I cannot comment on why printing to pdf does not work on your system as I can get working pdfs using this method on my Debian system.
However Joplin has its own way of creating / exporting notes as pdf files. If you right-click on the note in the note list and select "Export" > "PDF - PDF File" you will get a "Save" dialog box. I have noticed that on Linux systems that this dialog may appear under Joplin so if nothing seems to happen keep an eye on the taskbar for the dialog's icon.
It may be a useful test to see if your system can read a pdf created this way.
Using this method means you can export more than one note at a time as a pdf. If you select more than one note in the note list you will see a page of options appear in the right panel, one of which is Export. If you choose pdf you will get a dialog allowing you to select a folder and Joplin will create each note separately in that folder using the note title as a file name.
