InDesign print page size problem since 10.5.5

[Luke_La...@adobeforums.com]

Hello all,

Iv got a problem that started yesterday when i upgraded to 10.5.5

When printing to either of our rips i have always been able to set the page size in the indesign print dialog

since 10.5.5 i can set the size there but for some reason it is telling the rip the size that is set in the page setup dialog

I have the latest version of indesign, i have tried trashing my preferences etc

It works as it should in illustrator etc its just indesign that is not working correctly anymore - anyone got any ideas?

[René_Heckmann@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

we've the same problem, but also no solution.
InDesign CS2 is still working fine. In our tests only CS3 is affected.
We are working with a German environment (MacOS X and InDesign). I've no possibilities to test other languages.

Regards
René Heckmann
Foag & Lemkau GmbH

[René_Heckmann@adobeforums.com]

[Robert...@adobeforums.com]

There is another discussion going regarding distortion of InDesign pages when printed to Xerox Phasers. In my case. my art is being distorted in shape to 50% vertical and 100% horizontal. This occurs only in InDesign and no other program, and began with the install of OS 10.5.5...

No solution yet.

BK

[kim_m...@adobeforums.com]

We have the same page size problem using indesign cs3 and Mac 10.5.5

[Tiago_H...@adobeforums.com]

We are having the same problem also... Everytime we need a custom page size, we need to set it up also on the Page Setup dialog.
Been with Indesign since version 1.5 on OS 9, and this only started to happen on CS3 (5.0.3), on 10.5.5.

[Jerem...@adobeforums.com]

Same issue here, as I mentioned in the other 10.5.5 thread. I had to reinstall Mac OS to get back to 10.5.4 and things returned to normal.

[Luke_La...@adobeforums.com]

hmm seems like a serious problem them!

[Roger...@adobeforums.com]

Jeremy, same problem here. I can't get any page size other than 8.5 x 11. I've tried the Page Setup dialog change but it does not change the output. Specifically what steps are you taking to get your output to change correctly?

[Micha...@adobeforums.com]

We're experiencing a very similar problem printing Windows InDesign CS3 via a Mac 10.5.5 Server (mac or windows forum? :)). The tray is not respected and the document enlarges to 200% regardless of size settings. No issues printing from InDesign CS2 (Mac). Have not tested with InDesign CS3 Mac.

This issue started immediately after upgrading the server from OSX 10.5.4 Server to OSX 10.5.5 Server. Looks like an Apple bug to me.

[Thomas_...@adobeforums.com]

@Roger: You need to set the page size in the InDesign-print dialogue to "Custom" and then define _and_ select an equivalent page size in the MacOS dialogue (i. e. through a different application like Text Edit). That produces correct printouts in my environment.
Regards,
Tom

[Cindy_J...@adobeforums.com]

My Agfa 1000 (12" Film) got messed up, too. All my film came out 8.5 x 11. To fix it I had to go to Page Setup>Paper Size>Manage Custom Sizes and create several size pages: 12 x 6, 12 x 12, 12 x 18, etc. I also had to go into the RIP and change a few things to get 133 lpi. It seemed to be stuck on 150.

My R1800 and Xante 21 are fine.

Tomorrow I'll see if the Screen FT-R3050 works.

iMac, 4 GB RAM, CS3

[Roger...@adobeforums.com]

I reloaded up to OSX 10.5.4 and problem disappeared. I called Apple and they are waaaaaaayyyyyyy aware of the problem. She was very nice and apologized for the bug. I usually don't use software update until checking the boards but this time I did at the end of the day. Never again will I jump the gun.

[F vd Geest (aka. Wa veghel)]

Other 10.5.5 and InDesign CS3 related problem with HP printers: printing at economode or anthing else as 1200 dpi (like FastRes 1200 or 600 dpi) results in the page printed being scaled up!
Only since 10.5.5 upgrade. Reinstalling standard HP drivers (overwriting the Apple 1.1.1 HP update) does not resolve this.
Everytime. every HP and only InDesign CS3...

?????

