I’m a sucker for weird printing issues. In my earlier life, I worked in a print shop and it’s the family business. So when I saw this bug I had to first email it to my dad (Hi Dad!) then share it here. It appears the Edge Browser, the Windows 10 version of Internet Explorer is changing the contents of certain PDFs when printed. Ars Technica has the full story.
Beyond being breathtakingly bizarre, the bug could potentially have serious consequences for architects, engineers, lawyers, and other professionals who rely on Edge to print drawings, blueprints, legal briefs, and similarly sensitive documents. Edge is the default application for viewing PDFs on Windows 10 computers. While the errors demonstrated above happened using the “Microsoft Print to PDF” option, multiple users report similar alterations when using regular printing settings.
I agree with their recommendation to use Google Chrome for the same feature.
A less arcane fix is to switch to an alternate PDF reader, ideally the one built into Google’s Chrome browser, because it contains a robust security sandbox that prevents untrusted content from accessing sensitive operating-system functions. Until this flaw is fixed, people absolutely shouldn’t trust Edge to print their documents.
Until then, if you’re printing anything from Edge that’s important to you, it’s worth giving it an ocular pat down.
