Leap 42.3 Okular 1.1.2: HPDeskjet 3940: Printing comes out blank (invisible)

[Iconoclasmic]

Leap 42.3 Okular 1.1.2: HPDeskjet 3940: Printing comes out blank (invisible)

The printer goes through the motions, but no ink ends up on the page. This happens only with Okular. Okular was working for me in OpenSuSE 12.3, and other printer applications continue to work.

In Okular, I select "Greyscale" as the "Color Mode", because only the black-ink cartridge has ink. Okular no longer allows me to specify printer properties.

I've searched for other reports of this problem, using DuckDuckGo, Google and OpenSuSE, but have found none. My Leap 42.3 is vanilla and up to date.

[deano_ferrari]

It's a confirmed bug...
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=368758

There is a workaround mentioned in comment #5 of the thread...

As a workaround, if you have a recent version of Okular [0], grayscale printing should work if you set the 'force rasterization' option.

[0] You need the patch 0c4c2ddbbc5e509c69b72c99bf6e83a356669eba , which dates from August 4th, 2017

[deano_ferrari]

Printing via CLI might be an acceptable temporary workaround.

To get printer-specific options...

lpoptions -l

or examine the printer PPD

grep "ColorModel" /etc/cups/ppd/*

For example, assuming that 'KGray/Black Only Grayscale' is available, something like this should produce 'black only' printing...

lp -d <printer_name> -o ColorModel=KGray file.pdf

[Iconoclasmic]

Thank you for the prompt help and your information! It is reassuring, knowing that others are aware of the bug and are trying to fix it.

I tried "force rasterization" but the page produced was still blank. According to the KDE bug report, the patch dates from 04 Aug 2017. My /usr/bin/okular is dated 22 Dec 09:12, so the patch should be on, right? How do I find out whether the patch is actually on?

Is this a problem that will be fixed with the standard update procedure I invoke from the taskbar notifications? There's also a problem with USB3 drives going unrecognized: I'm wondering whether that will be fixed automatically, as well. I know there is a grub option to fix it, but I am too timid to try it!

Thank you for introducing me to the lpoptions command. Can I use it or Yast to redefine my printer as "greyscale only"? Would that satisfy okular?

I could use Evince to print the pdf, but my Evince does not support pdf forms. Could I use okular to fill out the form, save the completed pdf, then use LibreOffice Writer or Evince to print it? I'm so glad that the taboo against saving pdf documents has been relaxed.

I'm asking a lot of questions, because some of the answers may be of value to other readers as well. I hope you don't mind. Thank you for your time. The information you've already given me will enable me to explore further.

[deano_ferrari]

Thank you for the prompt help and your information! It is reassuring, knowing that others are aware of the bug and are trying to fix it.

I tried "force rasterization" but the page produced was still blank. According to the KDE bug report, the patch dates from 04 Aug 2017. My /usr/bin/okular is dated 22 Dec 09:12, so the patch should be on, right? How do I find out whether the patch is actually on?

I didn't look into it, other than to try printing to file with 'grayscale' and 'force rasterization' set (which resulted in a colour pdf as per the original). Yes, maybe not patched in Okular (for Leap 42.3).

Is this a problem that will be fixed with the standard update procedure I invoke from the taskbar notifications?

I'm not sure if such a fix would be backported to the Okular version used in Leap 42.3. You might want to raise an openSUSE bug report perhaps.

There's also a problem with USB3 drives going unrecognized: I'm wondering whether that will be fixed automatically, as well. I know there is a grub option to fix it, but I am too timid to try it!

It is best to start a new thread with descriptive title for this unrelated issue. Then others may be able to advise further.

Thank you for introducing me to the lpoptions command. Can I use it or Yast to redefine my printer as "greyscale only"? Would that satisfy okular?

IIRC, the Qt printing subsystem seems to ignore ~/.cups/lpoptions unfortunately. See this thread for example.

I could use Evince to print the pdf, but my Evince does not support pdf forms. Could I use okular to fill out the form, save the completed pdf, then use LibreOffice Writer or Evince to print it?

Perhaps. You'll have to try it, print from via CLI with lp command.

I'm so glad that the taboo against saving pdf documents has been relaxed.

I'm not aware of any such taboo. I really don't know what you're referring to here.

I'm asking a lot of questions, because some of the answers may be of value to other readers as well. I hope you don't mind. Thank you for your time. The information you've already given me will enable me to explore further.

All good.