print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

LeftyAce · 2014-01-17 02:01:00

Hi all,

I'm having trouble using the CUPS print to file functionality. (I think it's part of CUPS...I'm running CUPS and it's an option in the print dialog). Using conkeror or firefox as my web browser some pages print just fine, others it appears that the text has been converted to exceedingly low-resolution bitmaps such that the text is illegible. I don't think I can attach example PDFs to this post, but here are two example sites:

If I print the archwiki CUPS page to PDF it looks great.

If I print the national weather service page it looks like garbage. The text has become all blocky and pixellated, basically unreadable. Often confirmation pages from websites come out illegible, which is a major concern as I am often not able to physically print things.

Any idea what could be causing this? I tried installing cups-pdf and adding the cups-pdf printer, but the output there is worse: the text looks just as bad and a whole chunk out of the middle of the page is missing.

Thanks in advance,

Lefty

Nareto · 2014-02-08 10:42:39

I'm having the same problem. Actually the pages you linked both work fine, but this one instead prints very badly, here's a screenshot.

I'm wondering, maybe we miss some font?

R00KIE · 2014-02-08 14:32:31

My guess is the pages that print badly use some font you don't have installed in your system and you end up with type 3 fonts in your pdf.

I suspect that for the first case ttf-ms-fonts from the aur will fix the problem, and for the cups page ttf-microsoft-consolas from the aur might fix the problem.

brebs · 2014-02-08 14:43:20

What does this show:

fc-match helvetica

Hopefully it doesn't match with a bitmap font

Also, try compiling ghostscript *with* its bundled libs (especially freetype).

LeftyAce · 2014-02-08 20:33:41

fc-match helvetica

doesn't say anything about bitmaps, thankfully.

Installing ttf-ms-fonts and ttf-ms-fonts-config from aur fixed the problem, thanks!

Herodotus · 2015-07-31 08:04:24

I had the same problem. I was experiencing mysterious font issues on about 30% of the web pages I tried to print out.

$ fc-match helvetica
helvR12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: "Helvetica" "Regular"

I think the 'pcf' means it is a bitmap, correct? Installing ttf-ms-fonts and fontconfig-ttf-ms-fonts fixed it. Now I have:

$ fc-match helvetica
arial.ttf: "Arial" "Normal"

I don't know how to mark a topic as "solved", which I think this one is. However, perhaps the Arch Wiki should also explain this problem somewhere where novices will see it. I can't really think of a good location though.

Last edited by Herodotus (2015-07-31 08:05:19)

WorMzy · 2015-07-31 10:03:27

Herodotus, please don't bump old threads.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … bumping.22

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-01-17 02:01:00

print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#2 2014-02-08 10:42:39

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#3 2014-02-08 14:32:31

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#4 2014-02-08 14:43:20

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#5 2014-02-08 20:33:41

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#6 2015-07-31 08:04:24

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

#7 2015-07-31 10:03:27

Re: print to pdf results in bad quality for some webpages

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