[Bug 211235] New: Bad postscript creation from kprinter concludes in ugly pdf
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 Summary: Bad postscript creation from kprinter concludes in ugly pdf Product: SUSE Linux 10.1 Version: Final Platform: i686 OS/Version: SuSE Linux 10.1 Status: NEW Severity: Normal Priority: P5 - None Component: KDE AssignedTo: bnc-team-screening@forge.provo.novell.com ReportedBy: geroxp@web.de QAContact: kde-maintainers@suse.de Steps to reproduce: 1. Open Konqueror 2. Go to http://www.cnn.com 3. Print the page with kde's pdf printer (which is nothing else but ps2pdf, I think) 4. Watch the pdf either with kpdf (which is default viewer) or with acroread and you will see the jumping letters The problem only occurs, when using kprinter to print the pdf OR generate a postscript-file which will be used to create a pdf. It could have something to do with kprinter itself or with GNU enscript (which is used by kprinter). When using Mozilla-Firefox to print to a cups-pdf printer (http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/17636.html) this problem does not occur (while firefox uses its own postscript generator). When printing from a kde application or using kprinter we have again the mysterious jumping letters. See also bug #210256 -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #1 from geroxp@web.de 2006-10-10 01:09 MST ------- Created an attachment (id=101083) --> (https://bugzilla.novell.com/attachment.cgi?id=101083&action=view) Result of kprinter pdf generation (when viewing with xpdf look at console output) -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 cthiel@novell.com changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AssignedTo|bnc-team- |kde-maintainers@suse.de |screening@forge.provo.novell| |.com | -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #2 from geroxp@web.de 2006-10-10 06:55 MST ------- It may has something to do with Qt and its qpsprinter class which creates postscript files. I am using version 3.x and there are several bugs fixed in version 4.x which could have something to do with this problem. At the moment I cannot test it with Qt 4. The corresponding bugs I found in Trolltechs tasktracker are: http://www.trolltech.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=109752 http://www.trolltech.com/developer/task-tracker/index_html?method=entry&id=104150 -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #3 from geroxp@web.de 2006-10-10 07:30 MST ------- It's somehow a little better without font-embedding set in qt: Fire up "/usr/lib/qt3/bin/qtconfig", disable font embedding (printer tab) and try again. (or edit "~/.qt/qtrc" with your favorite editor and change "embedFonts" value in the "General" section to false.) -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 wstephenson@novell.com changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status|NEW |NEEDINFO Info Provider| |mfabian@novell.com ------- Comment #4 from wstephenson@novell.com 2006-10-12 04:53 MST ------- Mike, can you tell me why the fonts would 'jump' like this? I can't reproduce with or without font embedding? -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #5 from geroxp@web.de 2006-10-12 06:18 MST ------- Will, the postscript file (which is used to create the pdf) from qt differs from the one that Firefox produces. If you look at the PDF I have attached to this bug you can notice that the embedded fonts have no name. Unless I'm very much mistaken according to Adobe the fonts must have a name in the following manner: 6 Letters + (+) + Fontname (example: HWNDJR+ArialMT) Qt produces postscript without these naming conventions. This could either be a bug in qpsprinter.cpp or it has something to do with a missing font substitution. Perhaps this helps... -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #6 from mfabian@novell.com 2006-10-12 06:33 MST ------- Will> I can't reproduce with or without font embedding? I can reproduce it (with font embedding). -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 ------- Comment #7 from geroxp@web.de 2006-10-14 03:59 MST ------- I had a chance to test it with qt-4.1.4 and had the same results. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 mfabian@novell.com changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status|NEEDINFO |ASSIGNED Info Provider|mfabian@novell.com | -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 wstephenson@novell.com changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AssignedTo|kde-maintainers@suse.de |wstephenson@novell.com Component|KDE |KDE Product|SUSE Linux 10.1 |openSUSE 10.3 Version|Final |Alpha 1 -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 Dirk Mueller <dmueller@novell.com> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CC| |dmueller@novell.com AssignedTo|wstephenson@novell.com |kde-maintainers@suse.de Status|ASSIGNED |NEW QAContact|kde-maintainers@suse.de |qa@suse.de -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 Dirk Mueller <dmueller@novell.com> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status|NEW |ASSIGNED Component|KDE |KDE Product|openSUSE 10.3 |openSUSE 11.0 Version|Alpha 1 |unspecified -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 User pfeifle@kde.org added comment https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235#c8 Kurt Pfeifle <pfeifle@kde.org> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CC| |pfeifle@kde.org Summary|Bad postscript creation from kprinter concludes |Bad postscript creation from kprinter concludes |in ugly pdf |in ugly pdf (that's Qt's fault!) --- Comment #8 from Kurt Pfeifle <pfeifle@kde.org> 2008-05-01 05:36:16 MST --- [Disclaimer: while I in general loved to use Qt-based applications over the last 10 years, what I have to say below may make some Qt-fanboyz feel insulted. Avoid reading on if you can't stand the truth.) The problem with printing from Qt-based applications over the last 10 years are these: 1) Qt, when generating PostScript for printing, can only support PostScript Level 1. 