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1

Tuesday, April 25th 2006, 7:48pm

kprinter and pdf -> problem

I have a little problem with kprinter and pdf-files.

I have a pdf-file, page orientation is landscape. I want to print it into another pdf-file. In this second pdf-file, I want to have four pages of the original file on one page of the second file. This only works partially.

The first page of the original file is located in the upper right of the first page in the second file, the second page of the original file is located in the lower right. The third page of the original file is located in the upper left, and the fourth page of the original file is loacted in the lower left.

I want to have the first page of the original file located in the upper left, the second one in the lower left, the third in the upper right, the fourth in the lower left.

I attached two pictures, to show what I mean.
The first picture shows the situation as it is, the second picture shows what I would like to have.

Is there any possibility to achieve this? I am using KDE3.5.2.

Thank you in advance.
bauerfichtner has attached the following images:
  • number_one.png
  • number_two.png

anda_skoa

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2

Tuesday, April 25th 2006, 10:06pm

I think kprinter uses the psnup utilitly to merge the pages, maybe the settings in the respective filter chain are incorrect.

Or if they are correct, maybe a custom filter chain can achieve what you want.

Though the current outcome looks like a bug, I would have expected the second output as well.

Cheers,
_
Qt/KDE Developer
Debian User

3

Tuesday, April 25th 2006, 10:13pm

Well, I don't have any idea what I could do to fix this problem.
Perhaps you have any hint for me, where to start?

Thank you.

4

Thursday, May 4th 2006, 7:57pm

Using psnup on commandline works perfectly.
If I call

Source code

1
psnup -l -nup 4 testing.ps  print.ps
I get exactly the result I want to have.

Calling

Source code

1
psnup -nup 4 testing.ps  print.ps
results in a "malformatted" file, as shown above.

So, I guess KPrinter does not specify the "-l" option to psnup. Has anyone an idea how to achieve this?

anda_skoa

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5

Saturday, May 6th 2006, 5:10pm

When you have the print dialog open, there is a button which lets you edit the printing system options.
One such option is "commands" and there you can edit the command for psnup
(in German KDE named "Ausdruck mehrerer Seiten auf ein Blatt")

Cheers,
_
Qt/KDE Developer
Debian User

6

Sunday, May 7th 2006, 12:27pm

Well, I found this option before. But there are only three settings I may change.
-Pages per sheet
-Border line width
-Additional margin

Is there no configuration file in which I may specify the command to use?

But there is another detail which makes me wonder. This problem only exists with documents with page format landscape. I open a document in landscape format, choose to print it into a pdf file. I click the button "Properties" (next to the printer selection boc, I don't know if it's called Properties in English KDE). I set the option "4 pages per sheet". The setting for paper format (landscape or portrait) is greyed out. Then I choose OK. If I now open the properties dialogue again, the setting for paper format is no longer greyed out. Why is this? (Changing paper format doesn't deal with the problem, it seems as if it has no effect).

7

Monday, May 8th 2006, 11:26pm

same problem for me.. no idea yet?

anda_skoa

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8

Friday, May 12th 2006, 6:52pm

Hmm, can't you just add "-l" to the command line in the edit field at the dialog's top border? Seems to work for me, i.e. when I click ok and edit it again it is still there.

Cheers,
_
Qt/KDE Developer
Debian User

9

Friday, May 12th 2006, 8:18pm

No, I can't do this. I attached a screenshot to show the options I may change.
bauerfichtner has attached the following image:
  • pnt.png

anda_skoa

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10

Saturday, May 13th 2006, 10:45pm

Strange, the dialog I get is a lot bigger.

Just in case:
from the print dialog you choose "Systemoptionen", then on "Befehle", then choose "Ausdruck mehrere Seiten auf ein Blatt"
Then the right most icon "Befehl bearbeiten" tooltip, then again the "Befehl bearbeiten" button

Cheers,
_
Qt/KDE Developer
Debian User

11

Saturday, May 13th 2006, 11:19pm

Thank you!
I was talking about a different dialogue. Now I opened the correct dialogue, added the "-l" option and it now works for documents in landscape format. But it no longer works for documents in portrait format, so I'll try adding a second filter which is exactly the same, but without the "-l" option for psnup.

Thank you for your help and patience.