okular prints tiny pages using n-up (multiple pages per sheet) feature

[David Gleich]

Binary package hint: okular

I'm trying to print a set of beamer slides with multiple slides per page (4-up or 6-up). When I select 4 pages or 6 pages per sheet in the Okular print dialog, the pages print quite small (perhaps even tiny -- about 2" by 1.5") and leave significant white-space on the page.

I can get around this behavior by using the pdfnup utility (in the pdfjam package); which will correctly generate a 4- or 6-up pdf file but it's annoying to generate a second pdf file when I should be able to accomplish this task from the print dialog.

Details: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), 64-bit, Color Postscript printer.
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

Minimal working example:

1. Create a new latex document (bslides.tex)

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}% show the frame
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Slide 1}Test\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{Slide 2}Test\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{Slide 3}Test\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{Slide 4}Test\end{frame}
\end{document}

2. Compile with
$ pdflatex bslides.tex

3. View with Okular
$ okular bslides.pdf

4. In okular, File->Print, select Options >>; click the pages tab, select 4 pages per sheet

5. Hit print

What happens
------------------

The page prints with 4 pages per sheet, but the pages are smaller than they should be.

What I expect
-----------------

Output similar to using the pdfnup utility in the pdfjam package

$ pdfnup --nup 2x2 bslides.pdf

Now jprint bslides-2x2.pdf with Okular

[David Gleich (dgleich)]

My apologizes for the slight inaccuracy in the above report. Okular also does not print the 2x2 pdf correct (it is also quite small). However, evince prints it correctly.

[Maarten Bezemer (veger)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect 504441 and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for okular (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Daniel T. (pterion)]

This happens to mee too. I keep (the discontinued) Adobe Acrobat especially for printing multiple pages on single sheet, which Okular prints too tiny, with too much white space around and in between the pages.

[Manuel López-Ibáñez (manuellopezibanez)]

There is no point in reporting bugs about KDE apps in launchpad unless they are specific to Ubuntu. KDE developers, even those who use Kubuntu, use http://bugs.kde.org/

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Hong Xu (xuhdev)]

This bug is probably not an okular bug, since evince also has the same behavior....

[Hong Xu (xuhdev)]

I just posted an answer which has solved this issue: https://superuser.com/questions/92346/okular-on-ubuntu-9-10-prints-multiple-pages-per-sheet-n-up-very-small/1062051#1062051

Basically you should select the "Fit to printable area" option...