I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis 2004.04
system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by the enscript
program.  They print with a font that is bigger than enscript thinks so
that if I print in two column mode, the first column goes 2 inches into
the second column.

I confirmed that this has nothing to do with printing in particular by
viewing enscript output on the terminal with gs.  The same problem
occurs on the terminal.  I also confirmed that the postscript is valid
by using data known to work on my old installation.  So everything
points to a bug in ghostscript fonts, somehow.  But there are no error
messages and I have installed all the fonts that seem to be available.
How can I troubleshoot this problem?

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:

> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis 2004.04
> system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by the enscript
> program.  They print with a font that is bigger than enscript thinks so
> that if I print in two column mode, the first column goes 2 inches into
> the second column.
> 
> I confirmed that this has nothing to do with printing in particular by
> viewing enscript output on the terminal with gs.  The same problem
> occurs on the terminal.  I also confirmed that the postscript is valid
> by using data known to work on my old installation.  So everything
> points to a bug in ghostscript fonts, somehow.  But there are no error
> messages and I have installed all the fonts that seem to be available.
> How can I troubleshoot this problem?

You should be happy it's printing at all!
Some people spend months trying to get Linux to print and eventually give
up because it's damm near impossible.
Good luck because you will need it!

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Linda Wang <sleepy_n_sweet@yahoo.com> writes:

> On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:
>
>> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis 2004.04
>> system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by the enscript
>> program.  They print with a font that is bigger than enscript thinks so
>> that if I print in two column mode, the first column goes 2 inches into
>> the second column.
>
> You should be happy it's printing at all!
> Some people spend months trying to get Linux to print and eventually give
> up because it's damm near impossible.

That might have had a ring of truth to it 10 years ago.  Today, this
is certainly not the case.  While we might not yet have got printing
to be "perfect", it's currently very usable; most ditributions have
very easy to use printer setup tools.  Do you have any particular
problems, or is this just non-specific complaining?


With regard to the original problem:

Perhaps upgrading Ghostscript would help?  A recent version of
Ghostscript (I forget which, 7.something IIRC) had broken font metrics
for some fonts.  This could cause problems in some situations.

Adrian, if you would like to put both the original file and the
enscript-generated PostScript somewhere public, and post the URLs
here, I'll be happy to take a look.

Depending on the relationship between Mepis and Debian, it might be
appropriate to file bugs against the appropriate Debian packages if
Mepis does not provide the facility.  Do you know how often Mepis
syncs the core packages with Debian, or from which distribution?


Regards,
Roger

- -- 
Roger Leigh
                Printing on GNU/Linux?  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/
                Debian GNU/Linux        http://www.debian.org/
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On 2004-12-22, Linda Wang <sleepy_n_sweet@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:
>
>> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis 2004.04
>> system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by the enscript
>> program.  They print with a font that is bigger than enscript thinks so
>> that if I print in two column mode, the first column goes 2 inches into
>> the second column.
>> 
>> I confirmed that this has nothing to do with printing in particular by
>> viewing enscript output on the terminal with gs.  The same problem
>> occurs on the terminal.  I also confirmed that the postscript is valid
>> by using data known to work on my old installation.  So everything
>> points to a bug in ghostscript fonts, somehow.  But there are no error
>> messages and I have installed all the fonts that seem to be available.
>> How can I troubleshoot this problem?
>
> You should be happy it's printing at all!
> Some people spend months trying to get Linux to print and eventually give
> up because it's damm near impossible.
> Good luck because you will need it!

(I know; I shouldn't feed trolls, but...)

Many others, myself included, find Linux printing works just
about perfectly and usually very easily.

Good luck.

Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

Roger Leigh wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:
> >
> >> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis
2004.04
> >> system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by the
enscript
> >> program.  They print with a font that is bigger than enscript
thinks so
> >> that if I print in two column mode, the first column goes 2 inches
into
> >> the second column.
> >
>
> Perhaps upgrading Ghostscript would help?  A recent version of
> Ghostscript (I forget which, 7.something IIRC) had broken font
metrics
> for some fonts.  This could cause problems in some situations.

This was, of course, the first thing I tried.  My system came with
gs-esp version 7.?? and I upgraded to gs-afpl version 8.??.  There was
no change in the behavior.  I also checked for additional font packages
to install but didn't see anything that I didn't already have.

> Adrian, if you would like to put both the original file and the
> enscript-generated PostScript somewhere public, and post the URLs
> here, I'll be happy to take a look.

I put up http://members.cox.net/jsam/test3.ps for people to take a
look at.  This particular file was generated by a program modeled
on enscript's output but not by enscript.  I was using this output
because I knew that this program had not changed and that its output
worked on every previous environment I've ever seen.

There do seem to be various other circumstances where gs is working
properly.  I found that output from firefox seems ok, and files
from dvips also display correctly.  Perhaps these are cases where
the fonts are embedded in the postscript file?

