Printing posters

robin_listas · September 9, 2013, 3:03pm

Hi,

a friend of mine passed me a link to a beautiful 1944 “Chart of
electromagnetic radiations” at (1). He wants to print the big version
(2) in four pages and join them later. I have a laser color printer, his
is B/W, so the task is on me

Fine! I say. Linux has the “poster” CLI app, just the very thing:

poster (1) - Scale and tile a postscript image to print on
multiple pages

So first I convert the image to postscript, then I try a trial ‘poster’
run:


> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> convert radiationbigger.jpg radiationbigger.ps
> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>
> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> poster -s 0.8 -v radiationbigger.ps -o radiationbigger-poster.ps
> Using default media of A4
> Using default cutmargin of 5%
> Using default whitemargin of 0
> Opened 'radiationbigger-poster.ps' for writing
> Deciding for 2 columns and 2 rows of landscape pages.
> print page 1
> print page 2
> print page 3
> print page 4
> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>
> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> l radiationbigger*
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users 10829489 Sep  8 13:14 radiationbigger-poster.ps
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users  1825248 Aug 30 20:02 radiationbigger.jpg
> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users 10827572 Sep  8 13:12 radiationbigger.ps
> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>

Wonderful. I’m already gloating. So I want to display the result with
“gv” - bang! It errors with:


> Error: /limitcheck in -file-GPL Ghostscript 9.06: Unrecoverable error,
> exit code 1
>
> Operand stack:
>    print_content_of_complete_page_0
> Execution stack:
>    %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval-- --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   1894   1   3
> %oparray_pop   1893   1   3   %oparray_pop   1877   1   3   %oparray_pop   1771   1   3   %oparray_pop   --nostringval--   %errorexec_pop .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push
> Dictionary stack:
>    --dict:1163/1684(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:94/200(L)--
> Current allocation mode is local

The generated postscript is bad, I can not make use of it.

Ok, so then 2 questions:

Is this a known bug? (and is there a known solution)?
Is there another method to generate a 4 page poster without using the
“poster” program? I tried “gimp” for a while, got nowhere.

This is using 12.3 and:


poster-20060221-87.1.1.x86_64
gv-3.7.0-12.1.2.x86_64
ghostscript-9.06-4.1.1.x86_64


> 1) <http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/let-chart-1944-teach-you-about-electromagnetic-radiation>
> 2) <http://www.popsci.com/files/radiationbigger.jpg>

(I have an even bigger copy of the photo, 100MB in size)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

vazhavandan · September 9, 2013, 3:32pm

Carlos E. R. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> a friend of mine passed me a link to a beautiful 1944 “Chart of
> electromagnetic radiations” at (1). He wants to print the big version
> (2) in four pages and join them later. I have a laser color printer, his
> is B/W, so the task is on me
>
> Fine! I say. Linux has the “poster” CLI app, just the very thing:
>
> poster (1) - Scale and tile a postscript image to print on
> multiple pages
>
> So first I convert the image to postscript, then I try a trial ‘poster’
> run:
>
>
>


>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> convert radiationbigger.jpg radiationbigger.ps
>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>
>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> poster -s 0.8 -v radiationbigger.ps -o radiationbigger-poster.ps
>> Using default media of A4
>> Using default cutmargin of 5%
>> Using default whitemargin of 0
>> Opened 'radiationbigger-poster.ps' for writing
>> Deciding for 2 columns and 2 rows of landscape pages.
>> print page 1
>> print page 2
>> print page 3
>> print page 4
>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>
>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios> l radiationbigger*
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users 10829489 Sep  8 13:14 radiationbigger-poster.ps
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users  1825248 Aug 30 20:02 radiationbigger.jpg
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 cer users 10827572 Sep  8 13:12 radiationbigger.ps
>> cer@Telcontar:~/Photos/curios>
>

Wonderful. I’m already gloating. So I want to display the result with
“gv” - bang! It errors with:


>> Error: /limitcheck in -file-GPL Ghostscript 9.06: Unrecoverable error,
>> exit code 1
>>
>> Operand stack:
>>     print_content_of_complete_page_0
>> Execution stack:
>>     %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval-- --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   1894   1   3
>> %oparray_pop   1893   1   3   %oparray_pop   1877   1   3   %oparray_pop   1771   1   3   %oparray_pop   --nostringval--   %errorexec_pop .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push
>> Dictionary stack:
>>     --dict:1163/1684(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:94/200(L)--
>> Current allocation mode is local
>

The generated postscript is bad, I can not make use of it.

Ok, so then 2 questions:

Is this a known bug? (and is there a known solution)?

Is there another method to generate a 4 page poster without using the
“poster” program? I tried “gimp” for a while, got nowhere.

This is using 12.3 and:


> poster-20060221-87.1.1.x86_64
> gv-3.7.0-12.1.2.x86_64
> ghostscript-9.06-4.1.1.x86_64
>


>> 1) <http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/let-chart-1944-teach-you-about-electromagnetic-radiation>
>> 2) <http://www.popsci.com/files/radiationbigger.jpg>
>
>

>
>
> (I have an even bigger copy of the photo, 100MB in size)
>

Did you try GUI tool

Found a recommendation here on searching the web

http://www.shibuvarkala.com/2009/11/how-to-print-large-posters-in-ubuntu.html

OBS :- openSUSE Software

GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

malcolmlewis · September 9, 2013, 3:36pm

On Mon 09 Sep 2013 01:03:07 PM CDT, Carlos E. R. wrote:

Is there another method to generate a 4 page poster without using the
“poster” program? I tried “gimp” for a while, got nowhere.

