Printing offsets page (Windows)

[Bram Wayman]

When I print a document to my printer, it prints as if the entire page has been shifted up and left by about a quarter inch.

I've attached a .ZIP file that holds three examples of the bug. The first is the .SVG file in question, which I created for this experiment (so it should be bug-free). It shows a box whose boundaries are 1/4" from each edge of the paper, so the box measures 8" x 10.5". The second file is the PDF output of the document, using the Save As command. (This PDF, opened in a normal PDF viewer, prints fine.) The third is a photo I took of the printout I got when I printed the SVG file.

In the photo, I've marked up the printed page to show the increased right and lower margins. (Note that they are different. I believe this is a natural outcome of the printer, which does not offset perfectly, of course — there is usually a little extra space at the top of a page where the printer has to grab the paper — but the idea is that they are roughly 1/4" each.)

I also tried this with another Inkscape document, this time with a box 7.5" x 10". It, too, printed as if it were shifted up and left by a quarter (again, the vertical shift was slightly less — by the same amount as before: just shy of an eighth of an inch).

My OS (Windows 7 64-bit), printer (Brother HL-2170W), and Inkscape (0.48.2) are all up to date.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Which print end are you using for printing?

Offset similar to the offset reported in
Bug #508529 in Inkscape: “Printing rastered image offsets the page ”
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/508529>

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Not reproduced with Inkscape 0.48.2 on OS X Lion, printing a similar frame (A4 page, centered frame offset by 10mm on each side, SVG file attached) on a Brother HL-2035 B&W Laser printer, using the normal (vector) backend.

[Bram Wayman (bram-wayman)]

Sorry, ~suv, for the delay in responding. Grad school is a busy time. Can you explain your question? What is a "print end"? Thanks :-)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> What is a "print end"?

Sorry - poor choice of words on my part: If you open the print dialog in Inkscape, there is a tab labelled 'Rendering' where you can select the backend (Vector | Bitmap) for printing - default is 'Vector'.

We had earlier reports where using the 'Bitmap' backend caused similar offsets.

[Kris (kris-degussem)]

Hi Bram, Do you still have the issue with a recent Inkscape version (either 0.48.4 or development)? And if so could you have a look at comment 5? Thanks.

[Hal Stephenson (1-launchpad-g)]

I'm going to jump in on someone else's bug and say that I've got this problem. The print output is shifted up and to the left by the width of the margins of the printer. The problem exists with the vector and bitmap backends.

I'm using Inkscape 0.48.4 r9939 under Windows xp 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit. I've got the issue with a Konica Minolta Bizhub 25 and Brother HL-2250. I don't have the issue when I print to CutePDF, but a PDF can be printed right to the edge of the page so I wouldn't expect to see the problem.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

The original report looks very close to Bug #508529 "Printing rastered image offsets the page" (now fixed in the trunk/0.91). We just need confirmation that Bram printed with a bitmap rendering option to be sure it's a duplicate.

Hal Stephenson's bug (comment #7) seems different (also affect vector printing, but not with virtual printers). Maybe related to Bug #899786 "Inkscape artwork shifted down when printing"?

[David Bolton (davidkbolton)]

I can confirm this bug on Inkscape 0.91, Windows 7 (I also experienced the same issue on earlier versions of Inkscape on Windows 7).

@jazzynico: Unlike Hal Stephenson (above) the problem only happens for me with the vector backend. The print output is shifted up and to the left by the width of the margins of the printer.

[Hal Stephenson (1-launchpad-g)]

I've just rechecked with v0.91/Windows 7 64 and I concur with David: the output is shifted for vector rendering but not for bitmap. (In fact, I got a 1mm upward shift with bitmap rendering but I'll put that down to the printer.)

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Confirmed on Windows XP, Inkscape trunk rev. 13963, with an OKI C830 printer. Bitmap printing works as expected (centered), but not vector printing (the output is shifted by the width of the margins of the printer).

It seems that there's still some old Windows specific code to workaround a (now fixed) GTK bug (see http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/view/head:/src/ui/dialog/print.cpp#L129). Removing it seems to fix the bug.

Investigations in progress.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Patch attached. Note that it's already in DOS/Windows format, and thus there's no need to convert with u2d first.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

JFTR, the GTK bug was fixed in gtk-2-18 (see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=381371).

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Fix committed in the trunk, revision 13965.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Note for 0.91.1 backport: rev. 13965 also applies a dead assignment fix that can also be backported with no risk.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

trunk r13965 backported in 0.91.x r13762

[Gregor Shapiro (gregor-shapiro)]

When I define my document size to A6 Landscape (148mm wide, 105mm tall) and print on an a¤ paper (HP LaserJet 200 Color) the print does not cover the upper 8mm or left 8mm. The image is centered vertically (Landscape format) on the printed page and the right margin of the print (what is printed) is the right edge of the document. The top and left sides are cut off.

