https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=774961
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=774961#c6
--- Comment #6 from Johannes Meixner 2012-10-19 11:00:20 CEST ---
Background information:
When CUPS gets PDF it runs /usr/bin/pdftops to convert it
into generic PostScript because CUPS needs generic PostScript
so that it can add the PostScript snippets from the PPD file
to enable this or that option in a PostScript printer.
I assumed that CUPS runs /usr/bin/pdftops in a generic way
to get generic PostScript (without any printer specific
options set by pdftops via "setpagedevice" stuff)
because the printer specific options are set by CUPS
via the PostScript snippets from the PPD which are inserted
into the generic PostScript which makes it printer specific
PostScript.
It cannot work well when there is more than one tool
which makes the PostScript printer specific because
this result conflicts when several tools set the same
kind of option (e.g. the paper size) several times.
E.g. when LibreOffice sets the paper size to be A4
but it should be printed on a printer with Legal paper
so that CUPS sets the paper size to be Legal, see
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=117730#c8
How CUPS calls pdftops:
To verify how CUPS calls /usr/bin/pdftops, I did
# mv /usr/bin/pdftops /usr/bin/pdftops.away
and installed this as -rwxr-xr-x /usr/bin/pdftops
-------------------------------------------------------------
#! /bin/bash
echo $@ >/tmp/pdftops.args
set >/tmp/pdftops.env
sleep 60
exit 0
-------------------------------------------------------------
I set up a test print queue:
# lpadmin -p testq -v file:///tmp/testq.out \
-P /usr/share/cups/model/Postscript.ppd.gz -E
Then I sent a print job:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
# echo "Hello" | a2ps -1 -M a4 -o- | ps2pdf - - | lp -d testq
[stdin (plain): 1 page on 1 sheet]
[Total: 1 page on 1 sheet] sent to the standard output
request id is testq-93 (0 file(s))
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is what ps shows while /usr/bin/pdftops runs:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
lp ... /bin/bash /usr/bin/pdftops -level3 /var/spool/cups/d00093-001 -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
and accordingly /tmp/pdftops.args contains
-------------------------------------------------------------
-level3 /var/spool/cups/d00093-001 -
-------------------------------------------------------------
As expected CUPS calls /usr/bin/pdftops in a generic way.
I still leave it as needinfo from Goutam Kodu
for further analysis because I do not have his environment
with a printer that can print on special media
like Envelope Monarch.
How CUPS may have to call pdftops:
All what matters is that pdftops produces PostScript with the same
bounding box (i.e. the actually used printed area) as it was in the PDF.
If the actually printed area in the PDF exceeds the printable area
of the printer device, it is correct - from the printing system's
point of view - that then some portion of what should actually be
printed is clipped at some edge(s) of the paper.
Goutam Kodu,
please verify that the bounding box of the printing output
in LibreOffice is the same as the bounding box of the
PostScript that is produced by pdftops and that the
bounding box fits within the printable area of your
particular printer device.
If the bounding box of the PostScript differs from the
bounding box of the PDF, please try out if pdftops
needs explicit parameters set (see "man pstopdf")
to keep the bounding box unchanged.
"man pstopdf" tells much about options that might influence the
bounding box (i.e. size and position of the content on the paper).
I don't know what the right settings are in particular regarding
-origpagesizes
which seems to produce printer specific PostScript with
setpagedevide stuff which can conflict with what CUPS
will latee add as PostScript snippets
versus
-paper match
that (hopefully) produces generic PostScript
and
-nocrop
-noshrink
-nocenter
which seem to be needed to switch off the pdftops defaults
to crop, shrink, and center the content if needed.
Vincent Untz,
do you perhaps know if there is a recommeded way
how to call pdftops to generate generic PostScript
that truly matches what there is in the PDF?
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