Hi
PosteRazor?

Compile from source, use the binary download, or look at the one on OBS
(since it needs patching)?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) GNOME 3.8.4 Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

flymail · September 9, 2013, 3:48pm

On 2013-09-09, Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Ok, so then 2 questions:
>
> 1) Is this a known bug? (and is there a known solution)?
>
> 2) Is there another method to generate a 4 page poster without using the
> “poster” program? I tried “gimp” for a while, got nowhere.

Not sure I entirely understand the problem, but have you tried Scribus.

robin_listas · September 9, 2013, 4:18pm

On 2013-09-09 15:32, vazhavandan wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:

> Did you try GUI tool

No, I didn’t know of any.

> Found a recommendation here on searching the web
>
> http://www.shibuvarkala.com/2009/11/how-to-print-large-posters-in-ubuntu.html
>
>
> OBS :- http://software.opensuse.org/package/PosteRazor

Wonderful! And it works, too

Thanks!

(I wonder what search terms you used for searching)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

robin_listas · September 9, 2013, 4:23pm

On 2013-09-09 15:36, malcolmlewis wrote:

> Hi
> PosteRazor?
> http://lifehacker.com/392221/posterazor-splits-images-into-multiple-page-posters
>
> Compile from source, use the binary download, or look at the one on OBS
> (since it needs patching)?

I installed the one from the OBS. I’m printing it now - if my printer
can cope with that big photo. I might have an out of memory error.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

robin_listas · September 9, 2013, 4:38pm

On 2013-09-09 15:48, flymail wrote:

>
> Not sure I entirely understand the problem, but have you tried Scribus.

No, never used that tool. It scares me a bit. O:-)

I’ll explain the problem (even though it is solved now, for completeness)

I have a photo:


+---------------------------------+
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
|                                 |
+---------------------------------+

But I want to print it bigger, in A3 or A2 size:


·
+---------------------------------+
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
·|·································|··
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
|                ·                |
+---------------------------------+
·
·

So I print it in four pieces of paper, and glue them together - instead
of renting a big printer.

In MsDOS I had a software that printed loooong banners in roll printer
paper - not sure of the name - paper that came in boxes with holes in
both sides to feed the printer. Ink ribbon printers, it took hours to
print, and then you had to replace the ribbon. For parties



+--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---+
|          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          |
|  P       ·   A      ·   R      ·    T     ·    Y     ·     !    |
|          ·          ·          ·          ·          ·          |
+--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---·--o---o---+

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

vazhavandan · September 9, 2013, 4:54pm

Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2013-09-09 15:32, vazhavandan wrote:
>> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> Did you try GUI tool
>
> No, I didn’t know of any.
>
>
>> Found a recommendation here on searching the web
>>
>> http://www.shibuvarkala.com/2009/11/how-to-print-large-posters-in-ubuntu.html
>>
>>
>> OBS :- http://software.opensuse.org/package/PosteRazor
>
> Wonderful! And it works, too
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> (I wonder what search terms you used for searching)
>
The keywords i used are :- poster linux print
and i use dogpile.com for searching on the web. It generally gives
more appropriate search results than google.

GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop

robin_listas · September 9, 2013, 5:43pm

On 2013-09-09 16:54, vazhavandan wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:

>> (I wonder what search terms you used for searching)
>>
> The keywords i used are :- poster linux print
> and i use dogpile.com for searching on the web. It generally gives
> more appropriate search results than google.

Noted - thanks

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

deano_ferrari · September 10, 2013, 4:51am

The ‘pdfposter’ utility might also work for you if you prefer CLI

leolca’s blog: pdfposter

man pdfposter

robin_listas · September 10, 2013, 12:23pm

On 2013-09-10 04:56, deano ferrari wrote:
>
> The ‘pdfposter’ utility might also work for you if you prefer CLI
>
> ‘leolca’s blog: pdfposter’
> (http://leolca.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/pdfposter.html)

Well, there is no ready built package on openSUSE. But I take note of
this program, thanks.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

robin_listas · September 10, 2013, 1:53pm

On 2013-09-10 12:23, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2013-09-10 04:56, deano ferrari wrote:
>>
>> The ‘pdfposter’ utility might also work for you if you prefer CLI
>>
>> ‘leolca’s blog: pdfposter’
>> (http://leolca.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/pdfposter.html)
>
> Well, there is no ready built package on openSUSE. But I take note of
> this program, thanks.

That blog points to the link to the official website - but this one
times out.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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

deano_ferrari · September 10, 2013, 10:29pm

Not in the standard repos, but packages are available

software.opensuse.org:

robin_listas · September 10, 2013, 10:58pm

On 2013-09-10 22:36, deano ferrari wrote:

> Not in the standard repos, but packages are available
>
> ‘software.opensuse.org:’
> (http://software.opensuse.org/package/pdfposter?search_term=pdfposter)

Funny.
I used “webpinstant.com/search/pdfposter”

–
Cheers / Saludos,

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