Spurious lines on print outs

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please execute the command 'apport-collect 362186' in a terminal as that will gather a lot of helpful debugging information? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your response. I tried using 'apport-collect 362186' but it fails with 'socket.error: [Errno 111] Connection refused' - presumably because I'm behind a proxy.

Re your second comment - does that mean the relevant version of CUPS is yet to be finished?

Architecture: amd64
CupsErrorLog:
 E [05/May/2009:10:58:07 -0400] CUPS-Delete-Printer: Unauthorized
 E [05/May/2009:11:01:26 -0400] CUPS-Delete-Printer: Unauthorized
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Lpstat: device for HP-LaserJet-4050: socket://10.0.1.5:9100
MachineType: LENOVO 6459CTO
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
Papersize: letter
PpdFiles: HP-LaserJet-4050: HP LaserJet 4050 Series Postscript (recommended)
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=690e4dd2-40cb-47d4-be13-8c20fd8f8cd1 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-11.42-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare vboxusers

i just ran apport-collect as i am having the same problem. attached two jpgs. thanx for any help on this

I have the exact same problem with my HP LaserJet 1320nw with the postscript driver. This is a regression. In Ubuntu 8.10 the printer works without problems.

Have a look at the M in the color wheel in scan1.png. One line of it is too small.

Architecture: amd64
CupsErrorLog: E [06/May/2009:20:38:27 +0200] CUPS-Delete-Printer: Unauthorized
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Lpstat: Gerät für HP-LaserJet-1320nw: socket://192.168.3.3:9100
MachineType:

Package: cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles: HP-LaserJet-1320nw: HP LaserJet 1320 series Postscript (recommended)
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=47a90b89-f29b-454a-ab76-17339dac9be1 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-11.42-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout kvm lpadmin plugdev sambashare

I have tried it on the HP LaserJet 3390 with the PostScript PPD (also a PostScript printer from HP). I could not observe the problem.

Looks like corruptions of the fonts. The scans of the test pages of both reporters show that a small piece of the lower border of each letter is added to the upper border.

In the table shown by the first reporter it seems that the right border of the "1" got added on the left hand side (is this printed in Landscape?).

The incoming data (in most cases PostScript) is converted to PDF at first by the Ghostscript-based pdftops CUPS filter and after applying page management by pdftopdf it is converted back to PostScript by the also Ghostscript-based cpdftocps CUPS filter. Somewhere on this filter chain (or already in the originally supplied file) all fonts get embedded in the file, so the printer-internal fonts are not used.

Can you please do the following tests:

Send a PDF file directly to CUPS (with the "lp" or "lpr" command). This leads to the pstopdf filter not being used. Does this lead to correct printouts?

Try the following manual file conversions in a terminal window:

gs -q -sstdout=%stderr -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=- -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE
-dPARANOIDSAFER /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps > test1.pdf
gs -q -sstdout=%stderr -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=- -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE
-dPARANOIDSAFER test1.pdf > test2.ps
gs -q -sstdout=%stderr -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOutputFile=- -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE
-dPARANOIDSAFER test1.pdf > test3.ps

Display the files test1.pdf, test2.ps, and test3,ps on the screen, for example with evince. Which files are correct? Which files show the corrupted characters.

Sending a PDF file directly to CUPS (with the "lpr example.pdf") does not lead to correct printouts.

All test files (test1.pdf, test2.ps, test3.ps) are shown correct (tested with evince).

same results for me. "lp test.pdf" still has the problem, and all test files test1.pdf, test2.ps, and test3.ps show correctly in evince.

Then please do the following test (replace "<printer>" by the name of your print queue):

cupsfilter -m application/pdf -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps > test1.pdf
cupsfilter -m application/vnd.cups-pdf -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps > test2.pdf
cupsfilter -m application/vnd.cups-postscript -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps > test3.ps
cupsfilter -m application/postscript -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps > test4.ps

If your standard paper format is Letter, do the tests with /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-Letter.ps as input file.

Please display the four output files. which ones of them are correct and which ones are broken?

