Problems printing PDF documents via Cups

[Geoff]

Here's an interesting one. It doesn't seem to happen all the time, the length and content of the PDF doesn't seem to be a common factor for instance. Anyhow, here's the error log for one of the troublesome PDF files.

pdferrorlog.zip

[noah]

Use Foxit Reader!

[Geoff]

I am using Foxit.

[Shwaa]

Have you tried comparing logs with a similarly size PDF that does work?

[Geoff]

Not yet, I'm waiting for someone to print one.

[Shwaa]

From the log you posted, it looks like ghostscript is having a problem with the file, but you'll have to increase the logging to be sure.

[Geoff]

Cups log level is set to 'debug'.

[Shwaa]

Does it still happen when you print the same file to another printer?

[Geoff]

here's a log from a pdf that did print ok (same printer too).

workingpdf.zip

[Geoff]

Ok, got a bit further with this. I wrote a wrapper script for the cups pstops so I could capture a copy of the data going through it. I attempted to print a PDF that I know doesn't work and got a raw postscript dump of the file.

 

If I try and manually parse this with GhostScript I get the following error.

 

root@hermes:~# gs brokenpdf.ps 
GPL Ghostscript 8.61 (2007-11-21)
Copyright (C) 2007 Artifex Software, Inc.  All rights reserved.
This software comes with NO WARRANTY: see the file PUBLIC for details.
Loading NimbusMonL-Regu font from /var/lib/defoma/gs.d/dirs/fonts/n022003l.pfb... 2566136 1072901 1561944 277806 1 done.
%%[ ProductName: GPL Ghostscript ]%%
%%BoundingBox: 84 60 563 725
%%HiResBoundingBox: 84.473997 60.551998 562.805983 724.283978
>>showpage, press  to continue<<

%%BoundingBox: 0 0 0 0
%%HiResBoundingBox: 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
%%[Page: 1]%%
>>showpage, press  to continue<<

%%BoundingBox: 72 667 198 727
%%HiResBoundingBox: 72.377998 667.223980 197.423994 726.245978
>>showpage, press  to continue<<

%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: Ff ]%%
GPL Ghostscript 8.61: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

 

Which duplicates the problem CUPS was having.

[Shwaa]

Hmm...

 

The output you are getting is strange, and tends to point to something up with the file itself, or at least something in the file that ghostscript doesn't like.

 

A couple of stupid questions:

Does the PDF render properly when you open it with the reader (and can you try it with at least 2 different readers)? It maybe that ghostscript is stricter at reading files that the readers.

Also, have you tried "printing" the bad pdf as a pdf and then printing the result?

[Geoff]

Fixed. Old version of Foxit is broken. See this thread for details.

 

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=4419

 

Updating Foxit to 2.2 fixed the problem.