Setup pdf printer driver

[Siegfried]

Hello everybody, I am a new user of this forum, using Kubuntu 12.10.

In order to print documents into pdf-files I installed cups-pdf.
Furthermore I installed a virtual pdf printer in the printer settings.
The problem is that the pdf-printer driver ignore the settings of the /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf file.

How to setup the directory, where the pdf-files are send to?

How to setup the name of the pdf-file, i.e. how to setup a fixed name for the produced pdf-file like document.pdf?

Cheers,
Siegfried

[dmeyer]

Curious you needed(?) to install anything at all, normally KDE delivers printing to pdf or ps out of the box.

Many apps don't support native pdf printing so a person is forced to resort to cups-pdf.

The best way to configure cups-pdf is with http://localhost:631/ and then fine tuning stuff with a text editor. Usually look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...irtual_printer for some great tips.

By the way you need to restart cups for settings to take effect.

[vinnywright]

Hummm this is a strange one to me ,,,, I have never ,never had a problem printing to .pdf in kubuntu as far back as 10.04 or earlier even ,,,,,,,even when there has been no printer installed or configured ,,,,,,I would just select print>print to file>and check the .pdf radio button and then print ??

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

If the question is how to point the cups-pdf printer at a particular location, the answer is in /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf somewhere near line 43:

[B]Out ${HOME}/PDF[/B]

Edit this to any location you have permission to write to.

[dmeyer]

Hummm this is a strange one to me ,,,, I have never ,never had a problem printing to .pdf in kubuntu as far back as 10.04 or earlier even ,,,,,,,even when there has been no printer installed or configured ,,,,,,I would just select print>print to file>and check the .pdf radio button and then print ??

VINNY

Agreed, most KDE and Gnome apps support printing to PDF but some more esoteric applications do not. A great example is Windows applications through Wine.

[Siegfried]

Agreed, most KDE and Gnome apps support printing to PDF but some more esoteric applications do not. A great example is Windows applications through Wine.

Exactly, this is the reason: not all programs support print to file.

The setting "Out ${HOME}/PDF" in file /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf is ignored.
All output goes without an extension to /var/spool/cups.

Also I have tried (several times) to configure cups-pdf is with http://localhost:631/
and used the hints from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...irtual_printer.
No success: all output still goes to /var/spool/cups.

Since I would like to use the program "printruler", the pdf files should at least have
an extension ".pdf". Currently they have no extension at all.

It seems that the cups-pdf packet has some problems with the
creating of pdf files, because it ignores the /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf file
and therefore can't be set up in any way.

Cheers,
Siegfried

[dmeyer]

Did you restart cups after making settings changes?

[Siegfried]

Did you restart cups after making settings changes?

Yes, I tried many times including a reboot each time.

There is also another problem: In order to change the virtual printer settings,
you need to delete the old printer and add a new printer.
Once the old printer is deleted, the item "virtual pdf-printer" is
not listed anymore, when you want to add a new printer.
You need to deinstall cups-pdf and reinstall it,
in order to get the item "virtual pdf-printer" listed at the
printer list again. This is annoying, but can be handled.

The main problem is, how to configure cups-pdf without
the conf-file.

[oshunluvr]

Sorry, I should have read your first post better. I've always used cups to manage my printers and have never had to configure a virtual-cups printer using the System Settings. Maybe, since you did both the settings are somehow messed up?

Is there anything in /var/log/cups/cups-pdf_log ?

Basically, all I've ever had to do is:
1. install cups-pdf
2. open localhost:631 with any browser
3. set cups-pdf as a printer
4. done

this has worked perfectly every time since 9.04.

[Siegfried]

Is there anything in /var/log/cups/cups-pdf_log ?

Basically, all I've ever had to do is:
1. install cups-pdf
2. open localhost:631 with any browser
3. set cups-pdf as a printer
4. done

The printer was installed exactly like you did,
Virtual PDF Printer ist just the description of the system for the new pdf printer.

After looking at /var/log/cups/cups-pdf_log I found:
>>
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] directory created (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL)
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] spool directory created (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL)
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] identification string sent
Thu Jan 24 17:14:20 2013 [STATUS] ***Experimental Option: DecodeHexStrings
Thu Jan 24 17:14:20 2013 [ERROR] failed to set file mode for PDF file (non fatal) (/home/user/PDF/_Zeitnachweis1__ps-pdf_log.pdf)
<<

After changing the rights of /home/user/PDF and creating /var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL
and /var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL manually, finally the pdf file is correctly
created in /home/user/PDF.

Thank you for mentioning the path to the log file.

Cheers,
Siegfried

[Siegfried]

After looking at /var/log/cups/cups-pdf_log I found:
>>
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] directory created (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL)
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] spool directory created (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL)
Thu Jan 24 17:11:31 2013 [STATUS] identification string sent
Thu Jan 24 17:14:20 2013 [STATUS] ***Experimental Option: DecodeHexStrings
Thu Jan 24 17:14:20 2013 [ERROR] failed to set file mode for PDF file (non fatal) (/home/user/PDF/_Zeitnachweis1__ps-pdf_log.pdf)
<<

Sorry, mist the following:
Fri Jan 25 09:23:33 2013 [ERROR] failed to create directory (/var/spool/cups-pdf)
Fri Jan 25 09:23:33 2013 [ERROR] failed to create spool directory (/var/spool/cups-pdf/SPOOL)