wrong margins for HL-1030_series

[StefanS42376868]

Binary package hint: system-config-printer

The margins for the HL-1030 printer driver seem to be not correct.
There are always about 0.1-0.2 inches margin cut on top and bottom of the printed page.
I am using the HL-1250 driver with Ubuntu 8.04.
(Note: My printer is ok, with MS-Windows I do not have this problem.)

If I print the appended PDF, the headline will be cut to "port a bug about..." (i.e. "Re" on the sheet's bottom margin is cut),
and the last digit ("3") of the date "22.06.2008 21:33" will be cut in the middle (top margin).

Is there a way to correct the margins for myself in some configuration file, or is this a severe driver bug?

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

The margins are determined in the PPD file under ImageableArea:
*ImageableArea A4/A4: "18 36 577 806"
The values are expressed in PostScript point size. The first two values are the x and y coordinates of the lower left corner and the next two values are the x and y coordinates of the upper right corner (lx ly ux uy) of a portrait A4 page.
1 PostScript point = 1/72 inch and 1 inch = 25,4 mm

Changing these values should allow you to print the full page, please report back the improvements you made to the PPD file.

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

Unfortunately, there is no effect if I edit /usr/share/ppd/Brother/brhl1030_cups.ppd.
The orginal line is
*ImageableArea A4/A4: "18 12 577 830"
I tried with
*ImageableArea A4/A4: "36 40 613 866"
(which should add the missing margin according to my measurement)
but also with
*ImageableArea A4/A4: "0 0 400 600"
to see any effect at all.
In both cases the result is the same...

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Do you already see the margin problem in the output produced by foomatic-rip before it is processed by ghostscript?

Please do the following to find out:
1. Edit /etc/foomatic/filter.conf and set debug: 1
2. Print the PDF file from evince
3. Open /tmp/foomatic-rip.ps afterwards (sudo evince /tmp/foomatic-rip.ps), do you see the problem here?
4. If yes: attach your /tmp/foomatic-rip.log and /tmp/foomatic-rip.ps and the output of the following command:
   $ cat /etc/papersize
   to this bug report.

Don't forget to set debug: 0 again after the test.

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

I did what you told me.
$ grep debug /etc/foomatic/filter.conf
# Enable debug output into a logfile in /tmp/foomatic-rip.log.
debug: 1

But after printing (the printer produced the same wrong ouput), there is no file /tmp/foomatic-rip.ps:
$ ls -l /tmp/*.ps
ls: Zugriff auf /tmp/*.ps nicht möglich: No such file or directory

In addition, I've just found out, that the evince-print.pdf file from my original bug report is now printed with correct margins (maybe due to any update within the last 6 months, my answer from 2009-01-06 is related to a different source file, with which I tested).
But the problem is still there, e.g. if I print my email from thunderbird to PDF, see attached file, and then the PDF from evince to my printer, > 90% if the headline is cutted vertically (completely unreadable).
Even worse (but I can't show you with an attachment) is the result, if I print directly from thunderbird to my printer, then in every line the first letter is cutted, i.e. the whole email is unreadable.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Are you still using the HL-1250 driver and Ubuntu 8.04 ?

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

Sorry, I was using the driver
"Brother HL-1030 for CUPS"

My Ubuntu version is
"Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-22-generic"

But I have just tried the "HL-1250" driver, and with this one I do get
/tmp/foomatic-rip.ps
I opened this file with evince, and I see correct margins, i.e. the top line
"[Bug 242203] Re: wrong margins for HL-1030_series"
 is not cutted,
while in the printer output it still is: I can see only the bottom most pixels of
" g ] g g _ "

The output you requested is:
$ cat /etc/papersize
a4

I attached also the requested files.

By the way, in addition I have just tried if now the described line in the corresponding ppd-file has any effect:
I edited
/usr/share/ppd/Brother/brhl1250_cups.ppd :
*ImageableArea A4/A4: "400 400 600 800"
(and used the HL1250-driver of course), but still the printer output is not affected at all.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Looking at your second pdf file and since you have the problem with 2 different drivers this is likely a hardware limitation of your printer.
From the HL-1030 user manual:
Most laser printers have a restricted area that cannot be printed on. Usually the first two lines and the last two lines of a page cannot have print (leaving 62 printable lines). Adjust the top and bottom margins in your document to allow for this.

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

But the MS-Windows-driver gets along with this "hardware limitation"! I've just printed the same pdf-file from AdobeAcrobatReader under MS-WindowsXP, and everything including the headline is readable.

The windows driver seems to scale the output in order to make it fit into the printable area:
The printed letters are slightly smaller than in the Ubuntu case, and there is a horizontal offset of 0,5cm and a vertical offset of 0,6cm of the top left position of the word "Betreff".

Isn't it possible to configure the Ubuntu-driver to do the same?

Please note, that this PDF is just an example to make my problem reproducible. I have severe problems in almost every application (e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird) with this bug/feature!

As long as this problem is not solved, I cannot use my printer with Ubuntu but only with Windows (and my goal was to get independent of Windows).

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Whay you need is a "Scale to fit" option. You find this option for all printers in system-config-printer ("System"/"Administration"/"Printing" in the desktop menus) by right-clicking the printer's icon, choosing "Properties" in the pop-up menu, and then in the properties dialog choosing "Job Options" on the left. Then you find "Scale to fit" near the top, in the "Common Options" section. Mark this option and click "Apply" or "OK". Now all documents will be scaled to fit into the unprintable margins of the printer.

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

I tried the "Scale to fit" option for for both the HL-1030 and the HL-1250 driver.

It has no effect at all in case of the HL-1030 driver, but with the HL-1250 driver it works, and for the first time I have a print out with everything readable!
So thank you, I hope this will solve my problems!

By the way, the German translation of this option is wrong ("Größenverhältnis" means just "proportion of sizes"), and without your advice I would never have tried this option, while I understand perfectly the english original "scale to fit"!
My suggestion for a German translation is
"an druckbaren Bereich anpassen".
This should help all other German users who have the same problem!

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Please report the translation problem to system-config-printer upstream: http://fedorahosted.org/system-config-printer

The "Scale to fit" options shrinks the pages to fit into the frame given by the PPD's "ImageableArea". Perhaps data in the HL-1030 PPD is wrong. Moving to the Brother drivers ...

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Stefan,
What happens when you change the ImageableArea values of the HL-1030 PPD into the same values of the HL-1250 PPD and use the "Scale to fit" option?

[StefanS42376868 (stefans42376868)]

Unfortunately I do not have the old printer HL-1030 any more.