[cups.general] PDFs do not Print

[adfas asd]

Thank you for that comprehensive response Gene.

Yes I was earlier able to print when I did the pdftops
conversion, but not any more.  For some reason I can
no longer print to the color printer with the PS
driver, and I do not have time to fsck with it.  I
must make a living, rather than bit-twiddling with the
ever-busted Cups. (9 years of headaches)

I can print everything to the other office printer,
albeit in black-and-white, and I am using the PCL
driver for that.  I notice that the color printer also
accepts PCL, so maybe if I can find a PCL driver for
the Gestetner DSc38u, I can survive.


--- Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at verizon.net> wrote:

> On Wednesday 07 March 2007, adfas asd wrote:
> >Can anyone advise?
> >
> >--- adfas asd <chimera_god at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> > What PPD do you use for the printer? The
> >>
> >> recommended
> >>
> >> > PPD seems to be:
> >
>
>http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Gestetner-DSc38u
> >
> >> Actually, at the bottom of that page I clicked on
> >> Postscript, then used the Select Printer|Download
> >> for
> >> the Gestetner DSc38u (the exact model we have),
> and
> >> downloaded that PPD.  It installed fine, and I
> can
> >> print other file formats, etc, but not pdf.
> >>
> 
> Please understand that while pdf may have a few
> roots in postscript, both 
> of which are freely available Adobe language
> specifications, they are not 
> interchangeable by any stretch of the imagination.
> Postscript is 100% 
> in-lined code that allows dictionaries to be used
> for canned procedures. 
> pdf OTOH, is a totally random access anyplace in the
> file, language.
> 
> So what you might have to do is filter the pdf
> through a pdf2ps or pdftops 
> utility of some sort before you feed it on to that
> printer.  From looking 
> at the manpages here, it appears that pdftops is the
> more capable and 
> tuneable utility of the two.
> 
> Try 'man pdftops' for how to run it.  I see that the
> pdf2ps is just a 
> front end to ghostscript itself, and subject to
> whatever limitations your 
> local build of ghostscript may have, and some
> versions have had the pdf 
> code excised because there are other means of doing
> that conversion, such 
> as xpdf and acroread.  I personally consider this a
> ghostscript 
> regression, but I'm not the maintainer. The one size
> fits all is not the 
> *nix way of doing things, so as long as it works,
> and it *usually* does 
> (acroread has some output ordering problems with
> bigger source pdf's if 
> you tell it reverse order) so we do eventually get
> the job done and 
> looking good on the dead tree medium.
> 
> Since AFAIK, acroread, when displaying a pdf,
> outputs postscript when 
> asked to print the file, that is what I would use,
> and the ps interpreter 
> in the printer should be able to handle that.  But
> note that whats in the 
> printer for an interpreter may not have been walked
> around in to bring it 
> up to the latest ps abilities in the last 15+ years
> (we had lots of that 
> sort of trouble with a Fiery at the tv station, with
> it getting a tummy 
> ache and wasting lots of paper unless we restricted
> it to less than 20 
> pages at a time, its a highly rated by non technical
> office dummies who 
> don't know any better POS IMO), so you may have to
> tell acroread to not 
> use anything above level 2 in its output, and to
> pass the fonts on to the 
> printer in its downloads.  That is somewhat
> configurable on the print 
> dialog screens acroread shows you.
> 
> I don't know if this is any help or not, hopefully
> it is.  But that 
> printer is one that probably no one here is familiar
> with, so my reply 
> might be a way out allowing you to make some
> progress.
> 
> >> > And, are you usre the printer is set up to use
> the
> >> > correct media size for
> >> > your PDFs? The recommended PPD sets the printer
> to
> >> > ask for operator
> >> > intervention in case of media size mismatch (or
> >> > otherwise generate a
> >> > configuration error). Is the printer configured
> to
> >> > print an error page
> >> > in case or error conditions?
> >>
> >> I don't know.  In the printer's settings it
> >> correctly
> >> describes what's in the trays, being 8.5"x11". 
> It
> >> never sees anything coming in when I send a pdf,
> as
> >> it
> >> doesn't even wake up from sleep.  It does wake up
> >> when
> >> I send other file formats though.
> >>
> >> > PS: with only such vague information you
> provided
> >>
> >> so
> >>
> >> > far it is hardly possible
> >> > to give reasonable advice.
> >>
> >> I'm sorry, but I've described all the details in
> >> prior
> >> emails with this same subject, and I thought
> people
> >> had seen it.
> 
> That was in fact, pretty sparse unless one is "use
> it everyday familiar 
> with that hardware".  You apparently are the only
> expert in that 
> particular venue.  I can guess, and think of
> scenarios that might help, 
> but I can't tell you to raise the cover and switch
> sw5 of an 8 position 
> dip switch located on the 2nd card to the other
> position.  I don't even 
> know if it has such a switch, let alone the proper
> positioning if it did 
> have it.  That would be pure, 200000% serendipity on
> my part.  So we 
> guess and surmise & make up stories about what we do
> know a little bit 
> about that might help you.
> 
> Cheers, Gene
> -- 
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of
> liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that
> order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> What is research but a blind date with knowledge?
> 		-- Will Harvey
> 



 
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