[Xprint] Xprint and pstools

[Thomas Dodd]

mun_cho at web.de wrote:
> xprint at mozdev.org schrieb am 31.08.04 16:01:00:
> 
> mun_cho at web.de wrote:
> 
>>>1) Print from Mozilla to a file: e.g. xprint.ps
>>
>>not sure that actually uses xprint, but still a problem.
> 
> 
> it uses definitely xprint ...
> 
> 
>>>2) Post-process xpront.ps with pstools (psnup, pstops, psbook etc): pstools.ps
>>> 
>>>The new PS-File exhibits an extraordinary magnification and is thus not usefull :-(
> 
> 
>>Not sure about those tools, but what do you mean "extraordinary 
>>magnification" ?
> 
> 
> e.g. (xprint.ps is one A4-page)
> 
> #  psnup xprint.ps pstools.ps
> 
> produces a Postscript-Page containing only a magnified (>x50) piece of the original, the  reminder is 
> somewhere outside the page


Sounds like what happened with mpage. The attempt to scale tro 
rasterizing fails, and the end result is a full page, instead of 1/2 or 
1/4 (2up or 4up). The logical placement of the other page(s) is then 
outside the physical page, and not shown.

>>I've had mpage not work for 4 up printing, but never looked into it 
>>much. Xprint does exercise the PS language mor than a lot of other 
>>tools. Maybe there is something pstools doesn't fully support?
> 
> May be, pstools are  quite old (1995), but 2 points more:
> 
> i) I'm using pstools over the last decade with  various Postscript-s without probs
> ii) Note: after "destilling" xprint.ps with ps2ps it works the usual way!
> 
> Therfore i'm speaking about incompatibility ...

I tried running the output from xpsimplehelloworld through mpage and it 
worked fine.

I then printed a page to the xp_* file spool and my mormal oprinter, 
with the mozilla "Print to file" box. comparing the files, is see the 
xp_* file is 300DPI, and the other is 600DPI, so all the coordinates are 
different. Usually doubled, but sometime other differences, especially 
in the text rendering sections. But again, mpage handled it fine. FWIW, 
I'm using mpage 2.5.1pre2, from March 1998, which is quite old as well.


I did notice the header in the files all show "%!PS-Adobe-3.0" which i 
think means postscript version 3. Perhaps the pstools don't support some 
PS level 3 functions that xprint uses? That would make sense, since 
ps2ps (in the manpage)

"uses  gs(1) to convert PostScript(tm) file "input.ps" to simpler and 
(usually) faster PostScript in "output.ps".  Normally the output is 
allowed to use PostScript  Level  2  constructs,"

so after ps2ps you have PS level 2 instead of level 3. That is likely 
the problem. Either continue to use ps2ps to change the level, or try 
mpage? There may be a config option to limit xprint to PS level 2, but I 
don't know what it is.

-Thomas