[Kde-print-devel] [Bug 107936] [KDE4] Make selection for layout order of "multiple pages on one sheet" more easy

[Boris]

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107936


Boris barbour ens fr changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |barbour at ens.fr




--- Comment #30 from Boris <barbour ens fr>  2009-01-16 00:28:58 ---
I think I can clear up some of the recurring confusion here. I was struggling
with this myself.

Use case: I want to print a lecture pdf 4-up as a condensed handout for
students. I change nothing except the "4 pages per sheet" option in the
"properties" menu of the kprinter dialogue. In particular, the default portrait
option is always active (the print system seems to rotate the landscape slides
automatically when printing 1 page per sheet).

The 4up output page order appears wrong. Viewed as *landscape* (imposed by the
orientation of the slides), I get top-right, bot-right, top-left, bot-left.

The suggested solution is to add "number-up-layout / <option>" to Additional
tags in the kprinter dialogue, where option is something like "lrtb". You go
blue in the face telling it you want "lrtb" (or "tblr"), but the first slide
will always be annoyingly on the right, not top-left. There are eight options
(and you can throw in the landscape selection etc). You get lost in option
combination space.

The real solution is to realise that the printing is still occurring in
*portrait*, so the top-left of the page as you read it was in fact the
bottom-left corner when printing in the portrait orientation. You
subconsciously rotate the page before reading it.

The option "lrbt" (or "btlr") for the default portrait orientation should then
give the expected output when switching from 1 page per sheet to 4-up without
changing other options (it works for me in Debian testing; KDE 3.5). This will
only be active during n-up printing and should therefore not intrude much
otherwise. It is not a general solution, though.

This is something of a black hole for users:
- a very obscure configuration option (even users who know about "what's this"
and think to click IN the additional tags dialog and not ON its tab get a
general description that refers to the cups manual; certainly nobody's
grandmother or even a nobel laureate will get that far and read the manual to
find the correct option, even more so it they don't even know it exists!!!!!)
- awkward interaction of automagic (rotation of landscape to portrait) with a
bewildering mix of obvious options (portrait, landscape, reverse landscape...)
and 8 hidden layout options "lrtb", "rltb", etc. How many combinations??
- simply switching to landscape (without the additional tag) did not work for
me.

This needs to be addressed systematically, taking all parameters into account
(page orientation, orientation setting, paper orientation, number of pages per
sheet, etc...) It may be possible to reduce the option combination space to a
few automagic switches that can do the "right things". Or it may be necessary
to expose a very detailed and explicit menu. But this is a very useful feature
and it would be satisfying to get it right.


-- 
Configure bugmail: http://bugs.kde.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the assignee for the bug.