Tell also which filters got actually called for each of the four "cupsfilter" calls.

All four test files are shown correct (tested with evince).

I made a copy paste mistake. Here is now the correct output of the cupsfilter commands. All four test files are shown correct, but test3.ps reports following:

   **** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
   **** The file was produced by:
   **** >>>> pdftopdf <<<<
   **** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
   **** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
   **** specification.

Can you do the following:

sudo su lp -c 'cupsfilter -m application/pdf -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps' > test1.pdf

sudo su lp -c 'cupsfilter -m application/vnd.cups-pdf -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps' > test2.pdf

sudo su lp -c 'cupsfilter -m application/vnd.cups-postscript -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps' > test3.ps

sudo su lp -c 'cupsfilter -m application/postscript -p /etc/cups/ppd/<printer>.ppd /usr/share/system-config-printer/testpage-a4.ps' > test4.ps

This executes the commands as the system user "lp", the user as which CUPS filters are usually executed by CUPS.

Please also display the output files and tell whether they come out correctly. Attach the screen log also here.

As before all four test files came out correctly (tested with evince).

btw, yes, i was printing Landscape for the attached screenshot where the 1s have an extra vertical line on the left.

I can confirm that the lines are horizontal if you print in portrait format and they are vertical if you print in landscape format.

Can you replace your /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops file by the attached one (do not forget to make the new file executable with "chmod 755 /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops") and print again. Do your files print correctly now?

The lines (scan.png from comment 1) are now gone.
But 100% correct is it not. Printing in landscape format produces lines which are too small on the right side of the character (e.g. in the characters 1, l, M). But maybe this problem is not connected with this bug.

it looks like the characters get shifted 1 or 2 pixels in some direction (depending on Portrait or Landscape), and the part of the character that gets shifted out one side appears on the other side. so i'm betting that the lines that are too small for 1, l, M are still related to this bug.

My experiences with LaserJet 2200dt are the same as already described:
- print with lpr: not ok
- "gs -q -sstdout=%stderr..." all ok
- "cupsfilter -m application/..." all ok
- "sudo su lp -c 'cupsfilter -m application/..." all ok

But the test with 'Alternative pdftops CUPS filter' was different:
- The printout looks correct, I could not notice any pixel shifting at all.
- Strangely, it ignores switched off duplex printing: If I print out one page it always prints on the back side. When printing several pages it it prints duplex and mistakes always front and back side. If I switch back to the old pdftops script this behaviour is gone.

My experiences with a LaserJet 1320 on a fully updated Jaunty are similar to those already reported:
Printouts with lpr are not ok. The filter tests are all ok.
Portrait printouts seem to be ok with the 'Alternative pdftops CUPS filter'. In landscape printouts some characters are still missing a line on the right side.

As a first approach for a fix we will patch the pdftops filter of CUPS to use the "ps2write" output device and not "pswrite" any more. See also my comment in bug 369503.

The use of the "ps2write" output device of Ghostscript in the pdftops filter is not yet possible in CUPS, due to http://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=690475

If you observe this bug with your printer, please change to a PCL driver (pxlmono/pxlcolor/hpijs, use a Generic printer as model if no PCL driver is offered for your printer) and report here telling which printer model you have.

I started seeing this behaviour when I upgraded from Ubuntu intrepid to jaunty. I print via IPP to another Ubuntu machine, which has an HP LaserJet 4050PS connected to it via ethernet.

The behaviour is exactly as described above: the descenders of letters seem to rotate slightly out of the bottom of the character boxes and appear as tiny lines at the top of the character.

Architecture: i386
CupsErrorLog:
 E [22/May/2009:17:12:40 -0600] CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer: Unauthorized
 E [22/May/2009:17:31:31 -0600] cupsdAuthorize: Local authentication certificate not found!
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Lpstat: device for laserjet4050: ipp://192.168.1.2/printers/LaserJet-4050
MachineType: MSI MS-7021
Package: cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: i386
Papersize: letter
PpdFiles: laserjet4050: HP LaserJet 4050 Series Postscript (recommended)
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=8634b01f-f835-416d-b03c-882e7b33cc61 ro
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.28-11.42-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip floppy fuse lpadmin plugdev video

I found one regression for the 'Alternative pdftops CUPS filter': Printing duplex does not work any more. All files were printed singe sided.

