694788 - if document printed, some words have a space within

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Joerg]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1
Build ID: 2011092900

Steps to reproduce:

Printing webpages or emails via the printing option. Either direct or if its a webpage by clicking print on the webpage.


Actual results:

This problem does actually occur in both Thunderbird and Firefox. I printed several documents and with different option just to minimize possibilities.
It appears that every 17 word has a space in between and i am not sure what causes it and if its bug or something else.
This happens only under Linux, under Windows everything is fine.
I am using openSUSE 11.4 x64 with KDE 4.6 installed. My printer is a Brother HL-2240D with the brother drivers installed. The Windows version is Windows 7 and both Thunderbird, Firefox are the same (current 7.0.1) version.


Expected results:

If it can be pinpointed, to eliminate the space issue within words.

Comment 1

[Joerg]

It appears that it is not strictly 17 words, it takes some more words later on. I have tried also to use different fonts, but this did not solve it either. Right now i have the standard fonts in use.
Not sure if this a rendering issue, maybe a possibility.

Comment 2

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

Not security sensitive. Please don't misuse the security sensitive setting. It only limits the people who can see your bug.

Comment 3

[Joerg]

Opps, i did not see that. Sorry about that. Got to remember that for the future.

Comment 4

[rsx11m]

Is this a "true" space (try copy-pasting it in a print-out to PDF, for example) or a kerning problem? The latter should have been addressed by bug 490475 which disabled the font hinting on Linux.

Comment 5

[Joerg]

Attachment: postscript that shows the spaces

this is a postscript file that shows the spaces. its a line that goes down to the end.

Hope this helps, is there anything else i can provide?

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

Thanks for the test case. I've looked at it with gv (version 3.6.8) and ran it through ps2pdf, but couldn't identify any doubled spaces in that message. Does it look normal for you in gv as well and only shows the additional spaces when printed, or do you notice those when using a PostScript viewer already?

Comment 7

[Joerg]

Normally i print via the print menu. But in this case i looked also at the print preview. It looked the same.
I forgot to mention that if one converts the document to pdf it does work correct. So instead of .ps to .pdf at the print menu.

Print preview does not show it with this document, but when printed the spaces appear.

On a note, i never use the viewer or very seldom. I just print and thats it. :) Is there anything else i can do. Let me know if there is any other information that may aid you to narrow the problem.

I will add that pdf file just for the records. It the same document.

Comment 8

[Joerg]

Attachment: same document but in pdf

Comment 9

[Joerg]

Attachment: snapshot of the print preview same document

Comment 10

[rsx11m]

It would be good to have an example which shows the wrong spacing in the preview or PostScript already, otherwise I'd tend to look for either CUPS or the print driver as the possible culprit.

Wolfgang, anything known about this in the openSUSE community?

Comment 11

[Joerg]

Let me do this first.
I will de-install both, cups and the drivers and re-install it. Maybe this will solve the problem already.

After that i will make test prints and post the images here for review.

Comment 12

[Joerg]

I just don't know anymore...
I upload a document printed from firefox from the 'der Spiegel'. It has the same problem, but instead showing spaces in the ps file those places that become spaces are cramped together.

I read on the mozilla wiki something about Enhanded format=flowed delsp=yes, not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I reinstalled the drivers and cups but the result is still the same. Funny thing is that it does not show in the preview at all. Very disappointing.

If i copy the document from thunderbird and paste it in LibreOffice it prints out correctly.

I asked on the openSUSE forum too, but no one else has the problem so it must be my pc. Or, i don't know. Right now i am really confused.

Comment 13

[Joerg]

Attachment: a ps file from firefox with the same problem, no spacing visible but printed

Comment 14

[Joerg]

just an update. I tried right now the open drivers that come with the distribution. The results were the same which makes me thinking that it is not the driver and rather something within thunderbird/firefox. Perhaps its a command that is getting sent prior to print that places these spaces on purpose.
So i am back to the brother drivers for now. Would it be of interest to post the config from thunderbird/firefox?

Comment 15

[rsx11m]

Well, I'm out of ideas myself as I don't know enough about the printing system and possible interoperability issues between the generated PostScript and subsequent printing drivers and printers. As you see it consistently in Firefox as well and not just for mail/news, I'm moving this to the respective core component and hope that someone else will jump in with suggestions.

Comment 16

[Joerg]

I would like to thank your already for taking the time.
Additionally i can confirm this (for me) also with Seamonkey. And yes, its not just the emails and does also happen with the browser.

Comment 17

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Joerg from comment #0)
> It appears that every 17 word has a space in between and i am not sure what
> causes it and if its bug or something else.

I don't immediately notice the spacing issue in the attachments here -- can you point out a specific example in one of the attachments?  (e.g. "In attachment XXX, in the phrase "foo bar baz", there's extra space between the "a" and "r" of "bar")

Comment 18

[Joerg]

I was not correct in the statement of 17 words. It is kind of random, but it is like a line that draws from top to bottom of the document.
It looks like a line break really, but instead of a break its a space followed by the rest of the word.

Just an example.
"And if it turns out that the Montebello is still carrying her cargo of crude, t he biggest challenge of all may be figuring out how to protect the sensitive Central Coast f rom the threat lying 900 feet below the waves."

It looks like this, kind of. Its always at near of the end of the line.

Comment 19

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

As I understand it, you're seeing this problem _only_ in the physical printed output - it does not show up in Print Preview, and it does not show up when viewing PDF or PS output - correct? Please scan (or photograph) an attach an image of the printed output that corresponds to the PostScript attachment above, so that we can see an example of what you're describing, and compare it to the PS code involved.

Comment 20

[Joerg]

I'll post two cases. One which doesn't have spaces and one with spaces. I hope that photos are ok. On one printout i used a highlighter. If thats not good i can repost it without.

Comment 21

[Joerg]

Attachment: a documents in .ps format with spaces

Comment 22

[Joerg]

Attachment: snapshot of the preview

Comment 23

[Joerg]

Attachment: foto of document testing with spaces marked

Comment 24

[Joerg]

Attachment: document interview without spaces .ps

Comment 25

[Joerg]

Attachment: snapshot of the preview of document interview

Comment 26

[Joerg]

Attachment: foto of printout of document interview

Comment 27

[Joerg]

Just an update for thunderbird.
Someone pointed me to a blogpost that narrowed this issue.
http://blogs.oracle.com/twisti/entry/turn_off_format_flowed_in

I did this in the config.

mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support = true
mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed = false

Now what happend is that the line get broken up where they should be and no spacing occurs anymore.

Not sure if this is bug or a 'feature' in some way and therefore i am not sure if this should be closed or not.

Thanks You