[cups.general] Bad printing quality using MS Publisher Imagesetter

[Joris Dobbelsteen]

Adam Victor Brandizzi wrote:
> Hi, all!
> 
> We're using CUPS as a printer server to Windows clients. We install IPP printers on Windows pointing to the CUPS server. Since the server uses the convenient PPD to the printer, we configured the clients to use the generic MS Publisher Imagesetter driver from Windows.
> 
> The problem is that some files (specially pictures on Word documents) do not print correctly. E.g., transparent spaces on pictures are filled with black color.
> 
> My first thought is that the imagesetter is generating bad PostScript. Is it a plausible cause? Is there a way to send "raw" data (i.e., not processed files) to CUPS?

I did have the issue that the MS Publisher Typesetter uses incorrect 
margins for my printer. Using Adobe PS printer WITH the printer PPD file 
did the job. Maybe you can set it up for MS Publisher, but I'm not sure 
about this.

Do set it to "optimize for portability/compatibility" instead of 
"optimize for performance" in "postscript settings" in the printing 
preferences. This will save you from a lot of trouble with some content. 
Maybe newer versions of CUPS (dependencies) work better (I'm using the 
Debian Etch supplied versions).

A good test that you CAN do it using "print to file" and open it with a 
postscript viewer (ghostscript comes to mind). That way you can verify 
if the printer driver is doing it correctly.

- Joris