Benjamin Drung, can you try with the attached new version of the alternative pdftops CUPS filter? Also here do not forget to make the new file executable.

Yes, with the new alternative version of pdftops CUPS filter I can print in duplex again.

But both alternative versions of pdftops CUPS filter have the bug, that I cannot print images with eog. With the hpijs they are printed correctly. Example file attached.

Here is a more improved pdftops which works around a Ghostscript bug (ps2write output device does not work with asymmetric resolutions). Please test it.

This version (alternative pdftops v3) is even worse. There are none spurious lines on print outs, but now even more of the lines are missing. The l and I are now very thin lines and not readable; the right part of M and N are missing. The tested printout was landscape.

The bug, that I cannot print images with eog is not solved. The printer status shows this message: This document does not conform to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions and may not print correctly!

I can confirm the same problems as reported above, with PDF documents written with Adobe Minion Pro and Wranock Pro on Kubuntu 9.04 on an AMD 64 PC.

However, a PDF embodying Linux Libertine OTF, Lohit Tamil, and Lohit Hindi fonts does not suffer from the "small piece of the lower border of each letter [being] added to the upper border" noted by Till Kamppeter above.

My workaround thus far has been to print affected documents from a Hardy Heron PC, but I eagerly await a speedy resolution to this problem on Intrepid.

Thanks.

Benjamin Drung, can you try the pdftops attached now?

While trying to circumvent that problem by converting a pdf to postscript manually with the pdftops that comes with current jaunty and print with lpr -l I found that the produced postscript is not correct and can't be printed by my postscript printer. I had to convert the pdf to postscript on an older debian machine.

pdftops seems to be the main problem. Why not go back to the version of intrepid (or debian)? It worked as expected.

Till, here are the results of alternative pdftops filter v4:

+ No spurious lines on print outs
+ Duplex works
- Parts of the characters are missing (on the top if printed portrait format, on the right if printed landscape format). In portrait format the top line of the "Z" is smaller, the top line of "T" is smaller, some "-" are totally missing, etc. Its better than v3.
o Printout of images with eog not tested.

So no improvements.

I have attached a Poppler-based pdftops filter now. Can everyone who has still problems try it?

Note that currently bug 310575 still applies with it, but this will soon be solved by a Poppler fix (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19777, bug 382379).

tried poppler-based filter and none of the text printed at all. printed a spreadsheet in openoffice, landscape orientation.

I replaced /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops with the new Poppler-based pdftops filter and changed its permissions to 755 as advised at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/362186/comments/43 above.

Now, the job does not get printed although it shows up in the printer queue. The printer light does not flash to show a pending job either. Could it be missing an end-of-file marker?

Reverting to the original /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops reactivates printing but with the original problem. So the non-printing is a direct result of using the new filter.

ncy, R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar, can you please provide an error_log of your printing attempt, as described in the "CUPS error_log" section of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems. Thanks.

I tried

apport-collect 362186

and went as far as the "Almost finished ..." stage but did not know how to "go back to the application window in which you started the process and inform it that you have done your part of the process." This seems arcane for a CLI. What does one type in on a terminal that is obviously not accepting input?

I also tried

ubuntu-bug cups

but do not know how to link the information it collected to this bug-report.

Any advice for further action on either option is much appreciated.

The error log is attached.

