[cups.general] Need help printing PDFs

[Gerald Britton]

so, I put pdftops.pl in /usr/local/bin and chmod'd it to +x.  I put
the conf files in /etc/cups and tried

lp -d printername e002379200.pdf

First, the printer asked me for 12x18" paper, which I don't have, so I
told it to use 8 1/2x11. However, all I got was one blank page!

adding the option -o pdf-paper=letter

made it print without a prompt, but not landscape

adding the option -o landscape had no effect.

so...I'm further ahead (thank you!) but still can't get it quite right.

Anything else I can try?

On 9/25/07, Gerald Britton <gerald.britton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Searching for the alternate pdftops filter at cups.org led me to:
>
> http://www.srz.de/Members/bla/cups/filter/pdftops
>
> is that right?  I see three things there.  Not to sure where to put
> them though.  Does the new pdftops go into /usr/local/bin or something
> like that?  What about the filters?
>
> On 9/25/07, Helge Blischke <h.blischke at srz.de> wrote:
> > 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
> > _______________________________________________
> > cups mailing list
> > cups at easysw.com
> > http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
> >
>