172525 - [ps] print legal size page fails to set '<< /PageSize [612 1008] >> setpagedevice'

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect, P3)

Description

[Tom Garland]

Comment 1

[Tom Garland]

print legal size page fails to set '<< /PageSize [612 1008] >> setpagedevice'

When printing or or sending print to file, the page size is not set.

The output fails to print first 3" of text to the paper and the last 3"
of the page is blank.

Fix: When setting print properties for legal size paper Mozilla needs to include
'<< /PageSize [612 1008] >> setpagedevice' (no quotes)
After '%%BeginPageSetup' and before '%%EndPageSetup' when the filexx.ps is created.

Thanks to ghostgum on us.open.project.net #ghostscript for the fix.

Have Fun! - toga

Comment 2

[rods (gone)]

This one should be easy

Comment 3

[Kenneth Herron]

Confirmed with solaris nightly 2002121122. Postscript output doesn't contain a
/PageSize setting. This setting is used to help the printer select the right
size paper for printing.

Comment 4

[Christian Reis]

CC:ing some possible interested hackers

Comment 5

[Kenneth Herron]

Taking.

Comment 6

[Kenneth Herron]

Attachment: Set PageSize and ImagingBBox

This adds code to the postscript header to set PageSize and ImagingBBox if the
printer supports setpagesize. It uses PS level 1 syntax rather than the level 2
syntax described in the bug subject.

It seems that the code for the %%BoundingBox comment was producing incorrect
values for the top right corner. This is also fixed.

I've tested this by generating portrait and landscape printouts and viewing
them with ghostview. No problems were noted. However, I haven't had a chance to
test these with a real PS printer; it'd be helpful if someone could do that.

Comment 7

[Kenneth Herron]

Checked in by timeless. Thanks, timeless!

Resolving FIXED.

Comment 8

[[e-mail]]

This patch seems to break printing on my HP Laserjet 4M plus under Suse linux
8.2. The printer just prints an error page with the message:

ERROR: configurationerror
OFFENDING COMMAND: setpagedevice

removing the line 
  "setpagedevice"
from the postscript file will make the file print without problems.

Kenneth you say "if the printer supports setpagesize" - how does the code
attempt to find out about this?

Comment 9

[[e-mail]]

Sorry, I investigated a bit more and found out that got it all wrong: the
problem is really that the printer supports the setpagedevice all right, but
prints this obscure message when I attempt to set the legal-size paper size.
Using the A4 settings works well. 
Is there a (PS-version-)portable way to check if the printer allows the
configuration change and if not, print a more user friendly message? 

Comment 10

[Kenneth Herron]

Johann, the most likely reason for that error is that the printer thinks it
doesn't have the right size paper available. How are you supplying legal-sized
paper to the printer? If it's through a paper cartridge, does the printer know
that the cartridge contains that size paper? You might want to check the printer
configuration and see what paper sizes it thinks are installed.

If you want to read about the PageSize setting, the Postscript Language
Reference Manual can be downloaded from
<www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf>; the PageSize setting is
discussed on page 401, and the possible recovery policies are on page 434. In
principle, mozilla could override the printer's default recovery policy for this
error, but I wouldn't be comfortable hardcoding a particular policy into
mozilla, so it'd be necessary to put this under the user's control somehow.

I think your best bet is to explore why your printer doesn't accept that paper
size, and why it's responding to papersize problems in the least user-friendly
way possible. We have an HP LJ 5si here; when I sent it a print job requesting
A5 paper, it first asked me to load A5 through the sheet feeder, then offered to
print the job on letter-size.