[cups.general] Need help printing PDFs

[Helge Blischke]

Gerald Britton wrote:
> try this one:
> 
> http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1851_pdf/e096/e002379200.pdf
> 
> On 9/25/07, Helge Blischke <h.blischke at srz.de> wrote:
> 
>>Gerald Britton wrote:
>>
>>>Thanks for the tip on acroread. I installed it and found that it does
>>>a better job.  The only problem I have with it is that it does not
>>>obey the landscape option.  No matter what I do, it prints portrait.
>>>
>>>So. here's what I know:
>>>
>>>cups/lp can't print all PDFs properly.  You need Acrobat Reader for that
>>>Acrobat reader (on Linux) doesn't process all options properly.  You
>>>need Windows for that!
>>>
>>>On 9/25/07, Helge Blischke <h.blischke at srz.de> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Gerald Britton wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>Distro is ubuntu 7.04
>>>>>>Cups version is  1.2.8-0ubuntu8
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>On 9/24/07, Kurt Pfeifle <k1pfeifle at gmx.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>use the "file /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops" command to find out
>>>>>>>if it is just a wrapper script or a binary) ?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Hmmm?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>I'm asking because some distros don't ship the original CUPS pdftops
>>>>>>>filter, but have cobbled together their own wrapper script around
>>>>>>>the XPDF utility with the same name, which regularly causes problems
>>>>>>>similar to yours, due to its own bugs and misconfiguration....
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>The "alternate pdftops filter" as published on the CUPS web site (see the
>>>>links there) offers nearly all options the xpdf's pdftops utility
>>>>known as job attributes. E.g. add "-o pdf-paper=letter"
>>>>(without the quotes) as a command line option to the lp or lpr
>>>>command to force printing on letter sized media. See the
>>>>descriptional comments in the wrapper script for further details.
>>>>BTW, the wrapper script permits the use of acroread (the free
>>>>Adobe reader) as a further alternative - there are PDF files
>>>>which can only be converted to usable PS by acroread.
>>>>
>>>>Helge
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>Helge Blischke
>>>>Softwareentwicklung
>>>>
>>>>H.Blischke at acm.org
>>>>_______________________________________________
>>>>cups mailing list
>>>>cups at easysw.com
>>>>http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Perhaps you post (an URL to) a sample PDF.
>>We print PDFs as indicated all the time and have not
>>trouble with them,
>>
>>Helge
>>
>>
>>--
>>Helge Blischke
>>Softwareentwicklung
>>
>>H.Blischke at acm.org
>>_______________________________________________
>>cups mailing list
>>cups at easysw.com
>>http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
>>
> 
> 

OK. The PDF file defines a media box (and a crop box with the same
parameters) the width of which is greater than its height. That is,
the page *is* a landscape page by definition.
The "alternate pdftops filter", if configured as recommended, spits
out a PostScript file which sets up a page size as defined by the
PDF's media box, which is certainly too big for a letter sized media.
But the pstops filter, if properly configured, shrinks the logical
page to the availabel media size(s). It also should automatically
account for the implicit orientation. Maybe that the latter feature
still has not yet been implemented - we use the "alternate pstops filter"
which does this (and has a couple of other features).

Perhaps you need to play arount with the orientation option
(-o orientation=n, where n 0s a number 0 to 3) to get the proper
output with the original pstops filter.

At our site, using both alternate filters, we simply emit
lp -d printername e002379200.pdf
to get a printout that looks OK. I need to note that all our
printers are configured to use the PPDs shrink to fit
option by default (in case of a HP printer "DefaultHPPaperPolicy: NearestSizeAdjust")

Helge


Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung

H.Blischke at acm.org