Comment 3 for bug 849859

@Alvin, @JazzyNico: could one of you test on Windows with latest stable (cairo 1.10.2) and a development build with cairo 1.11.2?
Can one of you confirm that printing on Windows is based on PostScript output to whatever printer is selected (and not PDF itself, even to a PDF printer, or GDI)?

1) Open questions:
(necessary to determine the cairo version bundled with the Windows package used to report this issue):
- which revisions of the development branch did you test (downloaded from inkscape.modevia.com)?
- please verify: does the error indeed also occur with stable Inkscape 0.48.2 (cairo 1.10.2)?
- does saving a copy as PS work with all tested builds, or fail with the same ones which print an empty page?

2) Tests done on Mac OS X 10.5.8 (i386):

a) Inkscape 0.48.2, 0.48+devel r10627, cairo 1.10.2, pixman 0.22.2
- Saving a copy as PDF/PS/EPS works correctly
- Printing to file via print dialog (PDF, PS) works correctly

b) Inkscape 0.48+devel r10627, cairo 1.11.2, pixman 0.22.2
- hangs when saving a copy as PS or EPS
- hangs when printing to PS file via print dialog

c) all tested builds:
Saving a copy as PDF or printing to PDF file via print dialog works correctly.

The issue (at least on OS X) seems likely upstream with the most recent cairo snapshot (1.11.2 - which also ships with the Windows development builds) or pixman 0.22.2 when exporting to PS/EPS (but not PDF) - with large files making use of reduced opacity (layer, objects) as well as partial transparency of fill and/or stroke.

Attaching two backtraces after interrupting the save/print process in gdb (since Inkscape appeared to hang with steadily increasing memory consumption) with the GTK+/Quartz build of current trunk using cairo 1.11.2.