Duplex-Print: WHY IS IT NOT FIXED?

dettus · September 11, 2023, 5:48pm

Why is the Duplex-Print issue still not fixed?

All it takes to work with the “Generic Printer” is something that can be done EASILY with ghostscript:


cat input.pdf | gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOutputFile=- -c "<</PSDocOptions (<</Duplex true>> setpagedevice)>> setdistillerparams" -f- | lpr

So why does one have to save ANY libreoffice document as .pdf first and then type in this command line?
Why can’t libreoffice do it itself?

More importantly: WHERE CAN I FILE THIS ISSUE PROPERLY? IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR DECADES!!
My solution for a hotfix: Remove the non-functioning “duplex print” button alltogether.
It is broken.

ajlittoz · September 11, 2023, 6:36pm

Is your question specific to the database interface component? You tagged base. If this not the case (it applies to all components Writer, Calc, …), retag your question with common.

Nevertheless, edit your question (don’t use a comment) to mention your OS name and LO version. This is probably an issue with the printer driver; so, name your printer (brand and model) et the printer driver. I have no problem under Linux (you mention GhostPrint; then you’re probably under MacOS or Linux; in the latter case, mention your distro, desktop manager and whether you’re under XOrg or Wayland).

dettus · September 11, 2023, 6:54pm

My apologies regarding the confusion about common/base.

My OS is FreeBSD, as well as OpenBSD.
I will give it a try with Ubuntu later, but I am quite skeptical that it would work there.
You see, there is actually no “Printer Driver” when you select “Generic Printer” with libreoffice. All that happens in the background is a call to lpr.

And on my OS, the lpr command simply forwards the .pdf/.ps Streams to the network printer, and that is where the problem comes in: It simply DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY OPTIONS.

Thus, my solution (which I took the liberty of writing in the quotes) is to switch on the Duplex Printing right there in the Postscript Stream. What it does is to add a header to each page, which is then parsed correctly by the printer. Tadaa: Duplex. (Long Edge Binding).

So please allow me to extend my suggestion for a Hotfix by a Suggestion for a Solution: Add a “Generic Postscript Printer with Duplex” to the list of default printers. One that adds the extra Postscript code to each page.
OR: Add a “Generic Printer Pipe” where I would be able to type in something like

gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOutputFile=- -c "<</PSDocOptions (<</Duplex true>> setpagedevice)>> setdistillerparams" -f - | lpr

myself.

ajlittoz · September 12, 2023, 7:21am

We can’t do that. Contributors on this site are users just like you sharing their experience with LO as it exists in the installed source. Any feature request or improvement should be channelled to the Bugzilla site where you can reach developers.

A comment about your context. FreeBSD and OpenBSD are different from Linux. If I understand correctly, print requests are directly forwarded to lpr (which anyway should have a driver for the physical printer). In Fedora and many other Linux distros, the print request is handled by CUPS, a subsystem which manages the printers. Some of these printers are “generic” and have various options, among which Duplex. Consequently:

what you request already exists (if you give Ubuntu a try, CUPS should be available)
the printing subsystem is independent from LO
Developers trust this subsystem on any platform and won’t embark in any modification. This is a tremendous task and there is already not enough man-resources to fix all reported bugs.