Your error_log shows

/usr/bin/pdftops: Permission denied

Probably your installation of the poppler-utils package is broken. Reinstall it with

sudo apt-get install --reinstall poppler-utils

If this command does not work, poppler-utils is perhaps not installed at all. Do

sudo apt-get install poppler-utils

in that case. After having done so, running the command

pdftops -h

should show a help message and not "Permission denied" or "Command not found". If you get the help message, clear the print queue with

cancel -a

and try to print again. Does it work now?

attached a digital photo of printout (it's a calendar, but all the text is missing).

attached, error_log

Can you try the pdftops version attached now? Does it print all text now?

looking much better. text is now present, and the extra lines around the characters are no longer there, as far as i can see.

ncy, this means that the current pdftops filter solves the problem for you?

yes, i just printed a test page in Portrait orientation, and it looks like everything is in order. many thanx

I have re-installed poppler-utils and used the latest Improved Poppler-based pdftops and printed the PDF. I can report the following:

1. The "small piece of the lower border of each letter [being] added to the upper border" problem has now gone. Thank you very much for that.

2. When I superimposed this printout with one of the same page printed on the same printer from another PC running Intrepid, I find the following differences on the new printout:

(a) Header is moved down by 4 mm
(b) Footer is moved up by 7mm
(c) Left margin is moved inward by 4mm
(d) The same line occupies a shorter length

I wonder whether these result from different default paper size settings and "scale to fit" options on the two PCs.

I will re-install the printer on the Jaunty machine and report back if these differences still exist.

Thank you.

After re-installing the printer on the Jaunty PC, the new printout is raised by 2 mm for the whole page. Once the pages are so aligned, if a light is shone through the two pages, the printout appears as one. This is sufficient for me.

I think the problem has been solved.

My deep gratitude to Till Kamppeter for solving this.

I just tested the Improved Poppler-based pdftops filter and can confirm, that the spurious lines around the letters are gone (Jaunty, Laserjet 1320). For me, the position of the printout on the page looks ok (also with duplex printing).

Many thanks to Till Kamppeter for solving this problem.

The improved Poppler-based pdftops filter prints the text correctly. There are no additional or missing lines. Thanks.

But one new problem is introduced: I tried to print a picture with eog (attached file on comment 65), the printer transfer LED blinks for about one minute and then the printer error LED flashes up and nothing was printed.

i tried printing the campusplan file in comment 65 thru eog and it worked fine. could it be a printer setting?

The "improved poppler" pdftops fixes the fontbox-wrap problem for me (HP LaserJet 4050PS). Thanks very much.

I have reinstalled the printer, using the "HP LaserJet 1320 series Postscript (recommended)" driver and letting all other setting at the default. But this does not change the result. The printer transfer LED blinks for about one minute and then the printer error LED flashes up and nothing is printed.

I have the network printer HP Laserjet 1320nw. I am printing using the LAN.

Benjamin Drung, your problem is that the HP LaserJet 13xx is badly equipped with memory. Therefore it often has problems to print complex documents in PostScript mode (for simple text the PostScript mode is very fast though). Please use the "pxlmono" or "hpijs" driver for this printer.

Sorry to say that, but 'Inproved Poppler-based pdftops' does not work in my case: Nothing is printed out at all. It tells me always, that the page is empty. Then I did/checked the following:
- file permissions (755)
- reinstalled poppler-utils
- pdftops -h seems be ok
After that, I enabled cups debugging: see attachment.
If I put the original pdftops into action, the printing works (but still with the known issue).

Your error_log contains:

D [09/Jun/2009:21:32:06 +0200] [Job 373] /usr/lib/cups/filter/cpdftocps: 83: /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops: not found

This looks like that you did not install my replacement pdftops filter correctly.

Do

ls -l /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops

and post the output here. Post also the output of

ls -l /usr/lib/cups/filter

Oops, made a typo, sorry.
Thanks for helping.
Printing now works fine.

Hi,

I have the same print faults described in this thread with my HP LJ 4050.

Do I need to do the update described in the thread or will an update for this come through the update manager in the near future?

Thanks

If you do the update, you get the fix immediately and you can report to us whether it actually helped. Otherwise the update will get an official update which will get installed automatically in the next days as we have already a lot of positive feedback on the test packages. If someone finds a regression, we will most probably do corrections (we did so once already) on the package but under no circumstances give up this update.