Printer always selects "PDF" instead of Postscript

users
#1

<Twice I tried to send this to the new list, and both times it bounced.
I give up on the new list.>
<OK, old list now working either. Trying a third "new" list.>

Libreoffice 3.4.4 on Fedora 16, x86_64.
Printer: Laserjet 4M+ (Postscript Level 2)

I used OOo for many years and never had this problem until I switched
to Libreoffice.

Whenever I print to this printer I must remember to go into Properties>
Options > Device and change the print type from PDF to Postscript. If
I do not the text will fail to be kerned according to the font metrics;
that is, a proportional font will be spaced as though it was a
monospace font.

All other applications print fine. There is no setting for this in the
driver, which uses a PPD file.

I looked everywhere for a setting to set it to use Postscript as the
default, but I can't find it.

It is extra work to have to change this setting all the time. And
usually I forget to change the setting and have to print the page again
after I realize that I forgot. This is very annoying, and it wastes
paper, toner and electricity.

I really hope someone can tell me how to change the default behavior,
else I will have to remove Libreoffice and reinstall OOo.

#2

I am sorry you are not getting any help. I wonder it it is an isolated issue for Fedora 16. If people have not see this happen before, it is hard to figure out what is causing it.

I have never had any issue with Ubuntu 10.04 and HP Color Laserjet 2600n. It has been a few years since I has a Laser 4 with postscript, but there has to be others out there that use Fedora/Red Hat and your printer model.

I cannot get LO to do the duplexing on my Epson printer. I end up printing the file out to a PDF file, then print it out with the default PDF viewer and it will work with the duplexing.

So is there any issues with printing/exporting the file to PDF then printing it out to your printer? Do your file require Postscript printing instead of HP default printer language?

#3

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:05:19 -0500
webmaster for Kracked Press Productions <webmaster@krackedpress.com>
dijo:

I am sorry you are not getting any help. I wonder it it is an
isolated issue for Fedora 16. If people have not see this happen
before, it is hard to figure out what is causing it.

So is there any issues with printing/exporting the file to PDF then
printing it out to your printer? Do your file require Postscript
printing instead of HP default printer language?

Exporting to PDF and then printing with Okular, Evince, Adobe Reader,
or other PDF viewers works fine. But that is more work than just
clicking the Print button, or even wading through the Print dialog box
tabs and menus to change the default behavior.

The problem is that there is a new "PDF" setting in the print dialog
box. It used to be on OOo that the default was to use whatever print
options were set according to the driver you selected in CUPS
(Postscript, Gutenprint, PCL, etc.). Now you have to go into General
tab > Properties > Device > tab > Printer language type > where it
gives you the options:

*PDF
Postscript - level from driver
Postscript - level 1
Postscript - level 2
Postscript - level 3

And it is set to PDF by default. And the PDF option is broken - it does
not use the font metrics built into the font, so characters print as
though the font were a monospaced font. A word like "limit" comes out
looking a bit like "l i mi t" (except that the second i is actually
smashed into the m). Otherwise the printing is fine. And it uses the
font metrics correctly if I manually select Postscript - level from
driver, or Postscript level 1 or 2. It's just that the option is buried
several clicks deep in the Print dialog box and I keep forgetting to
change it from the default "PDF." Also, it does this with all fonts.

I don't know why there is a "PDF" option in the Device tab, because
only a handful of very expensive late model high end printers actually
have the new Adobe PDF print engine built in. I'm talking printers
costing $5,000 and up.

If I write the document with Abiword, Kword, or any other word
processor, it prints fine just by clicking the Print button.

I wish I could post screen shots of the Device tab in the Print dialog
box so you could see exactly what I am talking about. Even better would
be if I could add screen shots of the Print dialog box from OOo where
this problem did not exist. But OOo is not currently installed on my
computer, having switched to Libreoffice after upgrading from Fedora 14
to Fedora 16.

I just need to find a setting to change the default from "PDF" to
"Postscript - level from driver" or "Postscript - level 2." It would be
OK if Libreoffice would just remember the setting from last time I
printed, but with each new document it has to be set again. If it's
hard coded I'm probably going to have to uninstall Libreoffice and go
back to OOo because I'm tired of wasting time, paper and toner every
time I forget to change it.

#4

Hi,

I have been following this thread, and quite honestly, I have never seen this issue. I've been using LibreOffice since the first 3.3.x version, through all of the updates to presently 3.4.5. I have it on at least 9 machines. All of the machines have been upgraded through Ubuntu 10.10. 11.04, and presently 11.10. I always run the version directly downloaded from LibreOffice, and not the repository version from Ubuntu. In all versions of LibreOffice on all versions of Ubuntu listed above. when I click print, the default printer for the system is always selected. None of these machines are networked together. They are in 5 different physical locations. On the main tool bar in LibreOffice, I always replace the Print File Directly icon with the Print File icon. That is just my preference. When I click the Print icon, whatever printer is the default on that particular system always shows as the default printer that LibreOffice will print to. In Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 I am using the Unity desktop. The only thing I can think of is there is some sort of a conflict between Fedora 16 and LibreOffice that is preventing the default printer for your system from being the default for LibreOffice.

