PDF pages appear extremely small in evince

[John Smith]

Binary package hint: evince

1) The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd' or System -> About Ubuntu.

Description: Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
Release: 8.04

2) The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy packagename' or by checking in Synaptic.

 Installed: 2.22.0-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.22.0-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.22.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) What you expected to happen

I have always used evince to open PDF documents and it has always worked great.

4) What happened instead

I opened a PDF document today and the pages appeared extremely small, even when zoomed to 400% (see attached screenshot). I'm having this problem with all my PDF documents, but they all look fine when opened with KPDF.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Apr 7 20:18:32 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/evince
NonfreeKernelModules: hsfengine
Package: evince 2.22.0-0ubuntu2
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evince
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-15-generic i686

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Does this happen with all pdfs or just one (that you have found)?
When did it stop working as expected (if you remember)?
Could you please attach the pdf to this bug report by clicking on the link at the bottom of this email?

Thanks!

[Nikhil (gupta-nikhil83)]

I am facing the same problem on 8.04 beta. For me the problem occurs for every pdf/dvi/eps file.
evince:
  Installed: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.22.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[John Smith (johnasmith)]

This happens with all the PDF files I try to open. It first happened this moring; it had been working fine before that. Friday may have been the last time I tried it before today. It may have stopped working after I installed updates this morning. Attached is one of my PDFs.

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

I am also encountering the same problems. I *think* I used evince yesterday and everything was working fine, but I cannot be 100% sure. I tried opening a document that was definitely working a couple of weeks ago but the pages are far too small to actually read today.

evince:
  Installed: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.22.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Description: Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
Release: 8.04

[Erdal Ronahi (erdalronahi)]

I also have this since the update of Evince yesterday night (7 april 2008). I am sure it occured after that update, since I use Evince every day and keep track of all the updates.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

thanks for your report, that's not reproducible here, is that reproducible with another new user created on your system?

[GPLed (sunnysachanandani)]

I can confirm this too. It has been happening since the last update (2.22.1-0ubuntu1).

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

I have just created a new user and evince seems to work fine. :s

evince:
  Installed: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.22.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.22.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Description: Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
Release: 8.04

[kikvors (kikvors)]

After doing a bold...

"rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity"

...I can open PDFs at their normal size.

[kikvors (kikvors)]

Please disregard my last comment...

When opening the program a second time, the bug returned.

I do not know if this was related, but rendering of windows in another application (Matlab) was impaired and temporarily fixed after removing gnome settings as well. After the small size bug returned to Evince (second opening), the bug in the other application also returned.

[besh (besh)]

I have the same problem here (8.04 beta with latest updates).

[Finlay Thompson (finlay-nz)]

Just thought I would add a Me too to this bug.

I have the same problem. I was using evince successfully yesterday, but now its not working right.

BTW, I get the same problem if I use evince locally or over a ssh -X connection. That implies that its something up with the GTK layer ? (is not sure about that)....

I hope this gets fixed really soon!

[Darlan Cavalcante (darcamo)]

I have also the same problem here after some update from yesterday (7 april 2008) to today.

[dbsoundman (dbrandesky)]

I too am having this issue with tiny PDFs, in Hardy with the latest updates (as of 4/8/07, 10:57 PM EST)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could somebody attach an example or describe easy steps to get the issue?

[Matthias Meier (matthias-j-meier)]

Same problem at me!
Temporarily installed epdfview to view PDF Docs.

[bgerlich (bgerlich)]

Evince seems to assign bad value of window size in ev-metadata.xml

Workaround:
Edit ~/.gnome2/evince/ev-metadate.xml

change the values

 <entry key="window_width" type="gint" value="???"/>
 <entry key="window_height" type="gint" value="???"/>

to your required window size or to just about anything. After the change evince seems to reset the values to the right ones.

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

> Could somebody attach an example or describe easy steps to get the issue?

I can attach a screenshot of how it looks - as for repeating it, it's the same for any PDF, and I've tried a lot. No difference if opening from Nautilus, or via invoking evince or xdg-open on command line. So there is only one step: open any PDF.

evince 2.22.1-0ubuntu1

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

Sebastien,

All you have to do is open a PDF document with evince. I have attached a screenshot for you to see.

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

bgerlich: Not true for me. The values in that file seem sane, and even so, editing the values or deleting the file does not change the behavior for me.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could the people having the issue run "xdpyinfo > log" and attach that to the bug? what videocard and drive do you use?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you also attach your Xorg.0.log?

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

Videocard - "Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
Driver - "intel"

[Silvestre Zabala (silvestre-zabala)]

That's the problem indeed:
$ xdpyinfo
[...]
screen #0:
  dimensions: 1024x768 pixels (6553x37683 millimeters)
  resolution: 4x1 dots per inch
[...]

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Those logs all show wrong dpi informations using intel cards, opening a task on the corresponding video driver

[bgerlich (bgerlich)]

strange...

this works for sure - at least for me, tried it twice.

delete ev-metadata.xml
open some document in evince
close evince
add
    <entry key="sizing_mode" type="gchararray" value="free"/>
right under <document uri="last-used-value" atime="1207731907">
save
open some doc in evince

[Michael Gratton (mjog)]

I'm seeing this problem and I have an Intel GM965/GL960 as well.

It started for me after an update included xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.2.1-1ubuntu11, maybe that caused the problem?

