I'm using the Domestic shipping label api in usps to generate domestic shipping labels in pdf format. I managed to crop the top section of the pdf file which is the label needed by the usps and Ignored the bottom section which is the receipt which is not needed in shipping.
I use Ghostscript /Cropbox to crop the section that I only want which is successful but when I try to print the cropped pdf file in linux cups I get the whole uncropped pdf printed instead of the cropped pdf file. Why is it still printing the whole file instead of just printing the cropped section?.
Here's the script I'm using to crop the usps Shipping label.
gs -o cropped.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -c "[/CropBox [50.4 460.5 484.4 750.5] /PAGES pdfmark" -f uncropped.pdf
Then to change its orientation to portrait i use pdftk
pdftk cropped.pdf cat 1L output cropped_portrait.pdf
To print it in linux cups I'm using the command.
lp cropped_portrait.pdf
But when i print it it is printing the uncropped.pdf file instead of cropped_portrait.pdf.
Why is it doing that? I even deleted uncropped.pdf and tried printing again but it still prints uncropped.pdf.
Here's the two files the uncropped and cropped usps shipping labels.
Uncropped PDF file
Cropped PDF file
Hope you can help me on this one,
Thank you
Presumably the reduced PDF file displays correctly, so there is no problem with Ghostscript producing the PDF file.
As to why the printing process doesn't respect the CropBox, there is no reason really why it should. There are many Boxes in PDF and no real way for a print application to know which one you want to use. As a result printing applications often default to the MediaBox, which you haven't altered (Note that altering the CropBox doesn't change the content of the PDF file, just what is displayed).
Now, if your CUPS chain is using Ghostscript to render the PDF file, or convert it to PostScript, then this can be solved, you need to add -dUseCropBox to the command line. However I'm not a CUPS expert so I can't tell you how to do that. If CUPS isn't using Ghostscript then its probably still possible to instruct whatever is doing the conversion to use the CropBox, but you're going to have to find out what application is involved and alter the command appropriately for that application.
Related
How can one use convert or pdftk to merge several pdfs organized as a table?
For example, given 4 files: file1.pdf, file2.pdf, file3.pdf, file4.pdf, each of a single page, I would like to have a single-page pdf like
file1.pdf file2.pdf
file3.pdf file4.pdf
That is, the files are arranged like an array.
By far the easiest way to convert 4 PDF pages to 1 page on any OS is by N-Up imposition/printing with output to a virtual PDF printer such as Ghostscript. For the most basic 4-Up command line usage see https://stackoverflow.com/a/72850245/10802527
Thus to combine 4 pages (others such as 2 6 9 or 16 are possible) using here in a gui I can very easily set the order.
On Linux or MacOS you can use, along with other options, the CUPS command
lp -o number-up=4 filename
see https://www.cups.org/doc/options.html
The major advantage over using tools such as PDFtk with convert is that it resolves both scaling and preserving most PDF structures without degrading to inferior down-scaled imagery by NOT passing in and out of images before calling Ghostscript.
If you have single pdfs then you can merge before print using PDFtk (uses Ghostscript) instead of poppler pdfunite. Note that with either the Original PDF format is preserved.
If you want to convert to half size images and stitch them together, then reprint to one pdf page, then that can easily be done using imagemagik convert and other commands to call Ghostscript to suit your requirements direct. However, the results will in many ways be degraded by translation to image output.
Since all of the above pass through GS it makes sense, where possible, to install GS as a PDF printer driver.
If you want to avoid installing GhostScript printing then you can use cross platform Coherent cpdf (it only uses GS if the files need repairs)
Note these are "windows double quoted names" adjust as required and is based on the 4 sequential pages in one file are then to be placed 4 at a time on each new page, thus can be used with any multiple of pages in the input.pdf
cpdf -twoup "input.pdf" -o "in-2-Up-tmp.pdf"
cpdf "in-2-Up-tmp.pdf" -rotate 90 -o "out-2-Up.pdf"
cpdf -twoup "out-2-Up.pdf" -o "out-4-Up-tmp.pdf"
cpdf "out-4-Up-tmp.pdf" -rotate 90 -o "out-4-Up.pdf"
I am generating a logfile on one of my servers.
