[cups.bugs] [LOW] STR #2643: PDF is printed incorrectly with 'number-up' and 'page-ranges'

drakamakafon at mail.ru drakamakafon at mail.ru
Fri Dec 28 22:24:36 PST 2007


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[STR New]

PDF is printed incorrectly when 'number-up' and 'page-ranges' options are
specified simultaneously.

Tested OS:
  1.1.23 (SuSE 9.3,      package name: cups-1.1.23-7.1)
  1.1.23 (Mandriva 2006, package name: cups-1.1.23-17mdk)
  1.2.3  (Mandriva 2007, package name: cups-1.2.3-5mdv2007.0)
  1.2.4  (Ubuntu 6.10,   package name: 1.2.4-2ubuntu3)

After investigation I found that 'pstops' from different version of cups
produces different output when 'number-up' and 'page-ranges' are specified
simultaneously.

test7.ps - postscript file (7 pages)

> /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops 12345 user title 1 "-o page-ranges=1-3 -o
number-up=2" test.ps > pstops-out

 1.1.23 (SuSE 9.3, Mandriva 2006)
 ######### #########
 #1      # #3      #
 #       # #       #
 ######### #########
 #2      # #blank  #
 #       # #       #
 ######### #########
Looks like operations are performed in the following order:
1) Select pages according to 'page-ranges' value
2) Layout selected pages according to 'number-up' value

 1.2.3 (Mandriva 2007) 1.2.4 (Ubuntu 6.10)
 ######### ######### #########
 #1      # #3      # #5      #
 #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### #########
 #2      # #4      # #6      #
 #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### #########
Looks like the same operations are performed in reverse order, i.e:
1) Layout ALL pages according to 'number-up' value
2) Select pages from new page sequence according to 'page-ranges' value
The same behaviour in later versions (v1.3 Fedora 8). Is it the feature of
newer 'pstops' or bug?.
ASAIK 'pdftops' doesn't take into account 'number-up' option so after
http://cups.org/str.php?L273 is resolved the 'pdftops|pstops' pipe may
produce strange output.

Example:
> lpr "-o page-ranges=1,3-4,6 -o number-up=2" test.pdf

1. 'pdftops' output:
 ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### #########
 #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       #
 #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       #
 #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       #
 #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       # #       #
 #1      # #blank  # #3      # #4      # #blank  # #6      # #blank  #
 ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### #########

2. 'pstops' output:

2.1. Layout ALL pages according to 'number-up' value
 ######### ######### ######### #########
 #1      # #3      # #blank  # #blank  #
 #       # #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### ######### #########
 #blank  # #4      # #6      # #blank  #
 #       # #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### ######### #########

2.2. Select pages from new page sequence according to 'page-ranges' value
(1,3-4,6)
 ######### ######### #########
 #1      # #blank  # #blank  #
 #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### #########
 #blank  # #6      # #blank  #
 #       # #       # #       #
 ######### ######### #########
that are 1,3-4 from the previous step (page 6 became out of page range
after n-up).
So totally 3 pages are printed (3rd page is empty). It looks pretty
strange in respect that page-ranges=1,3-4,6 was requested. Either 'pstops'
should process options in the v1.1 order or 'pdftops' should understand
'number-up' option.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L2643
Version: 1.2.3
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