

Building from Source

To build the installer package yourself (e.g., for Apple Silicon / ARM64 support):

1. Open Terminal.
2. Navigate to the sources directory.
3. Run the build script:

   ./buildscript.sh

4. The installer package RWTS-PDFwriter.pkg will be created in the project root directory.

Removal instructions

If you want to uninstall PDFwriter, open Terminal.app, type

/Library/Printers/RWTS/PDFwriter/uninstall.sh

and press Return. You will be asked for your admin password. After hitting Return, PDFwriter will be entirely removed from your system.