AmiGS cannot Print, because of missing "letter/A4" feature!

[gerograph]

I brought this forward on german OS4welt.de a long time ago, and "Cyborg" confirmed this is a real bug. So I reopen it here:

• Use any "DIN A4" Size (210x297mm) Postscript Document (e.g. print from MS Word with DPS PS2file driver; print from FinalWriter into a Postscriptfile etc...) and view it inside AmiGS.
• AmiGS always thinks, it is "US letter" size (216x279mm) -> which is also displayed...
• Any other PS Viewer (like Ghostview on Windows) shows correct demension/page size of DIN A4...
• Print from AmiGS via Postscript (PS) Driver to a Postscript laser printer (here: Xerox 6180MFP)

Result will be a flashing printer insisting on "US letter" size sheets. There is no way to convince the printer to use "DIN A4" size sheets instead. As we donnot use "US letter" size sheets here at all in Germany - no chance to get any output from AmiGS ! BTW all resulting pdfs will be "letter" size as well.
However there are/might be a few ways to overcome the problem. But those aren`t really any option:

• resize the paper with cissors, so that the printer detects it as letter size => works
• find a printer, who ignores the actual paper sheet size, and prints anyway => tested a few, but didn't find one yet.

So could anybody enhance/fix this in AmiGS, please ?

[abalaban]

I can't acknowledge this problem as I don't have a Postscript printer. I'll try to see if another beta tester can confirm this and ensure a bug report will be produced.

EDIT: can you please tell me which AmiGS version you are running and what is your system configuration please?

[MichaelMerkel]

I brought this forward on german OS4welt.de a long time ago, and "Cyborg" confirmed this is a real bug. So I reopen it here:

• Use any "DIN A4" Size (210x297mm) Postscript Document (e.g. print from MS Word with DPS PS2file driver; print from FinalWriter into a Postscriptfile etc...) and view it inside AmiGS.
• AmiGS always thinks, it is "US letter" size (216x279mm) -> which is also displayed...
• Any other PS Viewer (like Ghostview on Windows) shows correct demension/page size of DIN A4...
• Print from AmiGS via Postscript (PS) Driver to a Postscript laser printer (here: Xerox 6180MFP)

have you tried another ps file? i checked with one i created with pagestream.
amigs displays it's correct size -> a4. so maybe the original ps file is not completely ok?
but printing is not ok. as i have no ps printer i printed it as postscript either via the amigs driver and with the workbench ps driver.
for both outputs i cannot define the actual printer page size. the output is letter sized.
but as you already have the ps file you simply should copy it to the printer and not use amigs in between. does that work?

regards...
michael

[nbache]

I might be able to test this, but not for the next week or so at least.

But in the meantime: I wonder why you use AmiGS for viewing/printing a PDF file? I have always used AmiPDF for that, and also been able to print from it, on A4 too. (Although it has behaved a bit strange lately, e.g. very slow printing etc., something I have on my list to check out more thoroughly).

But have you tried doing it from AmiPDF? Does it behave the same way there?

Best regards,

Niels

[gerograph]

Versions/Setup (sorry forgot...)
X1000 running update6 and used live updater c couple of days ago
AmiGS is 1.16

Postscriptfile(s)
I checked several Postscript files, rechecked it, using a PagesStream PS file. I always used build in PS (file) drivers for printing. I did not print via Workbench Postscript Drivers and print2file device !:
Finalwriter Testfile: http://www.geobiz.de/AmiGS/A4-FW.ps
Pages Stream: http://www.geobiz.de/AmiGS/A4-PGS.ps
Word: http://www.geobiz.de/AmiGS/A4-WORD.ps

sending a PS file directly to the printer
works fine, nevertheless I do need a pdf Version of the file. Which gets normally printed. pdf Version is then also "letter"

sending a pdf file from AmiPDF to the printer
As the workflow is as stated:
FinalWriter -> Postscriptfile -> AmiGS creates pdf file -> AmiPDF
AmiPDF cannot print it either, as AmiGS already made "letter" format out of it.
Printing a A4 pdf file (generated with Ghostview on my PC) through AmiPDF works fine !

@nbache
so I am not using AmiGS to print a pdf ! I am using AmiGS to create a pdf.

carry on...
During testing, some more things became clear. It must be a bug inside AmiGS. But MichaelMerkels AmiGS behaves different as it displays an A4 Postscript as "A4", in my case the top of my document gets cut off once you load it into AmiGS. It also displays "letter" no matter what file you use!
The same file printed via copy ... par: or displayed in Ghostview on PC, is fine. Concluding: You cannot print Postscript files from my version of AmiGS!

.

Thanx to all Betatesters for kicking in here....

@MichaelMerkel
Maybe it would help, If I test your Postscriptfile in order to confirm whether it show A4 or not !

[MichaelMerkel]

...
@MichaelMerkel
Maybe it would help, If I test your Postscriptfile in order to confirm whether it show A4 or not !

here you can get it:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ds062uash4ybjba/TestA4.ps

i found a problem with a4 export in the pagestream ps printer driver *several* years ago and that was fixed by deron then. but only in the newer page stream version afaik.
a4 was not recognized - just like you describe. maybe also amigs was affected - i don't remember. but i think that was updated also.

regards...
michael

[gerograph]

This is strange...
Indeed, MichaelMerkels File is displayed as A4 (!) and can be printed. One the one hand it boils down to the file (even though I did not manage to create a Postscript file in A4 as Michael Merkel did - tried on all sorts of MS Windows based products and on Amiga stuff.

On the other hand, the above linked FW (Final Writer) file can be printed correctly via copy command, and can be displayed correct in Ghostview on MS Windows. But ist not displayed correctly (top edge cut off) in AmiGS ?

So, concluding... I am not yet convinced that there still is a bug...

[abalaban]

@gerograph & Michael

It would be great if you could share your PageStream file so that we can compare the PS file generated from your both systems. It would also be interesting to see if Michael's PageStream file would produce a usable A4 PS file on gerograph's machien and vice versa.

[MichaelMerkel]

@gerograph & Michael

It would be great if you could share your PageStream file so that we can compare the PS file generated from your both systems. It would also be interesting to see if Michael's PageStream file would produce a usable A4 PS file on gerograph's machien and vice versa.

the pagestream file has no impact on the ps output.
this only depends on the version of pagestream and the ps printer driver and the ppd file used.

i can give that information this evening if i find the time.

regards...
michael

[gerograph]

@abalaban
There are quiet a few versions of PagesStream around...so Michael probably got a different PageStream Version + different ppd + different Postscriptprinterdriver. However, it would be interesting to see what the difference between our 2 Postscriptfiles are (both generated via PGS). We may find then out, where in a Postscriptfile the pagesizeinformation is stored. Maybe Ghostview doesn't care about Pagesize in the first place, whereas AmiGS does ?

However, practically seen, it should be possible to view and print any sort of PS file in AmiGS and not only PS files produced by "Michael Merkels PageStream Setup".