A4 and Test Prints

[Kurt Pfeifle]

Richard Downing <theoldfellow at gmail.com> wrote (Wednesday 19 July 2006 20:23):

>> ? What is the output of
>>
>>    egrep '(DefaultPageS|DefaultPageR|DefaultImageableAre|DefaultPaperD)' /etc/cups/ppd/Xerox-C8.ppd
>>
> 
> root at gateway:~#  egrep <LF inserted by MUA>
> '(DefaultPageS|DefaultPageR|DefaultImageableAre|DefaultPaperD)' /etc/cups/ppd/Xerox-C8.ppd
> *DefaultPageSize: A4
> *DefaultPageRegion: A4
> *DefaultImageableArea: A4
> *DefaultPaperDimension: A4

Looks good.

[....]
>> To force A4 onto your printer, try this:
>>
>>    lp -d Xerox-C8 -o media=A4 /usr/share/cups/data/testprint.ps
>>
>> (-o PageSize=A4 will likely not work, given the suspicious result
>> of the abovely quoted "lpoptions ... -l" command).
> 
> OK.  I tried this, it produces exactly the same result as I reported 
> in my first email (lower line cut off to the 1.6mm point).  However,
> I'll report the information boxes: 
> 
> Imageable Area:
> Page Size: 7.76x11.03in  197.2x280.1mm
> Lower-Left: 0.25x0.5in 6.4x12.7mm
> Upper-right: 8.01x11.53in 203.5x292.8mm
> Resolution: 300x300dpi  11781x11781dpm

Looks bad. Should be approximately (given that you have quoted your
PPD's ImageableArea previously as "0 0 595 842" for A4):

Imageable Area:
  Page Size: 8.26x11.7in
             209.9x297.1mm
 Lower-Left: 0.0x0.0in 
             0.0x0.0mm
Upper-Right: 8.26x11.7in
             209.9x297.1mm

It's not even gotten the page size right for A4! ("Lower-Left" and
"Upper-Right" do refer to the respective corner points of the 
ImageableArea).

Paste the PPD, or at least the sections of your PPD which refer to
the "PageSize", "PageRegion", "ImageableArea" and "PaperDimension"
(*all* sizes, please) to a public paste service, and post the URL
here (for example http://kde.pastebin.com/ ). If you prefer, you can
send me your PPD by private mail and I'll have a look.

> The Xerox Docuprint C8 isn't exactly a printer 'in the first 
> flush of youth' ;-) although the Lexmark Z515 is only a year 
> old.   And both certainly will not print in the top and bottom 
> margins, nor at the extreme edges (even on Windows with the 
> proprietary drivers).    

Oh? Both show the very same problem? That's unusual...

> So I now need to work out how to edit the PPD.  Is it just the 
> '*ImageableArea' lines? 

It's the four areas named above.

(Of course, when you make ImageableArea in the PPD bigger than
your hardware can handle, you'll get cropped printouts. If you
make it slightly smaller than your hardware can handle, usually 
CUPS will send those smaller "images", but you won't loose any
stuff...

> I think they are wrong for all paper sizes (ImageableArea = 
> PageSize).  And for both my printers.  I'm actually amazed that 
> this isn't reported anywhere.    

Where did you get these PPDs from? (Looks like a bug in the PPD
generating software...) Did you try to find newer versions,
directly on Linuxprinting.org? (I think that at least for the
Xerox there should be one available...)

Till for sure will know more details about it...

Cheers,
Kurt