[okular] [Bug 403263] New: Okular scales down pages when printing

[Sergio]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=403263

            Bug ID: 403263
           Summary: Okular scales down pages when printing
           Product: okular
           Version: 1.3.3
          Platform: Other
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: printing
          Assignee: okular-devel at kde.org
          Reporter: sergio.callegari at gmail.com
  Target Milestone: ---

Created attachment 117484
  --> https://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=117484&action=edit
Test document with cropmarks delimiting a 17 * 24.4 cm virtual page on A4 paper

SUMMARY

In the preparation of a booklet, I have noticed that okular prints pages
slightly scaled down, which hinders the booklet preparation process.

On the same system (linux, ubuntu 18.04), printing with an old acroread 9.5.5
and "page scaling = none" produces the correct output. So does printing with
"master pdf editor" that is a QT application like okular. Hence, the issue
doesn't seem to be in the system printing backend, rather in okular itself.

Let me detail the issue.

The booklet drafting process is based on a LaTeX flow. The booklet will
eventually be printed on a 17*24.4 cm format. Drafts are produced on A4 paper
with crop marks creating a "virtual" 17*24.4 cm page on the physical A4 page.
The cropmarks are used to cut the draft copies down to the right format. This
flow is supported by the LaTeX "crop" package.

Now the issue is that pages printed via okular have the crop marks in the wrong
place. Once printed with okular, the virtual page ends up being 16.3 cm * 23.4
cm. Printing with acroread, masterpdf editor, etc. produces printouts where the
virtual page inside the cropmarks is exactly 17 * 24.4.

An interesting fact is that okular has no "print scaling option" in its qt
print dialog so it decides by itself whether to scale a printout or not.
However, it should not arbitrarily decide to apply scaling to something that is
A4 and meant to be printed on A4.

In case the latest okular/qt libraries combination does not show the issue,
please do not just dismiss the bug, but consider backporting the fix.
Specifically, I hope that the issue can be resolved for versions of okular
working with qt 5.9.x that is the current qt version with long term support and
the qt version shipped by most distros.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open a document with an A4 page and reference marks known to be at some
distance.
2. Print with okular
3. Measure on paper the distance between the reference marks

OBSERVED RESULT

The distance between the reference marks is /less/ than it should.

EXPECTED RESULT

The distance between the reference marks should be the pre-assigned one.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
MacOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: 
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 
KDE Frameworks Version: 
Qt Version: 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are the assignee for the bug.