Page Layout ⇒ PDF prints various sizes

[billmagee]

I am using XeLaTeX with Ubunbtu 9.10.

Page is sized with geometry and I am using crop.

In my office I print the PDF and I get one size.

My colleague prints from Windows to a different printer and the size is more than a centimeter different.

The printers are both set for 100%.

Is this a known problem? Sorry if it is, I have not found it by searching this forum.

[php1ic]

Are the default paper sizes the same on both machines, and when you convert to pdf do you specify what page size to use?

To be on the safe side, I specify my page size at every step

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
%Physical A4 size - 21.0 x 29.7 cm
\usepackage[a4paper,dvips,showframe,
top    = 2.75cm,
bottom = 2.50cm,
left   = 3.00cm,
right  = 2.50cm]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\end{document}

Then compile with

Code: Select all

latex file.tex
dvips -ta4 file.dvi
ps2pdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 file.ps

Also, is the printer and/or software you use to print using the 'correct' paper?

[localghost]

A minimal working example (MWE) would be very helpful [1]. Otherwise it's very difficult to comprehend the problem. There are some things to be taken into account when using crop and geometry.

[1] View topic: Avoidable mistakes


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[billmagee]

Dear friends,

Thank you, I am very pleased to be here on this board. I am a long-time LaTeX user but on a very amateur level.

Thank you for your suggestions. I am away from my machine now but I will post my code as soon as I can.

I should have specified: I created the PDF file by running XeLaTeX on my file.tex file. Then I emailed the same PDF file to my colleague. Thus, we experienced different size printout from the same PDF file, one printed off Ubuntu and the other printed off Windows.

I will make more tests and post more information as soon as I can. many thanks.

[localghost]

[...] I created the PDF file by running XeLaTeX on my file.tex file. Then I emailed the same PDF file to my colleague. Thus, we experienced different size printout from the same PDF file, one printed off Ubuntu and the other printed off Windows. [...]

Appears to me more like a hardware problem with the involved printers or their driver settings. PDF is known to be platform independent and should yield the same results in printing. Try to reproduce the problem with other none LaTeX generated (PDF) documents.

[billmagee]

My published wants a book 15x21cm. Therefore I coded it this way:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,english]{book}
\usepackage[paperwidth=15truecm,
     paperheight=21truecm,
     headsep=1.0cm,
     left=3.0truecm,
     right=2.4truecm,
     centering
] {geometry}
\usepackage[cam,a4,center]{crop}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
  \blindtext
\end{document}

I ran it through XeLaTeX and got a PDF file. But the PDF file printed a page that was too small. Therefore I upped the parameters until it printed correctly, as below:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{book}
\usepackage[paperwidth=17.4truecm,
     paperheight=24truecm,
     headsep=1.0cm,
     left=3.0truecm,
     right=2.4truecm,
     centering
] {geometry}
\usepackage[cam,a4,center]{crop}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
  \blindtext
\end{document}

This printed a page 15x21. Weird! And when I sent the PDF to a colleague, his Windows machine printed it a centimeter smaller.

[billmagee]

I just saw your post regarding your feeling that this is a hardware issue.

I will do as you suggest, many thanks.

[localghost]

Well, XeLaTeX is something different. And you have to consider some other points. Drop the option for the paper size in the list for the document class. I'm not sure but this might irritate the compiler. Let geometry do the job. Try the code below and submit the resulting PDF file to your colleague.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt]{book}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}

\usepackage[%
  papersize={15truecm,21truecm},
  headsep=1.0truecm,
  left=3.0truecm,
  right=2.4truecm,
  centering,
  dvips=false,
  pdftex=false,
  vtex=false
]{geometry}
\usepackage[a4,cam,center]{crop}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}
  \blinddocument
\end{document}

Except some warnings about vertical boxes the code compiles smoothly and shows the desired setup. Furthermore you should consider if the book is printed onesided or twosided.

[meho_r]

Another thing to consider: you should tell your friend to pay attention if he's printing from Adobe Reader (or Adobe Acrobat) since they both automatically scale the page while printing (default setting for "Page Scaling" in "Print" dialog is "Shrink to Printable Area"). This may be the cause of the problem.

[billmagee]

Thanks for these suggestions.

Due to my Taiwanese time zone it is now 3 a.m. I will post results when the office opens.