[cups.general] Re: number-up > 1 incompatibel with foomatic? [was: Blank pageswhenprinter ]

[Helge Blischke]

Johannes Meixner wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> On Oct 26 17:01 Hartvig Ekner wrote (shortened):
> > And why do I only see the
> > problem with Mozilla prints, not any other application?
> 
> > Helge Blischke wrote:
> > > Well, it is sort of a foomatic issue: for some reason (I don't know
> > > why) Ghostsceript is called with the pswrite device
> 
> I didn't foolow the whole thread.
> Therefore I can only guess but perhaps it is as follows:
> 
> Mozilla produces PostScript level 3 printouts.
> This fails on PostScript level 2 and 1 printers.
> A workaround is to use the generic foomatic PPD file for PostScript
> printers which offers the option to convert PostScript level 3
> to level 2 or 1 by calling Ghostsceript with the pswrite device.
> See for example
> http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/03/jsmeix_print-einrichten-91.html
> "Printing from Mozilla:"
> 
> On the other hand this overwrites CUPS's PostScript settings
> which are added at the beginning of the PostScript code by
> the CUPS filter pstops.
> See for example
> http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/06/jsmeix_print-cups-filters.html#PostScript
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> However, the possibilities of /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops according to
> CUPS Software Users Manual: Document Options
> do not always work in connection with PostScript preprocessing.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I think there is no real bug.
> It is simply too much wanted at the same time.
> 
> Of course it would be nice if the pswrite device could preserve
> the existing device settings in the PostScript code but I think
> this is not possible because the pswrite device is a new PostScript
> device and therefore it must ignore or overwrite existing device
> settings. I.e. "gs -sDEVICE=pswrite -sPAPERSIZE=a4 ..."
> must set the media size to a4 for the actual device.
> 
> I think it would work if the number-up stuff would be done
> after Ghostscript, e.g. something like
> gs -sDEVICE=pswrite -sPAPERSIZE=a4 ... | psnup -2
> 
> Regards,
> Johannes Meixner
> --
> SUSE LINUX AG, Maxfeldstrasse 5                 Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
> 90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/

Well, as Mozilla emits a header comment like
---snip---
%%Creator: Mozilla PostScript module (rv:1.6/2004011400)
---snip---
I think a better way to settle this issue would be to introduce a mime
type
application/mozilla, which will then be checked before
application/postscript.
The mime.convs file could then define a filter, say mozillatopdf, which
converts
the mozilla PS code to a PDF using Ghostscript; the PDF in turn would
then processed
as usual by the rest of the CUPS filter chain, and everybody should be
happy.

A note to Hartvig:
The mozilla printouts work at our site because we only use PostScript
printers - there 
is no foomatic or pstoraster or the like stuff. But, I must confess, the
printer I
usually print on is a level 3 printer; I'll test some level 2 printers
in the future
and let you know what happens.

Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de
tel: +49 30 75301-360