Is Postscript Leading and Trailing Edge Manipulation Possible?

[james32377090]

I am troubleshooting sending postscript to a Ricoh Pro 8110. The postscript is sent to the printer via LPR command. I am trying to print a barcode as close to the edge of the right side as possible.

The problem I am having is that even though the postscript appears fine when viewing it with GSView or other postscript viewers, when it prints on the Richo printer the left edge of the printed output is truncated, and the right edge has a margin. So the Leading Edge is too small (on the left) and the Trailing Edge (on the right) is to large. Its as if the rendered postscript does not line up on the page properly. I have checked that the page size is 8.5 X 11. Here are my questions:

1. I am thinking the problem is more likely an issue with the printer, than it is with the postscript. Is this correct? If so are there any particular printer settings I should look at?

2. Is there any postscript commands that will "shift" the entire content to the right or left? I would like to see if there is a way to cause the rendered postscript to shift to the right about 4mm.

Here is a very basic postscript file I have been testing with that is experiencing this problem on the Ricoh printer.

%!

<<

  /Duplex true

>> setpagedevice

<</PageSize [612.0 792.0]>> setpagedevice

/Courier 12 selectfont

0 648 moveto

(PAGE 1_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789_0123456789) show

showpage

0 648 moveto

(PAGE 2) show

showpage

0 648 moveto

(PAGE 3) show

showpage

0 648 moveto

(PAGE 4) show

showpage

[Dov Isaacs]

Most all toner-based have an “imageable area” that is smaller than the full physical page size. This can often be up to 0.25" (but usually less) on each side of the page. The device's engine simply won't print in those areas. Printing to the edge is most commonly referred to as “bleed.”

The way bleed is accommodated for by most professional printers (not only toner printing, but offset, inkjet, etc.) is to print on paper that is larger than the final desired resultant page and trim the paper down to that final page size.

Otherwise, you pretty much need to live with this issue.

I suggest you confirm the imageable area issue directly with Ricoh. This is not really a PostScript or an Adobe issue.

           - Dov

[james32377090]

Dov,

Thanks for the response. I am aware of the printable area. However, I do not understand what you cause the rendered output to be truncated on the left side when there is still space on the right side. I have inserted an image of one of the tests I sent to the Ricoh printer.

[Dov Isaacs]

If you post the PostScript file for us to look at, I can try to see what's going on.

            - Dov

[james32377090]

Dov,

thanks for your help.  I could not find a way to attach the postscript. to this forum. But you can access it here:

https://docs.google.com/uc?authuser=0&id=0B9Urwg35aY6rclJMY1kzY0RqNDA&export=download

.

[Dov Isaacs]

Unfortunately (or not), only moderators and staff can attach files to the forum (other than images to display in a message).

I did grab your file and as a test, ran it through Distiller. The original PostScript and the resultant PDF file are attached.

What I did notice in your PostScript and in the resultant PDF is that the page size is not defined exactly as a US Letter size page 8.5"x11" equaling 612x792 pixels, but rather just a smidgen smaller than US Letter size, 612x791 pixels, approximately 8.5"x10.99". That may be “good enough for government work” as some might state, but depending upon how your Ricoh printer is configured, it may do some unexpected and unnatural acts on these pages due to the mismatch.

You might want to change line 1688 from /PageSize [612 791]  to /PageSize [612 792] and line 1693 from [1 0 0 -1 0 790.56] CT to [1 0 0 0 0 792] CT and see if that helps in any way, understanding of course that you will get some white space around the entire edge of the page due to imageable area issues. Beyond that, I think you will need to talk directly with Ricoh.

          - Dov

[james32377090]

Dov,

thanks a million. I will make your changes and test it out . What is

"Distiller" is this some product for testing Postscript?

Thanks,

James

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 1:09 PM, Dov Isaacs <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Dov Isaacs]

Distiller is a component of Acrobat that converts PostScript to PDF.

            - Dov

[Test Screen Name]

I may have missed something, but you seem to be asking why the output is truncated on the left when there is room on the right. You use lines such as 0 648 moveto (PAGE 2) show

Well... you indicate the graphics position is 0,648 which should normally be the extreme left edge of the paper, not the imagable area. I would expect almost any real printer to cut this off (though Distiller won't because its imagable area is the entire page).

Are you expecting that the printer will get the image of a larger page, work out its boundary, and shift it on the page so you can see the entire content? It won't do that, and it would be a catastrophe if it did.

Some PostScript does start by getting the bounding box of the default clipping path and assume it is the imagable area, then set in that. But this can't be recommended; best to just allow generous margins, preferably to using the printer PPD to recognise the minimum useful margin.

[abeddie]

I sent Sample.ps to another printer and it had about 1/8 inch of white space on the top and left and 3/8 inch on the right. Characters were clipped on the left and right sides. My guess is the media is being grabbed by rollers on the right side and the rest of the non printing area is to avoid writing off the media.

A simple test to show the unprintable are so you can rule out issues with Sample.ps

%!

.8 setgray

0 0 612 792 rectfill

showpage

As a side note you could rotate the page 180 degrees to get more of the barcode.

[james32377090]

Would you mind explaining this further? why would rotating the page 180 make a difference?

[abeddie]

The rotate would place the barcode on the other side away from the non-printable area. You could also scale the page

so nothing is clipped off.

[james32377090]

Unfortunately, the barcode must be in the top right on the back of each page. As far as the scaling is concerned, Is there a postscript command for scale to fit?

[abeddie]

For example if your entire page has a width of 8.5 inches = 612 points and width of what is clipped is 1/2 inch = 36 points

then 612 36 sub 612 div 1 scale

or 612 36 sub 612 div dup scale % keep the same aspect ratio

You can also use translate if you need to move it on the page.