[cups.general] Need help printing PDFs

Gerald Britton gerald.britton at gmail.com
Tue Sep 25 09:23:35 PDT 2007


I patched pdftops.pl, commenting out the CUPS_SERVERROOT reference and adding

$rootdir="/etc/cups"

Then retried my print job, which failed with these messages in the log:

E [25/Sep/2007:12:18:12 -0400] [Job 35] Empty print file!
E [25/Sep/2007:12:18:12 -0400] PID 6653 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops)
stopped with status 255!
E [25/Sep/2007:12:18:12 -0400] PID 6654 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops)
stopped with status 1!

On 9/25/07, Gerald Britton <gerald.britton at gmail.com> wrote:
> OK -- got the stuff in the right places.  I renamed my original
> pdftops to pdftops.old and renamed the new filter from pdftops.pl to
> pdftops and made it executable.  I tried the command:
>
> lp -d printer mypdf.pdf
>
> and got no output.  Looking at the script, I see a reference to the variable:
>
> CUPS_SERVERROOT
>
> which is not set in my environment.  I see that the script dies if the
> variable is not set, which is probably why I got no output.
>
> Where should this variable be set?  In my session? or in the cups
> startup script?
>
> On 9/25/07, Helge Blischke <h.blischke at srz.de> wrote:
> > Gerald Britton 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
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Put the filter into your CUPS filter directory (usually
> > /usr/lib/cups/filter/) and the pdftops sample configuration
> > file into your CUPS base directory (usually /etc/cups/)
> >
> > Currently, I'd not recommend the acroread stuff, as with the
> > latest acroread (8.1.1) there are some quirks, espeically on Solaris.
> >
> > Get the xpdf suite from http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html
> > (there are precompiled binaries for both Linux and Solaris), if
> > you do nat already have them. The version 3.02 is highly recommended
> > (the security patch in 3.02p1 seems not to have any affects on CUPS
> > processing.
> >
> > In the pdftops filter script, change the path to xpdf's pdftops utility
> > as needed. You might also look into the xpdfrc manpage for more
> > configuration options if you need to modify the sample config file.
> >
> > Helge
> >
> >
> > --
> > Helge Blischke
> > Softwareentwicklung
> >
> > H.Blischke at acm.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > cups mailing list
> > cups at easysw.com
> > http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
> >
>





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