[Micha...@adobeforums.com]

Fvd: That's happening on Lexmark's too. Not HP-specific. And it happens going via OSX 10.5.5 Server regardless even when printing from Windows, which should be generating it's own postscript that the CUPS server shouldn't touch. Looks like the CUPS server is playing around with the print header info in a not-so-nice way.

[L...@adobeforums.com]

I have a semi solution. If you close indesign and go to the applications folder. Find Indesign and call up the "Get Info". Unlock the lock on the bottom and then Check to run in Rosetta... this will give you some type of fix. I'm not saying that it's a perfect one but at least its working.

[F vd Geest (aka. Wa veghel)]

Another working solution: set Page Size to 'Defined by driver'! This works for HP printers and Xerox!

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

I just spent 2 days trying to fix this problem. I decided to restore 10.5.4 from my clone only to find system errors in the clone and it wouldn't restore after having just erased my main HD. So I had to do a complete erase and install and move all my files over from the clone. I then updated to 10.5.5 because I had downloaded the combo update and it was handy, and the problem is still there.

Going to go back to 10.5.4 and not update for a while. First time I've had a serious problem with an Apple update.

Then as I went to leave my studio and go home after a 6 hour day that was only supposed to be a 2 hour day my car wouldn't start.

Sure wish I had read this forum this morning.

[White_...@adobeforums.com]

The best feature about Leopard would seem to be Time Machine.
Used it to restore back to 10.5.4...worked like a charm.

[Jon_H...@adobeforums.com]

This solution worked for me

Another working solution: set Page Size to 'Defined by driver'! This works

for HP printers and Xerox! F vd Geest (aka. Wa veghel), "InDesign print
page size problem since 10.5.5" #16, 20 Sep 2008 9:17 am </webx?14@@.59b680a1/15>

[Luke_La...@adobeforums.com]

its a temporary solution but its a pain when using a wide format proofer or imagesetter because you dont normally use standard sizes

[Hans_van_...@adobeforums.com]

Here the same problem with a Brisque workfow. I found out after starting up on a separate disk with OS X 10.5.4 and the latest CS3 there was no problem. It started with upgrading to 10.5.5

I have spend a day and a halve already to find a solution......

The problem is I can't downgrade because they don't use Timemachine here. Who can give me a advice how I can downgrade to 10.5.4 ?

[Phil_s...@adobeforums.com]

The only way I have heard to get around this is to open InDesign using Rosetta (under Get Info). Of course this defeats the purpose of using an intel processor but it will get you by until you have time to downgrade to 10.5.4 or one of the software developers fixes the issue.

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

As Phil says changing it to Rosetta in the Get Info box will fix it at least for now.

To downgrade to 10.5.4 you need to start up from the install DVD and do an Archive and Install, which will put you back to the version of Leopard on the disk. Then download the combo update of 10.5.4 then reinstall that, do not use Software Update for this.

Repair Permissions (just to be safe), then run Software Update because there are several things not included in the Combo Update, but be sure and click off the 10.5.5 update before running it. Then Repair Permissions again.

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

I used Pacifist to compare all CUPS files between 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 combo updates. I removed all CUPS files from my 10.5.5 installation and then copied all CUPS files from the 10.5.4 combo update. It fixed the problem.

I would remove/install individual files to try and determine exactly what is happening and come up with a proper fix, but I don't know if it will be that simple. I expect that Apple should be rectifying this problem with a simple CUPS engine update VERY soon.

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

Through trial and error, it appears to be a problem in the file located at:

/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops

If you copy that file from a working 10.5.4 installation then it should work. At least it does for me. Your mileage may vary, I'm not responsible, etc.

The easiest (and likely safest) way to do this is to download the 10.5.4 combo update from Apple.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1054comboupdate.html>

And Pacifist:
<http://www.charlessoft.com/>

1) Mount the combo update DMG and open the .pkg file using Pacifist.
2) Navigate down to /usr/libexec/cups/filter/
3) click on pstops and hit "install" on the top left
4) enter your password
5) hit replace

That's it. Keep in mind I've only tested it on my main box, but I don't see why it shouldn't work for everyone else.

