GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 600888
Evince prints pdfs on US letter instead of a4
Last modified: 2009-12-28 12:42:32 UTC
Created attachment 147043 [details] Exemple pdf file that evince prints on US letter and xpdf prints on A4. Even though my printer is configured for a4 paper (/etc/cups/ppd/HP-LaserJet-1018.ppd:*DefaultPageSize: A4), and the print setup from evince says A4, printing a pdf file from evince results in the page being shrunk to the US letter format. xpdf and gv prints the file on A4, as it should be. Attached is an exemple pdf file that evince prints on US letter and xpdf prints on A4.
Strange, pdfinfo display proper information about paper size (A4) but when displaying the document "Properties" in Evince the paper size is not correct. I confirm the bug on Evince 2.29.1 (git master) and Poppler 0.12.0 (git master).
I just noticed today : this bug only happens with documents in landscape mode. A portrait document is printed on A4 as it should be.
This bug is really a blocker for me since most of the documents I print are in landscape mode and I'm european... I'd be happy to test/check whatever is needed in order to debug it.
I finally found a landscape pdf file that prints correctly on A4 and compared the informations provided by pdfinfo and Evince Properties Landscape file that prints on A4 instead of Letter : *pdfinfo Creator: LaTeX with hyperref package Producer: dvips + GPL Ghostscript 8.70 CreationDate: Tue Nov 17 00:38:38 2009 ModDate: Tue Nov 17 00:38:38 2009 Tagged: no Pages: 5 Encrypted: no Page size: 595 x 842 pts (A4) File size: 150526 bytes Optimized: no PDF version: 1.4 notice that the Page Size seems to correspond to a portrait document. *Evince properties displays it as A4 landscape (297x210) Landscape file that prints correctly on A4: *pdfinfo Producer: Aladdin Ghostscript 6.01 Tagged: no Pages: 2 Encrypted: no Page size: 841 x 595 pts File size: 81932 bytes Optimized: no PDF version: 1.2 *Evince properties displays it as A4 landscape (297x210) So, is it a matter of PDF version 1.4 versus 1.2 ?
Created attachment 149449 [details] landscape pdf file incorrectly printed on letter instead of A4 Since the bug seems to occur only with landscape files now, I'm adding a landscape pdf that evince fails to print on A4.
I can confirm this bug. Exactly the same is happen at my system when printing A4 landscape. At the right side of the page ther is an extra margin of about 20 mm. Evince 2.28.1 Poppler 0.12.0 (installed at Ubuntu Linux 9.10)
I was starting to think I was the only one affected ! I hope someone more competent thant me can have a look since it seems to me that it's a major problem with evince : every non US user printing files would be affected.
The bug should be fixed in git master. Previously evince scaled pages to fit within the margins. I assume this was to fix bug report where the edges of printouts were truncated due to the page content extending into the unprintable area. Now there is a new tab in the print dialog that allows the scaling to be enabled or disabled.
See bug #599468. Feel free to reopen this bug if the problem is still present for you with current git master.
With last git, printing on a4 is fine if I disable auto fit/scale. Thanks a lot. I don't think this particular bug is fixed though. An A4 document on a A4 printer with auto fit is still scaled to letter, not A4.
I'm unable to reproduce this problem using your test case from comment 5. If I print with the fit to printable area option the document is reduced slightly. There is an extra 5mm of margin on the top and bottom and extra 8mm on the sides. What do you mean by "scaled to letter". Can you print the file to pdf, attached the output you are getting, and specify the exact print options selected.
@Adrian Johnson. I experience the same behaviour. You're right, it's not a confusion between letter and A4 (they have the same width) but I hadn't checked the exact dimensions previously. I guess what we get is extra margins added by the auto fit option, not evenly distributed (the document isn't centered if you use auto fit but not auto center). I guess we can close the bug now, thanks to https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=599468