In Kubuntu 22.04, Okular Compresses the Width of PDF Pages

[martinjdz]

In Kubuntu 20.04 (Focal), Okular worked perfectly for me. When I did a clean install of Kubuntu 22.04, however, I found that PDF pages are displayed narrower than normal in this application. The text characters and the text spacing are compressed in width, causing the page to be displayed about 15% too narrow.

Other PDF viewers do NOT show this distortion. The problem is confined to Okular.

I hope that the developers fix this app, because I really like it. Until then, there are other good PDF viewers to use such as qpdfview.

[claydoh]

Okular devs will never see it reported here.

You may want to file a report on it
You may want to browse different reports HERE and HERE to see if any match. I quickly spy one that is the opposite of what you are seeing, for example.
I haven't seen this myself, and I view and even create PDF files multiple times daily. But I am on the current version, not the one in 22.04. I don't recall anything similar on my systems, ever, even in the version used in Kubuntu 22.04.
But it well could be tied to hardware rendering also.

There are some performance/graphics related settings in Okular that might be helpful, but they are mainly related to fonts. If the entire document is off, that is something else.
Also, one can upgrade Plasma a bit in 22.04 via the Kubutntu-backports PPA, which would jump Okular from 21.12.3 to 22.04.3. A small bump, but may be worth checking out if this fixes things for you. testing out a newer release of Kubuntu in a live session might be useful to see if may have been fixed for you in more recent releases, if desired.

[Schwarzer Kater]

If this has already been fixed in a later Okular release you could enable the Kubuntu Backports to get Okular 22.04.3 as said (but don't forget to e.g. make a backup or install ppa-purge first before enabling the backports…).
I have not had this issue myself, though (but I am also using newer versions of Okular in my different systems…).

[jlittle]

What is the okular zoom level? If it is set to Fit Width, is okular rendering pdfs with excessive margins, thus squeezing the text?

You didn't mention Settings->Configure Okular->General->Default zoom (I have to scroll the page down to see it) which is key to your issue. That leads me to suspect that's been changed, or okular is opening too narrow. If the zoom is set to Fit width, and you widen the okular window, does the text get bigger? Upon exiting okular and restarting it on the same pdf, does it remember the window size? (It should, but a number of things can stop it.)

[martinjdz]

Thank you all for you kind assistance.


Re: What is the Okular Zoom Level?

My default Zoom is Fit Page, I use Scrolling by Page. Switching to Continuous Scrolling and varying the Zoom level does not change anything.

I do not use the Fit Width option. I never use the Trim View features, which crop the white space and change the page size.

In the Configure Backends settings, I specify DejaVu Sans as the default font. This font has never given me any problems before.


Re: Using Backports
For each application in the Discover software install utility, there is a Sources field, which optionally allows you to choose the most recent version (a version newer than the one in LTS). I uninstalled the LTS version and installed the newest version---- the one for Kubuntu 22.12.3. There was no improvement in the application.


Re: Preferences
I have already looked through all of the Preferences options, Backends settings, and menu and toolbar features. I can find nothing related to this issue that is set incorrectly.

[jlittle]

I'm sorry, I still don't understand what you are seeing; perhaps the 22.04 okular I have to hand is too old. I can't understand "Fit Width" that doesn't fit the width, or zooming that doesn't change anything.

Perhaps there's an OS scaling interaction that okular isn't coping with. Are you using Wayland or X11? You might try the other.

I have the Gnome viewer, evince, installed, I think because a couple of years ago okular had some problem. At 100% okular is the same size as evince at 50%.
okular is too small but evince is using the display size of the laptop screen, which becomes far too large on a monitor, comparing to a piece of paper. (The laptop is a nominal 14″ diagonal, the monitor 21″.) But for me I just zoom to suit.

[martinjdz]

Please excuse me. My writing was unclear, so you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

When I said "Switching to Continuous Scrolling and varying the Zoom level does not change anything," I meant only that changing those settings doesn't eliminate the key problem---- compression of the width of the document. The Continuous Scrolling and Zoom features are working just the way they are supposed to work.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]Re: Using Backports
For each application in the Discover software install utility, there is a Sources field, which optionally allows you to choose the most recent version (a version newer than the one in LTS). I uninstalled the LTS version and installed the newest version---- the one for Kubuntu 22.12.3. There was no improvement in the application.[…]

To be correct: 22.12.3 cannot be the Kubuntu version but a version of KDE Gear (of which Okular is a part of).

But Okular 22.12.3 in the Kubuntu Backports for Kubuntu 22.04? That doesn't seem right - on the backports page there is Okular 22.04.3 listed for Jammy Jellyfish:
https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/ubuntu/backports/+index?field.series_filter=jammy&batch=75&directio n=backwards&start=300
And on the Kubuntu Backports Extra website there are no newer KDE Gear versions available for Kubuntu 22.04…

Another way to hunt the error down could be:
Boot from a Kubuntu 22.04 live USB and/or boot from a newer Kubuntu (e.g. 23.04) live USB and see if this makes any difference (23.04 would indeed contain a newer Okular : 22.12.3.)

Also a screenshot could be helpful.

[przxqgl]

check the default page size... i had the same problem, until i realised that the default page size had changed from "US Letter" to "A4"