[Kde-print-devel] [Bug 129250] print preview does not display more pages on one

[Michael Goffioul]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=129250         




------- Additional Comments From kdeprint_bugs swing be  2006-06-19 10:12 -------
Adobe reader handles 2-up printing itself, it does not relies on external tools (like psnup or CUPS) to do it. That's why you can see directly the result. KDE relies on external tool to produce n-up printing:
- psnup: when printing to a pseudo-printer (like "print-to-PS"), it then have access to the result *before* sending the data to CUPS
- CUPS: when printing to a real printer, it then have *not* access to the result

At the time I wrote the code, I implemented a mixed of both. At that time, there was nothing, so it was better anyway. However, it now reveals inconsistent and confusing. The Apple-way is the easiest, but you have to be sure that psnup will match *exactly* what CUPS will do; otherwise people will complain pretty soon. I also see 2 other solutions:
1) use psnup in all cases, but you loose something if the CUPS implementation provides more features (and you need psnup installed to make things work)
2) handle n-up printing in Qt/kdeprint transparently, using automatic scaling and rotation in the paint device; this requires much more work from the developper; you could also think about the same to perform page selection.