Fix PDF Comments and Annotations Not Printing
PDF annotations — highlights, sticky notes, comments — are excluded from printing by default. Here's the one setting that includes them, and how to permanently embed them.
PDF annotations — sticky notes, highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, text boxes, drawing markup — are a separate layer from the base document content. Most PDF viewers don't include annotations in print output unless you specifically tell them to. The fix is a single print dialog setting, or permanently flattening the annotations into the page.
The One-Setting Fix for Adobe Reader
In Adobe Reader's print dialog: under "Comments & Forms," change the dropdown from "Document" to "Document and Markups" or "Document and Comments." Click OK and print. All visible annotations — highlights, sticky notes, text boxes, stamps, ink drawings — will appear in the printed output. "Document" prints only the base page content. "Document and Markups" includes everything visible on screen. This setting doesn't persist between print sessions — you need to set it each time.
Make the Setting Permanent With Flattening
Instead of setting the print option every time, flatten the annotations into the page content. Use FixMyPDF's flatten tool to merge all annotations into the base page permanently. The output PDF has no separate annotation layer — highlights, notes, and markup are part of the page content and print automatically in all viewers without any special settings. Note that flattening is permanent: annotations become static page elements and can no longer be moved, edited, or deleted as annotations.
For Chrome and Firefox
Chrome's built-in PDF viewer doesn't have a "print with annotations" setting — it prints the base document only. To print annotations from Chrome: click the download icon to save the PDF, open in Adobe Reader, then print with "Document and Markups" selected. Firefox's PDF viewer also lacks annotation printing. For both browsers, the flatten approach (flatten first with FixMyPDF, then print the flattened PDF) is the most reliable path to getting annotations in your printout regardless of which viewer you're using.
Printing Summary Lists of Comments
Adobe Reader offers a useful alternative: printing a summary of all comments as a separate document. File → Print → Comments & Forms → "Comments Summary." This generates a list of all annotations with their text content and location, suitable for sharing feedback summaries. In Acrobat Pro: Comments → Create Comment Summary. This is useful for document review workflows where you want a printable record of all reviewer comments without marking up the original document.
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