PDF printing from Windows

[Seth Galitzer]

Helge Blischke wrote:
> Seth Galitzer wrote:
>> Alright, I've hit a serious problem and am hoping somebody can give me
>> advice on how to deal with it.  On a fairly consistent basis, if a
>> Windows client sends a PDF file to any CUPS queue, the CUPS server takes
>> a huge performance hit (the larger the file, the greater the hit) and
>> then eventually dies processing the file.  I've tweaked the settings so
>> the the whole server or queue doesn't die, only the job.
>>
>> My guess is that pdftops may be the culprit, but I don't know for sure.
>>  I was hoping I could either a) force CUPS to use pdf2ps instead of
>> pdftops or b) not do the conversion at all and just send the PDF file as
>> is to the printer, since all of my printers are PS-enabled and should be
>> able to also handle PDF natively.
>>
>> We do a lot of PDF printing here, so this is a big deal.
>>
>> Version info:
>> CUPS: 1.3.5
>> cups-windows: 6.0
>> poppler: 0.6.1
>> ghostscript (gpl): 8.61
>>
>> I'll be happy to provide further information.  Any suggestions are
>> appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Seth
>>
> 
> Despite the "official" preferences for using the poppler utilities
> I'd suggest to install the xpdf utilities (xpdf 3.02 at least)
> and use the "alternate pdftops filter" (see the links on the CUPS web
> site).
> 
> 
> Helge
> 
> 

I found your alternative filter and am reading up on how to use it now.
 I'm also a bit leery about installing an X app on a headless server.
I'm running gentoo on this box, and even if I hold back X packages, it
still wants to install printproto, libXmu, xbitmaps, libXp, libXaw, and
openmotif.  None of those (including xpdf itself) seem to include a file
for pdftops.  I don't seem to have a package that just includes libs for
xpdf or the xpdf pdftops utils.  Can you give a little more detail here?

Thanks.
Seth

-- 
Seth Galitzer
Systems Coordinator
Computing and Information Sciences
Kansas State University
sgsax at ksu.edu
785-532-7790