Re: Issues with printing to Ledger (11 x 17-inch) paper

[Hans Breuer <hans breuer org>]

At 02.01.2011 05:01, dg1727 hushmail com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I look forward to comments about the following issues I'm having.
Reminds to other issues Dia is having with the GtkPrint backen, which was 
made default with Dia 0.97 - see ("Blocks" for the original Dia reports):
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=599401

You can test Dia's old win32/gdi print code by disableing the cairo plug-in 
and ensuring the wmf plug-in is loaded.

> To duplicate the issues:
>
> 1.  Dia 0.97.1 on Vista SP2.  The physical printer referred to is
> an HP LaserJet 5200 with up-to-date firmware (8.130.2) and up-to-
> date "Universal Printing PCL 6" driver (5.2.0).
I think this is too much information for the first step. If all the details 
are really necessary to reproduce you might have a hard time to find a 
second one having access to this exact equipement.

> 2.  Dia starts with a new file.
>
> 3.  Select the "File>  Page Setup..." dialog, then select Ledger
> size (27.9 x 43.2 cm) and landscape orientation.  OK the dialog.
>
> 4.  Draw a rectangle (using the Box tool from the standard toolbox)
> that nearly fills the page.
>
> 5.  Save the file.
For a bug report you should do step 2 - 4 and just attach the file.

> 6.  Print to a printer which has Ledger paper.
Maybe any landscape mode would do?

> 7.  Issue A:  only about the left-hand 2/3 of the diagram will
> print.  The part that prints is what would fit within another sheet
> of paper rotated 90 degrees (portrait orientation) and superimposed
> on the real paper.
This is the part very similar to the above mentioned bugs.

> 8.  Now print to a PDF printer driver.  (I happen to use PrimoPDF -
> I am not particularly endorsing it.)
>
> 9.  Issue B:  The diagram is rotated 90 degrees with respect to the
> paper.  That is, the paper is in portrait orientation, but the
> diagram is in landscape.  Because the diagram runs off the edge of
> the paper, the same part of the diagram prints as in Issue A.
For Dia it makes not difference which (windows) printer driver you are 
using. So only if there actually is a difference it would be worth mentioning.

> Neither issue seems to happen with Tabloid or Letter paper, when
> printing (using default printer properties) either to a physical
> printer or to a PDF printer driver.  Tabloid is about 1 mm larger
> in length and width than Ledger; Letter (8.5 x 11 inches) is half
> the size of Ledger.
>
> With Tabloid selected in Dia, and if I explicitly set the physical
> printer (using the Windows printer driver's Preferences) to
> landscape orientation, then Issue A occurs.
>
> About issues A and B:  I would rather not select Tabloid in the
> page setup, because that is not the paper size that I have.
>
> Issue C:  With any attempt to print Tabloid or Ledger to my
> physical printer, the printer prompts me to load Ledger-size paper,
> even though such paper is already present in a tray in the printer,
> and the printer allows me to select this tray as an override from
> the front panel.  Other Windows applications do not cause the
> printer to prompt me this way when I set them to print on Ledger
> paper.  Preferably, at least with Ledger, the prompt would not
> occur, so that printing could happen without the user having to
> push buttons on the printer, and without the intermediate step of
> converting to PDF.
>
> I notice in http://git.gnome.org/browse/dia/tree/lib/paper.c that
> the dimensions of Ledger size are rounded to 0.1 cm – maybe this
> explains Issue C.  The exact metric equivalent of Ledger (11 x 17
> inches) is 27.94 cm X 43.18 cm.
I'm uncertain about this as a reason, but have change my local version 
accordingly. Taht change will be part of Dia 0.98.

-------- Hans "at" Breuer "dot" Org -----------
Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to
get along without it.                -- Dilbert