Don

#5

Hi :slight_smile:
Have you already opsted a bug-report about this? If not this link might
help
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport

We have just had a weird question that shows differences with LO's dialogues
in different DEs (Desktop Environments). A dialogue in KDE ws very
different from what everyone else gets. Are you using KDE too?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#6

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:08:16 -0500
"Don C. Myers" <donmyers@myersfarm.com> dijo:

Hi,

I have been following this thread, and quite honestly, I have never
seen this issue. I've been using LibreOffice since the first 3.3.x
version, through all of the updates to presently 3.4.5. I have it on
at least 9 machines. All of the machines have been upgraded through
Ubuntu 10.10. 11.04, and presently 11.10. I always run the version
directly downloaded from LibreOffice, and not the repository version
from Ubuntu. In all versions of LibreOffice on all versions of Ubuntu
listed above. when I click print, the default printer for the system
is always selected. None of these machines are networked together.
They are in 5 different physical locations. On the main tool bar in
LibreOffice, I always replace the Print File Directly icon with the
Print File icon. That is just my preference. When I click the Print
icon, whatever printer is the default on that particular system always
shows as the default printer that LibreOffice will print to. In Ubuntu
11.04 and 11.10 I am using the Unity desktop. The only thing I can
think of is there is some sort of a conflict between Fedora 16 and
LibreOffice that is preventing the default printer for your system
from being the default for LibreOffice.

Don

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:05:19 -0500
webmaster for Kracked Press Productions<webmaster@krackedpress.com>
dijo:

I am sorry you are not getting any help. I wonder it it is an
isolated issue for Fedora 16. If people have not see this happen
before, it is hard to figure out what is causing it.

So is there any issues with printing/exporting the file to PDF then
printing it out to your printer? Do your file require Postscript
printing instead of HP default printer language?

Exporting to PDF and then printing with Okular, Evince, Adobe Reader,
or other PDF viewers works fine. But that is more work than just
clicking the Print button, or even wading through the Print dialog
box tabs and menus to change the default behavior.

The problem is that there is a new "PDF" setting in the print dialog
box. It used to be on OOo that the default was to use whatever print
options were set according to the driver you selected in CUPS
(Postscript, Gutenprint, PCL, etc.). Now you have to go into General
> > > > Printer language type> where it
gives you the options:

*PDF
Postscript - level from driver
Postscript - level 1
Postscript - level 2
Postscript - level 3

And it is set to PDF by default. And the PDF option is broken - it
does not use the font metrics built into the font, so characters
print as though the font were a monospaced font. A word like "limit"
comes out looking a bit like "l i mi t" (except that the second i is
actually smashed into the m). Otherwise the printing is fine. And it
uses the font metrics correctly if I manually select Postscript -
level from driver, or Postscript level 1 or 2. It's just that the
option is buried several clicks deep in the Print dialog box and I
keep forgetting to change it from the default "PDF." Also, it does
this with all fonts.

I don't know why there is a "PDF" option in the Device tab, because
only a handful of very expensive late model high end printers
actually have the new Adobe PDF print engine built in. I'm talking
printers costing $5,000 and up.

If I write the document with Abiword, Kword, or any other word
processor, it prints fine just by clicking the Print button.

I wish I could post screen shots of the Device tab in the Print
dialog box so you could see exactly what I am talking about. Even
better would be if I could add screen shots of the Print dialog box
from OOo where this problem did not exist. But OOo is not currently
installed on my computer, having switched to Libreoffice after
upgrading from Fedora 14 to Fedora 16.

I just need to find a setting to change the default from "PDF" to
"Postscript - level from driver" or "Postscript - level 2." It would
be OK if Libreoffice would just remember the setting from last time I
printed, but with each new document it has to be set again. If it's
hard coded I'm probably going to have to uninstall Libreoffice and go
back to OOo because I'm tired of wasting time, paper and toner every
time I forget to change it.

I guess I still haven't made it clear.

Libreoffice DOES automatically select the printer which is set as the
default in CUPS, which is a Laserjet 4M+. That is not the problem.

The incorrect default setting is deep in the Print dialog box, not in
the first window that opens when you select File > Print or do Ctrl-p.
To see what I am talking about open the Print dialog box, which
will open displaying the General tab, then click on the Properties buton
(for the printer). This will open a child window with the default tab
"Paper" selected. Click on the "Device" tab, and then on the "Printer
language tab" button. That is where I see it set to PDF by default. I
have to change it to one of the Postscript options to get correct
printing.