Strangely, after creating a new user I can't reproduce the problem logged in as that user (as a second login), so it may be some interaction between Gnome's settings and the xservers?

xdpyinfo reports (for a 13" LCD display):
> screen #0:
> dimensions: 1024x768 pixels (6553x37683 millimeters)
> resolution: 4x1 dots per inch

/var/log/Xorg.0.log reports:
> (==) intel(0): DPI set to (96, 96)

/var/log/Xorg.9.log (the second xserver instance for the test user's session) does not report a DPI line like above.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Same issue here and this is a very recent one. This used to work fine until a few days ago.

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

[Gregory Petrosyan (gregory-petrosyan)]

I can easily reproduce this bug on machine with ATi Radeon 9200SE (with radeon driver, AFAIR).

[Eyal Oren (ikbeneyal)]

Confirming the problem, but I don't think it's an evince bug since I observe the same problem with Adobe Reader.

[Tom Kirby (tc-kirby)]

I'm having this problem too. Here's my xpdpyinfo.

[Tom Kirby (tc-kirby)]

And my Xorg.0.log

[Tom Kirby (tc-kirby)]

I tried doing the following:

mv /home/tom/.gnome2/evince/ev-metadata.xml /home/tom/.gnome2/evince/ev-metadata.xml.old

and then opening a document in evince, closing it, and opening it again. Now it seems to work fine.

[Kristoffer Lundén (kristoffer-lunden)]

> but I don't think it's an evince bug since I observe the same problem with Adobe Reader.

Acrobat reader (via Medibuntu) works for me, Evince doesn't.

Tom Kirby: did not solve it for me.

[chastell (chastell)]

Tom Kirby’s solution from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evince/+bug/213745/comments/39 didn’t work for me, but bgerlich’s from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evince/+bug/213745/comments/31 works.

Current Hardy on Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (ThinkPad X60).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

did you use the new screen configuration capplet? does moving the monitors.xml file in .gnome2 somewhere else and restarting the session fixes the issue?

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

I removed monitors.xml from the .gnome2 folder, re-applied my screen resolution settings and restarted X and it works fine.

Thanks

[Juanjo Marín (juanj-marin-deactivatedaccount)]

I removed monitors.xml from the .gnome2 folder and re-started X, then the resolution turns wrong but evince works OK. When I re-apply my configuration screen with the gnome resolution tool the problem happens again.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue is due to the new xrandr capplet, new fixed version on its way to hardy

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-desktop - 1:2.22.1-0ubuntu3

---------------
gnome-desktop (1:2.22.1-0ubuntu3) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/100_gd-add-randr-12.patch:
    - calculate correctly the dpi value, thanks Julien Cristau for spotting
      the error there (lp: #213745)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:24:07 +0200

[wazmataz (tom-wrightmail)]

I'm afraid my good luck was short lived. It appeared to work the first few times, then I re-applied my screen resolution settings and opened another document and the pages are are tiny again.

[Michael Gratton (mjog)]

Yep, `rm .gnome2/monitors.xml' fixed pdf display. Should have saved a copy though. Oh well.

Thanks!

[AndreaDFC (andreadfc)]

I have the same problem with Evince since few days. I installed Acrobat Reader and it works fine.

[Baptiste Mille-Mathias (bmillemathias)]

> I installed Acrobat Reader and it works fine.
Installing Windows have the same effect ....

stop the dicussion

[bgerlich (bgerlich)]

As of now, after upgrading the system 10 minutes ago and restarting, the bug is still active.

$ xdpyinfo | grep resolution
resolution: 4x1 dots per inch

Evince still displays the pages incorrectly without the workaround mentioned above.

[Darlan Cavalcante (darcamo)]

Evince is now working correctly after some update today (09 april).
One of them was xorg, so it may be related to it.

xdpyinfo | grep resolution
returns 96x96 dots
which is exactly the value configured for my fonts.

[AndreaDFC (andreadfc)]

Baptiste Mille-Mathias, I wrote that "I installed Acrobat Reader and it works fine" because I wanted to mean that the problem is in Evince (or in some library which Evince uses) and not in the pdf file which I opened.
If you do not want to discuss, please write your comments in another place.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

I'm getting this problem as well. I've tried renaming the various config files here and trying again, but to no avail.

$xdpyinfo | grep resolution

  resolution: 1x1 dots per inch

...That doesn't seem right. :(

(I've installed the latest updates, just now.... 1:41am UTC on Thursday, April 10.)

[Joshua Paine (joshua-launchpad)]

Tina,
Getting the latest updates did it for me, *but only after a system restart*.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Okay, it works, now!

[bgerlich (bgerlich)]

dpkg-reconfigure --all didn't work

Redetecting settings in System-->Preferences-->Screen Resolution did the trick. DPI is correct and evince displays pages as it should.

Thanks!

[Finlay Thompson (finlay-nz)]

Rebooting after the update fixed everything for me...

Just an aside, the same problem had broken R (statistics package), well at least the X11 display of plots.

Thats fixed too.

Thanks to everyone who made this bug disappear so fast!

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

A better workaround is to run:

  xrandr --output LVDS --dpi $DPI

with a sane value for DPI, e.g.

  xrandr --output LVDS --dpi 100

especially if you need to view a PDF and don't want to or can't restart yet.

[shafin (mahdee-jameel)]

Thanks to Jan Michael lbanez for the command:
xrandr --output LVDS --dpi 100

It did the fixing for me.

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

marking the evince task as Fixed since this bug is fixed.

[lirel (m8r-lcodw5)]

this bug still affects me
even after deleting .gnome2/evince and changing the dpi to 100 didn't help

this all is happening since ca 1week