This likely will not break your install in case Apple comes out with a fix. If you're worried then just backup your 10.5.5 pstops file. (hit Command-G, enter /usr/libexec/cups/filter/ and copy the pstops file somewhere safe (or just rename a copy in the current location). You _may_ have to repair your permissions.

[Eric...@adobeforums.com]

I've got the same problem with illustrator. Impossible to print properly. I hope Apple ou Adobe will solve the problem very soon.

[F vd Geest (aka. Wa veghel)]

/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops

yes, did the trick for me! (just used TimeMachine to reinstall only this file)

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

George: That worked! Thanks a lot for taking the time to sniff that out. It was really easy but I think Repairing Permissions is necessary because I did get a log entry that said it was fixing cups.

Oddly enough my clone did not have a usr folder so I had to use the Combo Update. Not a big deal since I already had that but I wonder why that didn't get cloned.

[Rob_Go...@adobeforums.com]

The solution above, to set Page Size to 'Defined by driver' (under Print/Setup) is working best for me. InDesign was running noticeably slower under Rosetta (especially w/large graphics-intensive documents), so this seems to best workaround I've found. Thanks so much!

[Laura...@adobeforums.com]

I tried "Defined by driver" and it didn't work. That's the FIRST thing I tried when I experienced the problem. I was working around it by using Acrobat, but now it's doing the same thing. Rosetta's working (albeit slow) until I replace my pstop with one from 10.5.4!

[Rob_Go...@adobeforums.com]

I just tried George's solution of using Pacifist to replace the pstops file from the 10.5.4 combo update, and it worked like a charm-- thanks!

[Laura...@adobeforums.com]

I just tried George's solution as well. Worked wonderfully! I LOVE YOU!!! LOL! You saved my sanity! How the heck did you track down that one pstop?

[Rodney...@adobeforums.com]

I used George's tip without Pacifist or a combo update (I tend to use the Software Update feature to keep things up to date). It's actually command-shift-G in the Finder to enable you to open the hidden folder, paste /usr/libexec/cups/filter/ as the go-to line. Then I used Time Machine to go back to a point where that one file hadn't yet been updated.

Printing is fine. Let's hope the thing's stable :-)

Rodney

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

I was working on the computer and sending print jobs out all day and no problems at all.

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

LOL@Laura! I love your enthusiasm. I just replaced everything with the name cups to the ones from 10.5.4 piece by piece and kept going until it worked. :)

I'm glad it's working out... hopefully we'll have a real fix soon.

[mlaunatadobedotcom]

Hi everyone,
We at Adobe are working to understand the change and work with Apple to find a solution. In the meantime, I've published a KB article here: <http://www.adobe.com/go/kb406381>
I plan to update it today once I've confirmed the impact on Acrobat/Reader 9. Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3, and Acrobat 9 share a print engine that tends to be unique in it's use of certain Apple APIs to synch information about media.
I've only been able to test to a dozen or so printers so far, and the only one that showed a problem was an HP 1320, so I could use some information about your printers (see my request below). I have not reproduced any problems using Illustrator and InDesign CS2 and CS4, and Acrobat 8.
Also, the Adobe PDF printer also has this problem, it has an additional workaround which is to change it's resolution to 600dpi. This makes me wonder if changing the resolution in your device's print options makes any difference, so try that if it's available.

Can you please post with your printer model, which applications are affected, and whether you can workaround the issue?

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

I print film separations to an Epson 7600. First I have to send the print job to a Wasatch RIP print server over the ethernet so I'm not printing directly to the Epson. However, I do use a PPD supplied by Wasatch for the Epson that is 4 years old and from what I can tell of Wasatch I will never get an update for that unless I upgrade the RIP.

I'm printing from InDesign CS3 on a white Intel iMac 2.16 Ghz with 3 GB of ram. All it is doing is not letting me size the page from the InDesign print dialog menu but automatically defaults to the Page Setup page size, with is Letter. If I go in and set the size via Page Setup I can print, but this is an incredible hassle since no 2 print jobs are the same size for me. And up until the 10.5.5 update it was working just fine and the problem was solved by replacing that one file in Cups that has been mentioned here.

I tested Illustrator CS3 before changing the Cups file and it printed fine, with the Illustrator dialog window overriding Page Setup settings.

