bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Marvin Gülker]

Dear Maintainers,

setting the `ps-paper-type' variable and then calling 
`ps-print-buffer-with-faces' does not have an effect on the paper size 
of the page at all. It only affects the region in which the text drawn 
onto a standard-sized paper. For instance, if `ps-paper-size' is set to 
`diskette' (which is very small) the drawing area is confined to a very 
little region on the bottom-left of a full-size A4 paper sheet. I would 
have expected that setting `ps-paper-size' changes the actual paper 
size, not the drawing region, so that the resulting PS file has the 
dimensions of (in this example) `diskette'.

To reproduce, create a file with several paragraphs of arbitrary text so 
it does not fit on one page of the chosen size. Then, start Emacs with 
emacs -Q and do the following:

1. Visit said file.
2. M-x set-variable ps-paper-type diskette
3. M-x set-variable ps-print-header nil ;; without this an error occurs
4. C-u M-x ps-print-buffer-with-faces result.ps

Open the resulting PS file with ghostscript or convert it to PDF with 
ps2pdf. The text is drawn onto a very small region on the bottom-left of 
an A4 paper sheet. Instead, it should have been a very small page entirely.


In GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.5)
 of 2019-09-23, modified by Debian built on x86-grnet-01
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12004000
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Loading ps-print...done
Formatting...  0%
Collecting face information...
Formatting...done
Saving...
Wrote /tmp/lorem.txt.ps [2 times]
You can run the command ‘ps-print-buffer-with-faces’ with M-x -p-b-w RET
Wrote /tmp/lorem.txt.ps

Configured using:
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bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Marvin Gülker <post+ebugs@guelker.eu> writes:

> setting the `ps-paper-type' variable and then calling
> `ps-print-buffer-with-faces' does not have an effect on the paper size
> of the page at all. It only affects the region in which the text drawn
> onto a standard-sized paper.

Yes, that's what it's documented to do:

"Specify the size of paper to format for."

It doesn't say anything about changing the paper size of the page.  So I
think Emacs behaves as advertised here, and I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Nick Helm]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Marvin Gülker <post+ebugs@guelker.eu> writes:
>
>> setting the `ps-paper-type' variable and then calling
>> `ps-print-buffer-with-faces' does not have an effect on the paper size
>> of the page at all. It only affects the region in which the text drawn
>> onto a standard-sized paper.
>
> Yes, that's what it's documented to do:
>
> "Specify the size of paper to format for."
>
> It doesn't say anything about changing the paper size of the page.  So I
> think Emacs behaves as advertised here, and I'm closing this bug report.

I've had a problem with this for years.

Confusingly, ps-paper-type does seem to behave as you describe. But if 
that's the case, how to actually set the page size of postscript output? 
(and for clarity, by page size, I'm referring to the dimensions of the 
white rectangle that sits behind the printed text, the digital analogue 
of the bleached tree carcass that runs through the machine in the corner 
of the office).

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > "Specify the size of paper to format for."

  > It doesn't say anything about changing the paper size of the page.  So I
  > think Emacs behaves as advertised here, and I'm closing this bug report.

I agree that this isn't a bug in Emacs's code.  But is the
documentation perhaps prone to misunderstanding?  Would clarifying it
be useful?  Pointing at where to get info about changing the paper
size?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Nick Helm <nick@tenpoint.co.nz> writes:

> Confusingly, ps-paper-type does seem to behave as you describe. But if 
> that's the case, how to actually set the page size of postscript output? 
> (and for clarity, by page size, I'm referring to the dimensions of the 
> white rectangle that sits behind the printed text, the digital analogue 
> of the bleached tree carcass that runs through the machine in the corner 
> of the office).

To the best of my knowledge (which isn't very good in this area), Emacs
doesn't have a way of actually controlling that.  (Please somebody
correct me if that's wrong).  The support for printing from Emacs is
unfortunately somewhat weak.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Marvin ‘quintus’ Gülker]

Personally, I have worked around this problem by now. I use org-mode to
export my document to LaTeX. org-mode can be used with the KOMA-Script
classes, which in turn support outputting nearly any imaginable paper
size. In my org document, I then simply set the `LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS'
option to the paper size I want. org-mode picks it up on exporting and
LaTeX then creates a document of the size I wish it to have.

That being said, it's a workaround. It's good enough for me, but YMMV.

Am Donnerstag, dem 22. Oktober 2020 schrieb Richard Stallman:
> I agree that this isn't a bug in Emacs's code.  But is the
> documentation perhaps prone to misunderstanding?  Would clarifying it
> be useful?

I (being not an English native speaker) interpreted it to mean that it
changes the paper size, but appearently other people think it means
something different. I have had other bugs closed because I am
appearently quite talented in misreading documentation, so please don't
take my interpretation as authoritative.

  -quintus

-- 
Dipl.-Jur. M. Gülker | https://mg.guelker.eu |    For security:
Passau, Germany      | kontakt@guelker.eu    | () Avoid HTML e-mail
European Union       | PGP: see homepage     | /\ http://asciiribbon.org

bug#41613: 26.1; ps-paper-type does not change page size

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > To the best of my knowledge (which isn't very good in this area), Emacs
  > doesn't have a way of actually controlling that.  (Please somebody
  > correct me if that's wrong).  The support for printing from Emacs is
  > unfortunately somewhat weak.

If someone would like to implement better printing support, that would
be nice.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)