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adrian@cam.cornell.edu writes:

> Roger Leigh wrote:
>>
>> > On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:
>> >
>> >> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis
>> >> 2004.04 system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated by
>> >> the enscript program.  They print with a font that is bigger
>> >> than enscript thinks so that if I print in two column mode, the
>> >> first column goes 2 inches into the second column.
>> >
>>
>> Perhaps upgrading Ghostscript would help?  A recent version of
>> Ghostscript (I forget which, 7.something IIRC) had broken font
>> metrics for some fonts.  This could cause problems in some
>> situations.
>
> This was, of course, the first thing I tried.  My system came with
> gs-esp version 7.?? and I upgraded to gs-afpl version 8.??.  There
> was no change in the behavior.  I also checked for additional font
> packages to install but didn't see anything that I didn't already
> have.

What does `dpkg --get-selections | grep ^gs` show up?

>> Adrian, if you would like to put both the original file and the
>> enscript-generated PostScript somewhere public, and post the URLs
>> here, I'll be happy to take a look.
>
> I put up http://members.cox.net/jsam/test3.ps for people to take a
> look at.  This particular file was generated by a program modeled
> on enscript's output but not by enscript.  I was using this output
> because I knew that this program had not changed and that its output
> worked on every previous environment I've ever seen.

Previewed with gv, I see this:

http://www.whinlatter.ukfsn.org/printing/gv-preview.png

It also printed fine on my PostScript laser (Epson EPL-6200), apart
from being Letter rather than A4, so the right-hand side was clipped
since Letter is a little wider.

So I think it's OK.  Other than that, there's little more I can do
without having a copy of the document source and your
enscript-equivalent.

> There do seem to be various other circumstances where gs is working
> properly.  I found that output from firefox seems ok, and files
> from dvips also display correctly.  Perhaps these are cases where
> the fonts are embedded in the postscript file?

Yes.  Some tools embed their fonts, others do not.  If only the
"standard set" of PostScript fonts are used, it's not required.
dvips, for example, can embed TeX fonts.  I'm not sure about Firefox.
In your case, there is no embedding at all, so if you are printing to
a non-PostScript printer, you are relying on the gs fonts to use the
same font metrics (.afm) as those read by the generating program.
Some releases of the gs fonts have had buggy font metrics.

I suspect the Ghostscript fonts are at fault.  In Debian, these are
the Ghostscript font packages:

$ apt-cache search gsfonts
gs-esp - The Ghostscript PostScript interpreter - ESP version
gs-gpl - The GPL Ghostscript PostScript interpreter
gsfonts - Fonts for the Ghostscript interpreter(s)
gsfonts-wadalab-common - Japanese symbol fonts for the ghostscript interpreter
gsfonts-wadalab-gothic - Japanese gothic fonts for the ghostscript interpreter
gsfonts-wadalab-mincho - Japanese mincho fonts for the ghostscript interpreter
gsfonts-x11 - Make Ghostscript fonts available to X11

I have these installed:

$ dpkg --get-selections | grep gsfonts
gsfonts                                         install
gsfonts-x11                                     install

If the Mepis ones are buggy, try downloading the Debian packages:
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/gsfonts
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gsfonts-x11


Regards,
Roger

- -- 
Roger Leigh
                Printing on GNU/Linux?  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/
                Debian GNU/Linux        http://www.debian.org/
                GPG Public Key: 0x25BFB848.  Please sign and encrypt your mail.
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Roger Leigh wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> adrian@cam.cornell.edu writes:
>
> > Roger Leigh wrote:
> >>
> >> > On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 06:40:30 -0800, adrian wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> I've been trying to use ghostscript on my debian SimplyMepis
> >> >> 2004.04 system to print.  I'm trying to print files generated
by
> >> >> the enscript program.  They print with a font that is bigger
> >> >> than enscript thinks so that if I print in two column mode, the
> >> >> first column goes 2 inches into the second column.
> >> >

>
> I have these installed:
>
> $ dpkg --get-selections | grep gsfonts
> gsfonts                                         install
> gsfonts-x11                                     install

I have the same fonts.

ii  gs-afpl        8.14-3         The AFPL Ghostscript PostScript
interpreter
ii  gs-common      0.3.6          Common files for different
Ghostscript relea
ii  gs-esp         7.07.1-9       The Ghostscript PostScript
interpreter - ESP
ii  gsfonts        8.14+urwcyr1.0 Fonts for the Ghostscript
interpreter(s)
ii  gsfonts-other  6.0-3          Additional fonts for the ghostscript
interpr
ii  gsfonts-x11    0.17           Make Ghostscript fonts available to
X11

> If the Mepis ones are buggy, try downloading the Debian packages:
> http://packages.debian.org/unstable/text/gsfonts
> http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/gsfonts-x11

So it turns out the fonts were bad.  I upgraded to something new that
calls itself version 8.14+v8.11-0.1 and the output is displayed
correctly by ghostscript.  

Thanks for your help.