Can't print A4 with Microsoft PDF writer (crash)

[Mark Jeronimus]

I can't print A4 designs to PDF using the "Microsoft Print to PDF" virtual printer. When I attempt to change the printer's paper format, Inkscape crashes unconditionally.

For some reason it defaults to Letter size. I tried this printer with several other applications. Half of them default to Letter, half of them to A4. It doesn't remember the last used setting. None of the other applications crash when using this virtual printer.

Steps to reproduce:

- Start Inkscape
- Print...
- Select "Microsoft Print to PDF"
- Click Preferences
- Click Advanced
- Change Format from 'Letter' to 'A4'
- Click OK
- Click OK
- -> Crash

Tested with these versions:
Inkscape 0.48.2 r9819 with extensions
Inkscape 0.91 r13725 with extensions, portable version which stores settings elsewhere
Inkscape 0.92.3 (2405546, 2018-03-11) with extensions
Inkscape 0.92.3 (2405546, 2018-03-11) fresh ZIP extracted in unrelated directory

OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 EN-US 1709 Build 16299.847

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

could you try running Inkscape from DOS with a command like this:

C:\>cd \program files (x86)\inkscape

C:\Program Files (x86)\Inkscape>inkscape

to see if there are any error messages?

[Mark Jeronimus (mark-jeronimus)]

I started it with CMD and when the crash occurs, there is still nothing. It it supposed to output nothing when everything is apparently going well? Are there any ways (besides recompiling) to enable a higher logging level?

While browsing through the documented command line parameters I found a way to export to PDF without 'printing'. This works perfectly for me as a workaround. I only wonder why this is not possible in the GUI?

[Alvin Penner (apenner)]

thanks for testing.
I have not been able to reproduce the problem, on Windows 10, [Version 10.0.17763.195],
with Inkscape 0.92.3 (2405546, 2018-03-11) (32 bit version)

for debugging purposes there is a program called gdb which will trap exceptions:
08/04/2011 08:41 AM 3,847,168 gdb.exe
unfortunately it is not normally distributed with Inkscape. I think the easiest way to get it is to install the mingw compiler, and then you need to specify whether you want the 32 bit or 64 bit version.

[Mark Jeronimus (mark-jeronimus)]

Unfortunately gdb keeps crashing too. Tried from both the gdb and Inkscape directories. Bit width is correct otherwise it doesn't even recognize it as an executable.

d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape>d:\Mingw\bin\gdb inkscape.exe
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.6.1
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "mingw32".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>...
Reading symbols from d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\inkscape.exe...(no debugging symbols found)...done.
(gdb) r
Starting program: d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape/inkscape.exe
[New Thread 6072.0x246c]
[New Thread 6072.0x170c]
[New Thread 6072.0x25a4]
[New Thread 6072.0x25d0]
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libcairomm-1.0-1.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libglib-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll:
d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\App\Inkscape\libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll: error reading symbols
Error while reading shared library symbols for d:\0syncedSSD\Portable Progs\InkscapePortable\...

[Qantas94Heavy (qantas94heavy)]

I can reproduce with 0.92.3 on Windows 10 64-bit, let me try with 0.92.4 and get a backtrace for this.

[J Lab (j-lab)]

I've been trying to reproduce this bug reported last year in Inkscape 1.0 on Windows 10 64-bit, but I'm not experiencing any crashing. This issue might have been solved in the this latest release.

OS: Windows 10 Home x64 EN-US 1909 Build 18363.1016