2) Qt can't handle TrueType fonts well when it comes to printing. Taken together, these two points mean: Qt cannot embed TrueType fonts them into PostScript Level 1; instead, it converts them to a (even crappy-looking at that!) "Type 3" PostScript font, and embeds this font instead. To add insult to injury, the font names used for the embedded "converted to Type 3 fonts" Qt does not comply with the font naming standards that were laid down by Adobe in their PostScript specifications (as is already noted in comment #5). These problems haven't been fixed (or even touched) by Trolltech for over a decade of Qt1-Qt3(-Qt4) development, although there have been quite a few bugs about it in their internal (and published) bug tracking system. As well as various Trolltech promises ("will be fixed in next version")... which never happened. Qt sucks donkeyballs when it comes to PostScript and TT font handling in PS print files. Qt4 introduces "export to PDF" and therefor seems to be much better for print fidelity and quality. However, the Qt-app needs to take advantage of that. Whenever there is an app that still outputs PostScript, you're treated with Level 1 PostScript and with the dreaded "I converted your nice TrueType fonts into my crappy quality, ugly looking, pixelized Type 3 fonts" feature. This TT handling "feature" of Qt has many more drawbacks: 1. PDFs created from the PostScript that was output by a typical Qt application doesn't only look ugly.... 2. ....and therefor do get downrated when it comes to "usability"... 3. ....but it also are not "searchable".... 4. ....and they doesn't let you extract the contained text ("pdftotext"),.... 5. ....they don't work with a screenreader.... 6. ....and hence are a complete failure when it comes to "accessability". You can have a look at these two PDF files I did <a href="http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140546">generate quite some time ago</a> which show all 6 points from above in a comparison. The same OpenDocumentText (.odt) file was used as the base file: -- to <a href="http://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=19402&action=view">"Export to PDF" from OpenOffice.org</a> -- to <a href="http://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=19403&action=view">"Print to PDF file" from KWord</a> "Oh, wait", I hear you saying, "there is Scribus, which is a Qt application, and it produces excellent PostScript or PDF output, and has no such problem with TT fonts." That's true. But it is only true because the Scribus developers didn't rely on Qt when it came to generate the print files. They did their own thing on that field. They had to. Otherwise, they'd have to suffer from the same problem that KDEPrint (up to KDE 3.5.9) did and still does.... So isn't there a workaround when you want to generate PDFs via KDEPrint's "print to PDF" feature? Yes, there is. ==> Disable "Font embedding" when KDEPrint-ing documents that contain TrueType fonts. You can disable Qt's font embedding by running "kaddprinterwizard --kdeconfig", select "TT fonts", disable "Embed fonts with PostScript data when printing". The net effect is that the original TrueType font will be referenced only by name in the resulting PostScript file. If the next step in print processing then is running Ghostscript on that PostScript file (in the case of kprinter's "Print to PDF" that *IS* the case), it will try to use the real TT font and embed that into the file (and that way avoid an already embedded, crappy looking Type 3 generated by Qt). ---- Last question: Why could the author of comment #4 not reproduce it? I bet he was not using TrueType fonts for his testing.... -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 Dirk Mueller <dmueller@novell.com> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Priority|P5 - None |P4 - Low -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235 User remur@gmx.net added comment https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=211235#c9 Karsten König <remur@gmx.net> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status|ASSIGNED |RESOLVED CC| |remur@gmx.net Resolution| |WORKSFORME --- Comment #9 from Karsten König <remur@gmx.net> 2009-02-18 13:00:16 MST --- Sorry this is nothing the Novell / openSUSE guys can fix, as you already explained yourself it is a problem with Qt. As this is qt3 and non-critical problem there will be no fix released for it anymore, if it is still existing in Qt4 please report it upstream with the Qt Software guys. I do remember the issue as well and was very annoyed with it, but for me it looks solved with Qt4.4 from openSUSE 11.1 -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.
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