Adobe PDF installed and set as default printer causes incorrect pagination in Excel

Question

I have come across an interesting bug. When Adobe PDF is installed and set as the default printer, Excel produces incorrect and inconsistent pagination--in my case one of the sheets is printed to two pages wide rather than three it should be (when Adobe PDF is not installed), resulting in 9 printed pages instead of 11. I have created a test case to reproduce it.
The sample file is located here: goo.gl/ZBiWj
The test case is here: goo.gl/6KbrO
Instructions are given on how to reproduce the error. The same error occurs when printing the sample file to Adobe PDF as a printer. Any ideas on how to resolve this?

Answer 1

Actually, the problem isn't really Acrobat or the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance at all. The problem is that Microsoft Excel as well as other Microsoft Office applications adjust their printed output based on the characteristics of whatever is chosen as the current printer. This has been an issue since the earliest days of Windows.
Each printer driver instance contains information about the specific printer including but not limited to page size, duplex capability, paper types, page orientation, output trays, imageable area (i.e., page size less unprintable margin areas), and device resolution. Based upon what Excel finds as values for a number of these characteristics, Excel will format the page differently. Excel is particularly sensitive to not only page size, but also imageable area and device resolution. Imageable area is important because Excel is attempting to avoid printing at all on parts of the page that your printer cannot possibly image; this is typically about one quarter inch around for most laser printers, a bit less for inkjet printers unless you have a printer that claims edge-to-edge print capability.
The Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance has imageable areas that exactly match page size for all available page sizes. Thus, Excel formats on the basis that it can print all the way to edge of the page unless you set margins otherwise. It also defaults to 1200dpi. Change the device resolution to another setting via printer properties and you will likely see relayout. These same issues occur with Word and to some degree with PowerPoint.
There is absolutely nothing that Adobe can do about this. The same problem is exhibited if you have access to multiple different printer models with different characteristics on your computer and you change from one to another, even if you don't have any Adobe software loaded on your system. Users have complained to Microsoft for years about this issue, but they typically have not considered this an important issue to tackle (ribbon user interfaces are obviously much more important).
Sorry, but not anything we can really do to help you here other than to advise you to always compose your Microsoft documents with the current printer being the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance, create a PDF file, and then print that from Reader/Acrobat to your real target printer. Alternatively, if you are very careful to setup the print characteristics of a spreadsheet to have large enough margins and headers/footers outside what would be the target devices non-printing area, you might get a bit better device independence - but don't count on it.
          - Dov