printed document scaled down

[barna]

Binary package hint: cups

In kubuntu-9.10 alpha, I have set up a Xerox Phaser 8560 printer. Printed pages are scaled down by about 15%.
Checking or unchecking the 'Scale to fit' in the KDE printer configuration tool does not effect this.
Further settings in the KDE printer configuration tool:
Options>Page Size>A4
Job Options>Media:>iso_a4_210_297mm
An intermediate file /var/spool/cups/tmp/foomatic-l26BoC, which seems to be a PDF file, havint this header:

%PDF-1.4
%^P1^P2^P3^P4
% This file was generated by pdftopdf
%%PDFTOPDFNumCopies : 1
%%PDFTOPDFCollate : false

has a papersize A4, but the graphics in this document is already scaled down.

I edited /etc/cups/printers.conf, and changed the line 'Option scaling 99' (99 being the highest value which I could set in the KDE printer config gui) to 'Option scaling 109' (I determined this value by experimenting) then restarted cups. The printed documents are now roughly correct (very slight difference from a correct scaling is probably due to the fact that only integer numbers can be provided for this option)

cups version: 1.4.1-2
libpoppler5 version: 0.12.0-0ubuntu1

Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can you attach the PPD file of the printer (/etc/cups/ppd/*.ppd) to this bug report, your /etc/cups/printers.conf, and also files which you tried to print? Can you also tell from which application(s) you tried to print?

[barna (daniel-barna)]

This is the unmodified /etc/cups/printers.conf. Problematic printer: DefaultPrinter b1-1006-tek, but also with the other one, Deskjet-F300-series, I got scaled/cropped printouts (but this is a HP-F380 printer, and ppd existed only for F300).

[barna (daniel-barna)]

To be sure, I have rerun the kde printer setup wizard, to regenerate /etc/cups/printers.conf, and to use the official Xerox Phaser 8560 ppd file shipped with Ubuntu-9.10 (in the meantime I tried to use also the old one from Ubuntu 7.10)
This is the regenerated /etc/cups/printers.conf file. Other files follow soon.

[barna (daniel-barna)]

This is an A4 document which is printed in a wrong scale, but others also print wrongly. I have printed it from the command line using lpr.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The problem is that "scaling=99" is set by default (in printers.conf). This option should not be set at all. If there is no possibility to work with KDE's printer setup tool without this option being set, it is a bug of KDE's printer setup tool. In my printers.conf "scaling=99" is not set, and if I print a job with "-o scaling=99" on the command line it comes out shrinked as you observed.

Moving to KDE.

[barna (daniel-barna)]

Thanks, I will then try to remove this option from printers.conf by hand.
However, I think that this is still a bug in cups or whatever related
package. Shouldn't -o scaling=99 give just 1% shrinked output? My output
is shrinked by about 15% or more.

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009, Till Kamppeter wrote:

> The problem is that "scaling=99" is set by default (in printers.conf).
> This option should not be set at all. If there is no possibility to work
> with KDE's printer setup tool without this option being set, it is a bug
> of KDE's printer setup tool. In my printers.conf "scaling=99" is not
> set, and if I print a job with "-o scaling=99" on the command line it
> comes out shrinked as you observed.
>
> Moving to KDE.
>
> ** Package changed: cups (Ubuntu) => kdebase (Ubuntu)
>
> --
> printed document scaled down
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/440399
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[barna (daniel-barna)]

The scaling seems to be gone now (still the Xerox Phaser 8560), however, the top part of my printouts is cropped. I have the most recent updates from ubuntu as of 2009.11.09 (I can send package versions if you can tell me which packages are of interest).
I have a fresh setup of the printer, and
I have set up in the Options tab: PageSize A4, Double sided printing: Long edge,
and in the Job options tab: Media: iso_a4_210x297mm, Sides: Two-sided (long edge).