Storing alot of data, then sending it to my mail once a month as a pdf file.
The prosess i am using is to 'cat' alot of commands to a text file, then convert it and send.
Is there any linux programs or some eazy way to do something simulare and add a image i have stored on the server in the pdf file?
This answer assumes that you just want to put the image at the end of the PDF.
You could first convert the image using imagemagick to a PDF doing this (will also work with different file types):
convert image.jpg image.pdf
Then, you can use a tool like stapler or pdftk to combine your generated text PDF and the image.pdf (you can add multiple images):
stapler cat text.pdf image.pdf combined.pdf
pdftk text.pdf image.pdf output combined.pdf
How to remove images with alpha channel (transparency) in a PDF file?
I need to remove all images with transparency from a PDF file because it needs to be optimized with pdf2ps and ps2pdf (to reduce filesize).. Postscript doesn't work properly when the PDF contains images with transparency and the PDF will be converted to one big image..
I have not managed to reproduce your problem.
For cons, I did the same treatment to compress my pdf except that I used pdftops instead of pdf2ps.
I hope it will help.
Sorry for my english (translate.google)
Clark,
It sounds like www.pstill.com will do everything you need and more in one tool. There is a Linux command line version available for a very reasonable price. I have used the tool on a few different PDF's for different reasons and it has always worked as advertised.
From their website.
Putting the 'Portable' back in PDF - PDF to PDF Transcoding
Your PDF cannot be printed on some printers or processed with some applications? PStill can sanitize, simplify, reprocess, flatten transparency and recompress PDF-Files, this process also known as 'transcoding' create a new PDF that has better compatibility, is often smaller in file size, can be optional encrypted/secured and contain only a uniform set of font types. Fonts can be normalized to plain PostScript Type 1 formats, can be subsetted, missing fonts included and bad fonts repaired/replaced. PStill can detect and remove duplicate elements in the PDF. Text can be converted to outlines which makes it perfect for creating 'fontless' PDF. Transcoding can be used to repair bad PDF or simplify the PDF structure so more limited output devices can process it.
Andrew.
On Linux system (Ubuntu) I have a multipage TIFF file (file.tiff).
When I send it to a printer using "lp file.tiff" command, only the first page prints.
How do I print all the pages?
I have the following known options:
Split the file to single-page TIFFs
Convert TIFF to PDF
I'd like to keep the multi-page TIFF and avoid creating other formats. Is there a way to make CUPS print all the pages from the multipage TIFF file?
(Please do not offer "convert the file" as an answer as I know those, I'm looking for a CUPS method, lpprintmultipagetiff --please?).
Use tiff2ps. The link is below. You could also setup a dirty loop to print each page manually with cups.
for((i=1;i<=884;i++)); do <your lpr print command>; done
Note: 884 is the last page number... I'm just guessing. Use $i in your lpr print command when printing the desired page.
http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl1_tiff2ps.htm
I'm written a program on a legacy app (Progress 4GL on SCO Unix 5.0.7 - - I know, I know) to generate a postscript file line by line. If I open the .ps file in PDFCreator, it renders everything just like I want.
But, I need to get it into pdf format. When I use ps2pdf to do that by:
ps2pdf mypsfile.ps newpdffile.pdf
and open the pdf in PDFCreator or Acrobat, I get a single blank page (expected output is one page).
If I chop the .ps file down to something that yields a simple one line output, I still get a blank .pdf page. This .ps also renders fine in PDFCreator:
/Arial findfont
12 scalefont
setfont
175 700 moveto
(ABC Company) show
showpage
ps2pdf isn't displaying any errors. Can someone tell me what I need to add to the .ps code above to have it correctly convert to a PDF?
This PDF becomes overlay text on 'top of' another PDF using pdftk. When I have two "good" PDF's, that part works fine as well. It's just the converting ps to pdf that I'm stuck on.
Thanks,
David
That ought to work fine. First question is 'which version of Ghostscript are you using ?' Have you tried using Ghostscript directly instead of using the ps2pdf script ? Something like
gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=<output.pdf> <input.ps>
You haven't set a media size request, so its possible that GS is defaulting to Letter, and your text is simply off the top of the page. Try placing the text at 0,0 instead of 175, 700.