Bug#847462: the problem is with CUPS
>> I have the same problem. This happens with any application. For
>> example, if I just try to print from Firefox an HTML page with just a
>> line of text on it.
>>
>> To demonstrate the problem:
>>
>> # cupsdisable pdf
>>
>> - print a simple html text-only page on the pdf printer from Firefox
>> - get the spool file from the /var/spool/cups: it's a PDF file which
>> looks perfect (first attachment)
>
>So what's the problem? You wanted to produce a PDF from an html page.
>That has taken place. You could have achieved the same by printing to
>file from Firefox.
If you want to tell me that che cups-pdf driver is useless because it's
possible to print to file from the print interface, okay, I'll buy it.
If this is the case, the Debian description of the package should
clearly mention it. Or maybe note that it makes sense to install it
only when not using a graphical interface. If you think that this is
the case, maybe it will be enough to update the Debian description of
this package, or at least meantion this fact in README.Debian.
>> # cupsenable pdf
>>
>> - get the file from the ~/PDF directory: it's a bigger PDF file with no
>> text information and jagged font appearance (second attachment)
>
>Now you want to convert the PDF file you wanted in the first place into
>another PDF file. Why?
No, I do just want to have a PDF file produced in my ~/PDF directory.
The above steps are meant to help debugging the problem.
>> This apparently has to do with the old problem of cups-pdf converting
>> PDF to PS and back to PDF.
>
>CUPS is not the problem. The problem is users not realising CUPS+the
>cups-pdf backend is intended for converting PostScript to a PDF file.
>From what you say I get that the problem is me, not CUPS, and cups-pdf
is only a convoluted mean to avoid using ps2pdf.
In contrast, as far as I can see, cups-pdf is intended to be generic,
rather than specific for PS files. This is what I read on the Debian
package description as well as on <http://www.cups-pdf.de/>.
>Firefox does not (as you have seen) send PostScript to CUPS.
I see. But as a cups-pdf user, I should not be supposed to know what
Firefox (or any other program) in fact does when it produces data for
printing, I'd just like to find a hopefully good-quality pdf file in my
~/PDF.
>> I have an old Ubuntu Lucid installation where the problem does not
>> exist.
>
>Likely it has a different filter path through the printing system,
I guess so. Which means that the problem should be solvable, and it
would be nice if it were solved in Debian.
Thanks for your work in maintaining this package
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