Can't print landscape

English Hardware
#1

openSUSE 12.3
KDE 4.10.5r1
CUPS 1.5.4-5.2.1

Brother HL-2040

Using Libre Office Writer, I can preview in landscape but the print comes out portrait.
I tried it also in a KWrite with the same results.

Is there someway I can see which driver is installed ?

thanks

#2

LO has a printer administration utility called spadmin. Here you can set printing properties as required.

/usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/spadmin
#3

I cannot find a printer driver file for your model on my setup; so, unless you have installed one, that may explain the problem.

#4

You should use the “Brother HL-2030 Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended)” driver. (you can set that in YaST->Hardware->Printer or point your browser to “http://localhost:631/”)
That one works perfectly with my HL-2030 printer and AFAIK the HL-2040 is similar to the 2030.

But there’s also a specific driver on Brother’s homepage. You could download and install the RPMs from there:
Brother Solutions Center : Brother Driver for Linux Distributions

#5

I had the HL2040 driver but what the heck, I’ll try the Brother HL-2030 Foomatic/hl1250 driver anyway.
No change. I can display landscape but can’t print it. Very weird.
Just to be clear, I am using a driver for CUPS, is that correct ?

I’ve never seen anything like this.

#6

hextejas wrote:

>
> I had the HL2040 driver but what the heck, I’ll try the Brother
> HL-2030 Foomatic/hl1250 driver anyway.
> No change. I can display landscape but can’t print it. Very weird.
> Just to be clear, I am using a driver for CUPS, is that correct ?
>
> I’ve never seen anything like this.
>
What program are you trying to print from. In LibreOffice the
default print setup does not print landscape.

Its the File → Printer Settings–> Properties–> Device–> Printer
Language Type. Default is PDF, Change it with the down arrowe too
Your Post Script Level 1,2, or 3. At least that how I get around the
bug on Linux. If your running Windows it should allow a change in
the printer Setup. Its been reported several version back. I have a
Brothers MFC J6710DW using the Brothers supplied drivers.

Hope this helps you.

Russ

openSUSE 12.3(Linux 3.10.9-1.ga0841e3-desktop)|KDE 4.11.00
|Intel core2duo 2.5 MHZ,|8GB DDR3|GeForce 8400GS
(NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-325.15)

#7

That did it Russ and thanks. It was in LibreOffice writer. The default was set as PDF and changing it to postscript fixed it, at least for the one document.
Luckily I don’t do too much landscape printing.

#8

Thank you. It also helped me with an Brother MFC 7360 printer to print landscape in Libreoffice. lol! I’m using latest Brother proprietary drives. Then it is still problem to print from i.e Firefox in landscape in Opensuse 12.3.

#9

I had this happen with LibreOffice, Okular and other on the versions that came will 11.4. They appeared to be partly bypassing the cups generated printer set up options. :frowning: I had to print to pdf landscape mode and then load into foxit reader where they would print in landscape mode. Fortunately I didn’t need to do this very often.

No problems on 12.3 so wonder if you have installed the driver correctly. My printer is a Samsung though. If the Brother driver is similar install it then go to the cups pages. These are at - start menu -utilities - manage printing on KDE. Select Administration and then Add printer. It should pick up that a printer is available if a driver has been installed. Then fill in the info as it’s requested. I’m assuming that the driver is installed via some Brother or other software as per Samsung.

Later I also added myself to the lp group allowing me to do what ever with printers.

Some people just add a printer definition file rather than use any installer that is available. Cups keeps evolving so personally I don’t think that is a good idea as setting up all of cups is a rather involved process these days.

John

#10

The bug relating to landscape printing in Okular was a longstanding one which has only relatively recently been resolved; previously there was a convoluted workaround published. There was a problem with landscape printing in LibreOffice a few releases back which was resolved in the way described above but I haven’t experienced it with the most recent versions of LibreOffice.