Sorry for the confusion. :frowning:

#7

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:50:34 -0800 (PST)
Tom <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> dijo:

Hi :slight_smile:
Have you already opsted a bug-report about this? If not this link
might help
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport

Haven't posted a bug report yet. Hoping that it is a setting that I can
change. But thanks for the link. If I can't figure out a solution (or
even if there is a solution but the user interface needs to be changed)
I will definitely file a bug report.

We have just had a weird question that shows differences with LO's
dialogues in different DEs (Desktop Environments). A dialogue in KDE
ws very different from what everyone else gets. Are you using KDE too?

I am using Xfce, although Gnome 3 and KDE-whatever are also installed.
But i doubt very much that this is a DE problem. The appearance of the
dialog boxes might be different (size, color, borders, etc.), but the
options should always be the same, right?

As an unrelated issue, since my early days with Ubuntu Breezy (yes,
that many years ago), OOo has never taken the window focus properly. I
restore the program from the panel and it does not get the focus until
I click on it. This annoying behavior has persisted through my travels
through OpenSuse, Debian, Fedora, and KDE, Gnome, and now Xfce, and
continues after moving from OOo to Libreoffice.

At the moment I have a Firefox window on the desktop, my mail client,
and Libreoffice Writer, with the mail client in the foreground, since
it is what I am using right now. If I click on Libreoffice Writer in
the panel the Writer window moves to the top, but does not get focus.
It's the failure to take focus that is annoying. But this is off-topic
for the present thread. I just wanted to say that when I get around to
filing bug reports I should report this one as well, although
considering its senescence I suspect it has already been filed
repeatedly.

#8

Hi John,

Yes, you are correct. That does say PDF, and yes, I have seen that before. All of the printers I use say that, but that does not mean that it is printing in PDF format. Right now I have a HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 inkjet connected to this computer, as well as a Samsung ML 1710 monochrome laser connected. Both of them say language type, when you delve deeply as you did, PDF. From something I read in CUPS or the Open Printing site roughly 2 to 3 weeks ago I had the understanding that the PDF language type is the way the Linux system is communicating through CUPS with the printer, and that has nothing to do with the output type. Without changing that setting at all, all of my LibreOffice documents print perfectly fine with these printers, as well as with an HP 2605 color laser, and a Konica-Minolta 1400w page pro monochrome laser. I never touch the printer language setting in that box.

Don

#9

Hi,

Here is more information about this issue:
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=94173

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/15938/libre-office-change-printer-language-type-from-pdf-to-postscript

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=pfwl&cp=25&gs_id=2q&xhr=t&q=cups+printer+language+pdf&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&pbx=1&oq=cups+printer+language+pdf&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=ed6966981cf4427a&biw=1680&bih=942

Don

#10

Hi :slight_smile:

Sadly some dialogues do appear to be different/missing in certain DEs.  We have only noticed the 1 example so far afaik but where there is one there may be others.

Happily, now is a great time to post bug-reports or add comments to old reports to confirm where things are still not quite right in your opinion.  Sometimes old bug-reports from OOo need to be re-posted against LO because so much divergence has already happened that it would be good to know what issues people still want fixed.  A LOT of old problems are getting fixed and sometimes not even by focussing on the individual bug-reports because code-clean-up is likely to have fixed a whole bunch of issues (and perhaps created a few new ones that need to be cleared-up quickly).  Sometimes it might just be your opinion and people decided to go the other way but often such decisions are up for discussion and possibly changing.  This is a great time to get involved with just bug-reporting but stepping it up to doing triaging and anything more just helps you get even more out of the project :slight_smile:

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#11

I'm using LibreOffice 3.4.4 from the Mageia 1 repositories with KDE, trying to print to a Deskjet 5650 printer, and I'm having problems with this, too. My problem is related to that experienced by the Arch user in your second link, in that landscape -oriented spreadsheets from Calc aren't printing properly - to say the least. Mine prints fine until it gets to the 8.5 inch mark, then it prints a truncated version of the last column over and over until the edge of the paper. Print Preview looks fine, and while I haven't tried it yet I suspect printing to a pdf file would work, too.

Changing the printer language to Postscript fixes it. I haven't noticed the problem with other applications yet, but then I don't print much as a regular rule, just this time of year.

I didn't have the problem last year, when I was using Mandriva 2010.2 and OpenOffice.

I can try to remember to change the printer language on every document I make in the future, but like Mr. Jordan I think it's a pain in the butt to remember to change it if I go to print old documents. I tried running spadmin as root to change the default, but for some reason Mageia wouldn't do it. Probably just as well, as I'm very much out of my element when it comes to command line noodling.

