[cups.general] printing within printable area of a page

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Jul 17 11:02 Dr. Scott S. Jones wrote (shortened):
> I would like to figure out how to get pages, whether from a web site, or
> .pdf or otherwise, to print and include the page address reference, along
> with pagination and other such info. 
>
> Currently, some pages like this, printed from the web, exclude or truncate
> such information. I printed 7 pages from a web document yesterday and the
> document prints fine, but it cuts off the header and footer data, which
> appears to be outside the margins for what the printer can print. 
> 
> How do I force all the data on the page, to print within the printable area
> on a page? 

In general margins (i.e. how much is left unprinted) belong to
the application which produces the PostScript.

E.g. for plain text this is the CUPS filter "texttops" which
inspects the PPD file to learn about the imageable area
but usually it is whatever user application which usually
doesn't care about the imageable area in the PPD file.

Therefore you must make sure in your application program which
produces the document to print only inside the printable area
of the particular printer model and driver combination which
you actually use.

If your application produces PostScript with too small margins
(Mozilla/Firefox is know to have by default small margins),
it will not print completely on many printers.

To be on the safe side use 1cm (0.4 inch) unprinted margin
on top, left and right and 2cm (0.8 inch) at the bottom
so that it can be printed completely on very most printers
(in particular many inkjet printers cannot print too close to the
bottom because their transportation mechanics must hold the paper).

Since CUPS 1.2 there is a "fitplot" option, see the CUPS documentation
http://localhost:631/help/options.html?TOPIC=Getting+Started&QUERY=#FITPLOT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The -o fitplot option specifies that the document should be scaled
to fit on the page:
  lp -o fitplot filename
  lpr -o fitplot filename
The default is to use the size specified in the file.
Note:
This feature depends upon an accurate size in the print file.
If no size is given in the file, the page may be scaled incorrectly!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fitplot option works for me for the PostScript which is produced
by Firefox (select in Firefox the "PostScript/default" printer
and then enter a print command like "lp -d queue_name -o fitplot").

Perhaps "-o fitplot" also works for your PostScript, perhaps not.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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