PDF printing from Windows

[Helge Blischke]

Seth Galitzer wrote:
> 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
> 

Without all the X stuff being installed, the usual configure and make
for the xpdf suite will only compile pdftops, pdftotext, pdfinfo, and
pdffonts (hope I didn't forget one). And pdftops is the only one you
need.

Helge


-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung

H.Blischke at acm.org