[Gregor Shapiro (gregor-shapiro)]

Forgot to add that I am using Inkscape Inkscape 0.48.5 r10040 om Windows10

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

@Gregor - The bug is fixed in the latest Inkscape version (0.91), but not in the one you're using. Is there a reason why you're still using an old version?

[Hal Stephenson (1-launchpad-g)]

@jazzynico: Unless I'm missing something obvious, the Win32 and Win64 versions of Inkscape on the download page are 0.91 r13725, which still have the bug.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

The bug is fixed in the next versions (0.91.1 and 0.92), not in the current stable one. Sorry for my last comment...

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Can confrim r13725 has the glitch.

When's the next stable release due, as I'd like to make a number of suggestions in respect of the printing subsystem?

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

@Alex - you can also get fairly recent development builds at:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/inkscape/win32/
if you would like to check to see if this bug still exists. You would use 7-Zip to unzip these builds.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

The nightly build at the top of the list wouldn't even start on Windows XP, So I am having to consider XP's no longer supported.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

OK Got it to start - Image is STILL cliped on the most recent nightly build at the link you menntion.

inkscape-0.91.x-13859-win32\inkscape is the nightly build I donwloaded...

As I said earlier, It would be NICE to have some way of viewing WHAT inkscape THINKS it's sending to the printer.....

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

My issue still present in - 14755. - In which revision was the fix implemented? ~~~~

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

This is the file I am attempting to print correctly..

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

see comment 14 above.
a fix was committed to:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/13965

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

problem reproduced using the file Model_bridge.svg
- I printed using Inkscape 0.91 r13725 (Jan 30 2015) on Windows 7
- and using Inkscape rev 14860 on Windows XP
- using a HP Deskjet 895
- In both cases the output was identical and in both cases the output was offset, the left quarter inch or so is chopped off

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Only partially fixed apparently. Reopening.

Note that it can be reproduced with the 64-bit version (that has recent dependencies).

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Alvin , Thanks.... The previous correspondent said there were also using a Brother printer driver, so your confirmmation of it existing with a deskjet means it's not necessarily the printer driver. (which was one of my first thougts) Hmm....

[Gregor Shapiro (gregor-shapiro)]

I note that when I save the .svg as .pdf and use Adobe Acrobat to print, it prints with all that is within the page borders as indicated by Inkscape's GUI (but in the middle of an A4 page because I have a HP A4 printer) when I do not check the "Landscape" radio button in Adobe Acrobat's print dialog but have the "Automatic" item checked.
With the "Landscape" button checked the print is at the upper left of the paper and chopped off (by printer margins?) to the top and the left edges.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

Still present in Inkscape 0.92.1 r15371.

The current printer driver I have (Cannon) let's me preview before printing, and it's clearly clipped on that preview. I've tried various combinations of printer driver, and even tried wnsuring the viewbox was correct manually.

Somehow Inkscape is recovering the WRONG margins, meaning a drawing is positioned in the wrong location relative to a page.

[Alex Farlie (afarlie)]

This is the extracted view from the printer drivers preview option.

(The bottom and right are clipped because they extend beyond the page boundary.)

From this it would seem Inkscape is possibly using the wrong margins when printing on Windows, ( or that there something silly going on without Windows thinks Inkscape or a library told it to use.)

[Brenda Collins (gentlebath)]

I have a similar issue on Inkscape 0.91 but seems intermittently. I have been printing product labels on 8.5" x 11" sheets using this workflow:

1) Design individual labels as separate svg files > export design as png
2) Create Label print sheet (8.5" x 11" doc) as new document > import label pdf (8.5" x 11" label layout)
into doc (layer 1) > Import individual label design png's into doc > position png's on each label box center in a new layer > hide label outline layer > save "copy of file" as PDF file.
3) Open pdf file in Adobe DC and print finished labels from Adobe.

One particular label size always shifts left and up about 1/16" to 1/32" no matter how I try to adjust the original svg file. Other labels sizes seem to print perfectly so it is very frustrating. The total width that I am having the most trouble with is 7.74". I have a label page with a total width of 8" and it prints out perfectly, each label aligned on the page with no shifting.

Is that any issue that would be odd size related? I tried using the most current .92 Inscape but had crashing issues so went back to .91 to try for stability. Is there any headway on this issue? I will try to print with the "auto size" checked as mentioned above to see it that helps. I am wasting a lot of labels trying to print out my file as it is designed in Inkscape. On most label printings everything goes so smoothly, it just chokes on this particular label size, which is so odd.

OS: Windows 7 64 home pro
Printer: HP Officejet Pro 8600
Inkscape: 0.91 r13725