[tlug] Re: Die, acroread, die

["Gernot Hassenpflug" <aikishugyo@example.com>]

> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:15:57 +0900
> From: tlug@example.com
> Message-ID: <200802101415.58063.tlug@example.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On Sunday 10 February 2008 13:44:41 David J Iannucci wrote:
> > I use kpdf and xpdf and have never found a document that was not
> > displayed properly by one or both of them.
>
> I use kpdf as my primary PDF viewer, and it works well for most of
> my needs.  One thing that it lacks, however, is the ability to scale
> documents for printing.  I sometimes need to print a document
> formatted for US Letter, and printing as usual causes the printer to
> prompt me for paper of that size.  Does anybody know of a good way
> to solve this problem for kpdf/cups?

So far there is no good solution for PDF printing and scaling, and in
many instances I resort to conversion to PS and further manipulating
with existing tools before going to the printer. Not a happy solution
for business use! To continue...

Under GNOME, Evince does scaling, with control given in percent, and
also allows the size of the paper to be set (before choosing Print,
choose Print Setup). For other GNOME-based printing apps like XPDF
there is no such control as far as I know. However, you can specify
kdeprinter instead of lpr to get the KDE printer control panel which
has something that might be useful: a driver options tab.

The thing is, GNOME-based printing does not give as many options as
KDE-based printing in applications, and even the KDE options are not
as nicely laid out as in Mac OS X or Windows printer controls (Adobe
Reader does a fine job in that respect). By setting the printer
command to be kdeprint you can at least get the additional benefit of
the KDE controls even in GNOME.

In the individual printer properties in the KPDF or KGhostview print
panel you will find a tab labelled Drivers, and under Other you can
see a Scaling to Fit item which, if you click on it, allows you to
change it to one of three: shrink, fit to printer margins, or expand
(with some explanations). Although not as controllable as scaling in
Evince, it is something.

I never have a printer telling me to put in other size paper from KPDF
of KGhostview, as long as my printer under KDE print (not the GNOME
print manager or other CUPS manage) is set up for the correct paper
size and tray. In Evince however, it happens a lot because I often
forget to choose Print Setup before choosing Print.

HTH, Gernot