🚀 go-pugleaf

Jon Green wrote:
> (Sorry for the long quote, it's all for context, I'm not being lazy!)
> 
> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> Jon Green wrote:
>>> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>> Been trying to iron out some niggles..
>>>>
>>>> Some stuff prints well, other stuff has oddities.
>>> You're asking the wrong question, or the wrong way.
>>>
>>> Firstly, what's the printer (make and model) you're using?
>>>
>> Two. Both postcript native. Ricoh 3800 and HP laserjet 5.
>>
>>> Secondly, which printer driver are you using within CUPS, and how is it
>>> configured?  (For example, a number of printers offer both PostScript
>>> and their own language, such as HP-PCL.)
>>>
>> Not sure on this one. Foomatic comes into the RICOH for sure.
>>
>>
>>> Thirdly, how are you viewing the PDF on screen?  Are you using Acrobat,
>>> or GhostView (gv), or xpdf, or something else?
>>>
>>>
>> Acrobat and other screen based programs see the PDF's as intended. ONLY 
>> cups screws up.
>>
>> It also screws up with almost any bitmap where transparency is applied.
>>
>>> Basically, without knowing which RIP is being used for each of screen
>>> and printer, it's not easy to diagnose.
>>>
>>> That said:
>>>
>>> If your printer is being treated as a PostScript printer, but has an
>>> alternative language, try that.  Alternatively, if your printer offers
>>> PostScript, but you're using the alternative, switch.  You may need to
>>> tweak the driver config a bit to get the same results, but it's worth
>>> the effort.
>>>
>> Its not the printer end of things..its something to do with the 
>> transparency elements of bitmaps being disregarded.
> 
> It might still be the printer.  If you're using gv or xpdf to view the
> pages, and they look fine, but the printer's not getting it right, it
> could well be that CUPS is delegating the PS rendering to the printer,
> rather than pre-rendering it.  The fact that Acrobat printing directly
> gets it right definitely adds more weight to this theory.
> 
> So, what you see on screen is GhostScript's (or Adobe's) rendering, but
> what you get from the printer (via CUPS) is the printer's own.
> 
> Try using HP-PCL for the LaserJet instead of PostScript, and see if it
> changes things.  If it does, stick with it, or find a way to get CUPS to
>  pre-render the page so that PS delegation doesn't happen.  If that
> works, repeat with the Ricoh.

I suspect that the problem is well known

http://www.cups.org/str.php?L280+P0+S0+C0+I0+E0+M20+Qtransparent


In short, they don't expect anyone to print PDFS using ghostcript but 
use Xpdf instead.

Sadly CUPS uses gs to do the conversion from pdf to postcript. If you 
feed it a PDF rather than a ps type file.

I know that, cos I screwed up gs when attempting to install the latest, 
and the printer stopped working!

Remember, these machines have no X on them.


> 
> 
> Jon