It shouldn't have to be that way, anyway. There should be an easy way to make Postscript the default, if you want.

TJ

#12

I have not noticed any problems printing from Linux Mint 12. I would check the default printer settings and test the printer with another non-LO program to see if the problem is with the printer set up. The printer could be set up to default everywhere to pdf not to postscript.

#13

On Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:31:47 -0500
Jay Lozier <jslozier@gmail.com> dijo:

I'm using LibreOffice 3.4.4 from the Mageia 1 repositories with KDE,
trying to print to a Deskjet 5650 printer, and I'm having problems
with this, too. My problem is related to that experienced by the
Arch user in your second link, in that landscape -oriented
spreadsheets from Calc aren't printing properly - to say the least.
Mine prints fine until it gets to the 8.5 inch mark, then it prints
a truncated version of the last column over and over until the edge
of the paper. Print Preview looks fine, and while I haven't tried it
yet I suspect printing to a pdf file would work, too.

Changing the printer language to Postscript fixes it. I haven't
noticed the problem with other applications yet, but then I don't
print much as a regular rule, just this time of year.

I didn't have the problem last year, when I was using Mandriva
2010.2 and OpenOffice.

I can try to remember to change the printer language on every
document I make in the future, but like Mr. Jordan I think it's a
pain in the butt to remember to change it if I go to print old
documents. I tried running spadmin as root to change the default,
but for some reason Mageia wouldn't do it. Probably just as well, as
I'm very much out of my element when it comes to command line
noodling.

It shouldn't have to be that way, anyway. There should be an easy
way to make Postscript the default, if you want.

I have not noticed any problems printing from Linux Mint 12. I would
check the default printer settings and test the printer with another
non-LO program to see if the problem is with the printer set up. The
printer could be set up to default everywhere to pdf not to postscript.

Let me clarify a few things.

I first noticed this when printing to a Laserjet 4M+. I also have a
5SiMx, an 8000DN, and a Xerox Phaser 7400DN. The problem happens with
most of them. And I have several "printers" installed for each physical
printer, and it doesn't matter which one I select. I always get text
with the font metrics messed up.

This problem does not occur with any other program. This includes
Abiword, Kword, Gedit, and Scribus - the usual programs I use for
printing text. It did not occur with OpenOffice.org. I do not know if
OOo used the same default to PDF as LibreOffice, and I cannot easily
check because it is no longer installed.

I could wipe out Fedora 16 and install Linux Mint, but the last time I
changed distros it took almost a week to get everything reinstalled and
reconfigured back the way I had it. I have a zillion programs
installed, some of which took hours of tweaking to get them running.
And I require these programs for my work. So, for now at least, I'm
stuck with Fedora 16. Besides, I don't think the problem is in Fedora.

From reading others' responses it appears that all we need to do is

change the default from PDF to Postscript.

I should add that just today I discovered another problem. I needed to
print six copies of a one-page document (to give a paper copy to six
different people). I remembered to check "Postscript," but when the
copies came out of the printer copy 2 was on the back of copy 1, copy 4
on the back of copy 3, and copy 6 on the back of copy 5. The only ways
I can find to stop this behavior were to print one copy and click on the
Print button six times, or disable the duplexer in the printer and try
to remember to re-enable it afterward. LAME. But I will post this under
another thread later. It's time for bed.

#14

Hi :slight_smile:
When i upgrade my OS i keep the existing one working and just set a new partition for the new one.  Generally for me it's a 3 step process
1.  Create a largish partition, say 20Gb for something bloated (like Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, openSUSE etc) (err bloat = more functionality built-in so it's not always bad).  Install the new thing with it's /home on the same partition.  Test it, update it, tweak and play around and perhaps even make a complete mess of it.  After install i set the boot-menu to default to my working distro not the one i am test-driving.
2.  Install to an old tiny partition but during install set /home to use my vast partition (relatively).  Again set the boot-menu to my older but fully functioning distro that i am familiar with. 
3.  When i am happy about the new one i switch the boot-menu to the newer one.

So, i always default into something i know works well enough for me and familiar enough that i can meet deadlines without having to deal with unexpected surprises, well mostly.

I have even managed to do this with Windows but Gnu&Linux tends to make it easy or even wants to do it that way by default.

Back when i was a bit of a distro-hopper i sometimes had to scavenge hard-drives from old 'dead' machines in order to get space for a new partition.  Even the most bloated distro can fit on ancient crumbling drives that no respectable person would normally consider using.  Hmm, well i do have a 100 MB hard-drive somewhere and a 1 or 2Gb one but they are really museum pieces.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#15

I found out what I was doing wrong to run spadmin, but it didn't help. While I could change the settings, they'd change back on their own as soon as I hit "OK" to close the box. Either I'm still doing something wrong, or something else is over riding it.

TJ