#11

The aspect I noticed is that only Foxit Reader bought up the CUPS generated printer windows - tatty X11 types. I wondered if the devs couldn’t bear the thought of them appearing on a kde desktop.

John

#12

The printing GUI that you’re referring to is probably application related - I’m assuming Foxit Reader runs under wine, and that would explain its appearance. It has nothing to do with CUPS. The Linux DE’s each have their own printing GUI (libraries) they employ for user interaction.

#13

I could well be wrong but I gained the impression that the info needed to generate the settings windows etc was in the printer def file so assume things were done that way. Since I started using Linux, fair time ago now, all sorts of changes have been added to cups but it retains it’s older capabilities.

There is a Linux version of Foxit reader available on the download page. I keep meaning to try it on scanned books as Okular is so slow on these. I mostly download djvu files off the internet archive etc since Okular was introduced.

John

#14

The printer PPD (postscript printer description) file certainly defines the available printing options, (although not the printing orientation.)

#15

Some settings are overruled by the psprint.conf of Libreoffice.

What you need to do if LO does not apply the PS/PDF preference is open /usr/lib/libreoffice/share/psprint/psprint.conf (32bit) or /usr/lib64/libreoffice/share/psprint/psprint.conf (64bit) and change this line

PDFDevice=0

to

PDFDevice=-1

, this for each printerqueue defined. This causes the PDF option to be non-default, i.e. make the PS options default, hence solving the Landscape issue. AFAICT spadmin does not always (LO version?) apply changes. Changing it manually immediately changes the errorious behaviour of LO.

#16

I recall earlier threads where it was suggested that

PDFDevice=0

was required (opposite to what you stated).

https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/applications/472640-libreoffice-doesnt-print-landscape-files-properly-4.html#post2484192

https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/applications/478238-libreoffice-12-2-still-defective.html

#17

Yup, I know these threads. But I had no luck using a number of “solutions” provided. Then I found using spadmin on my own laptop does work to make these changes persistent, and noticed the difference. Tested this manual edit on a couple of openSUSE (12.1, 12.2 and 12.3) clients. Found out right now (trial and error) this option can be set in the general options section of the file.
I don’t get why yet, but spadmin does not always write changes to the psprint.conf. Now, the users can print Landscape without having to change the PDF -> PS setting. Would have loved to place some URL but I found this trying on my own laptop, running latest LO.

#18

Hmmm… I can’t say I’ve experienced that. I have generally launched spadmin as root and it writes to ‘/usr/lib64/libreoffice/share/psprint/psprint.conf’ (for system-wide effect). If/when I want to override the system-wide config for a user, I launch it as a regular user, it writes to ‘~/.config/libreoffice/3/user/psprint/psprint.conf’ as expected, and the changes made there are reflected when I then navigate to LO Printer Settings > Properties. (I’m using LO 3.5, openSUSE 12.2).

#19

On 2013-09-02 10:26, John 82 wrote:
> There is a Linux version of Foxit reader available on the download page.
> I keep meaning to try it on scanned books as Okular is so slow on these.
> I mostly download djvu files off the internet archive etc since Okular
> was introduced.

Books in djvu format? Try djview or djview directly.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

#20

Here’s the one that got me thinking: [Bug 781193] LibreOffice: Cannot print landscape if it generates PDF (wo](http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-bugs/2012-09/msg04984.html)
To elaborate a bit: I was looking for a system-wide option. Then started on my own laptop, diff-ed on a copy of the psprint.conf file and noticed the change to PDFdevice=-1. Checked, tested for other users. Next at the customer’s I tried through spadmin, which had no effect at all. I then checked the file, and it had not changed. Checked LO for a user, no result. Then editted the file, added the line and Bob was my uncle :D.
I already new that PSlevel=0 is the option that tells the printer to use the driver’s postscript level. So I left that, contrary to what the bug message said.

BTW: in my ~/.config/libreoffice/3-suse/user/psprint, and ~/.config/libreoffice/4-suse/user/psprint there’s no psprint.conf, and it does not get generated when I make changes.