That file again is:
/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops

Simply replacing pstops with the 10.5.4 version fixed it without causing any other problems.

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

I've only seen the problem in InDesign, since that's the only program I print from. I had a look at the pstops files in 10.5.5 and 10.5.4 to check for any changes. There's a bunch of binary that I (obviously) can't read, so I can't determine if the problem is there. But the biggest thing that stood out to me was a line that changes from:

[D...@adobeforums.com]

So far the only time I have seen this is with 8.5 x 11 page sizes. I have not seen it with 11 x 17 or 12 x 18. What I did different that works with 8.5 x 11s is to set "Define by Driver" in Setup in in Page Setup choose US Letter.

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

George: Good point, anyone printing mostly to a Letter size printer would not notice a problem because the page setup default is usually to Letter, it's only those who print to larger sizes who would have a problem. I printed out 3 jobs all different sizes but all large, one at 20" x 24". Fortunately my Wasatch RIP allows me to view my files before sending to printer so I didn't waste any film. But imagine my surprised to find all jobs cropped to 8.5" x 11".

But exchanging that pstops file fixed it with no apparent problems. I've done many prints and working a full day on the computer with no problem at all.

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

DYP: when you're printing to 11x17 or 12x18 and NOT having problems, what is your page size set up as in Page Setup? I suspect that your page size in Page Setup was set to 11x17 or 12x18, which would make 8.5x11s give a problem, but not with the larger size.

[D...@adobeforums.com]

Interesting question as I did not go into page setup for the 11 x 17 and or 12 x 18.

I have to check that out.

[Hans_van_...@adobeforums.com]

John Blanchard on the Apple User Forum has the solution:
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1714737>
It made me happy! Maybe you too!

[mlaunatadobedotcom]

George,
I've reproduced this using Letter and A4. I'm sure that it will repeat with other page sizes, but I'm not sure how to predict which printers will show the problem and which will not. Thanks to the fact that this reproduces using the Adobe PDF 8.0 printer, I think Apple will now be able to reproduce it themselves. So hopefully, we'll soon have new insights into the issue.

[Thomas Kaiser (MUC)]

Hi Matt,

analyzing the printing problems has been very interesting.

The first insight:

Using ID CS3 with PPC-Code (either by running it on a PPC Mac or on an Intel machine using Rosetta by setting the appropriate checkbox) does not result in printing problems in MacOS X 10.5.5 (so using ID CS3 on an Intel machine in Rosetta emulation works around the problem as well ;-)

The reason seems to be simple. When using ID CS3 in PPC mode different program code seems to be used because in this case ID produces "PICT with embedded PostScript" (application/pictspstops) which will be postprocessed by the pictwpstops filter which is not affected by the changed pstops behaviour introduced in 10.5.5 (see below). ID CS3 in Intel mode will produce directly PostScript (application/postscript).

(Steps to reproduce: Simply print on an Intel machine using Rosetta or not and watch /var/log/cups/error_log)

Another evidence for different program code regarding printing is the bug that affects international customers when the ID document's name contains special characters like eg. umlauts. ID CS3 in Intel mode will produce a wrong "%%Title" DSC (PostScript comment) but not in PPC mode. When the ID document in question is called for example "IDCS3-Täst.indd" then the Intel code will produce:

"%%Title: FEFF00490044004300530033002D00540061030800730074002E0069006E0064006400005F780024 0018007900620000000043382D65000000000000000000000000"

while the PPC code produces correctly "%%Title: (IDCS3-T\303\244st.indd)" instead.

(detailed problem description including a fix available here: <http://kaiser-edv.de/news/MacOS/indesign-cs3-postscript-title.html> -- unfortunately only in german)

(BTW: The same applies to the contents of the "%%For" comment describing the print job owner -- different behaviour depending on whether ID CS3 is running with Intel code or PPC code)

Regarding the problem with Apple's pstops filter in 10.5.5 the only difference is the appearance of the paper size definitions in the PostScript code. In 10.5.4 the definition from Apples printing dialog (PPD) preceds the one from Adobe. In 10.5.5 it's the other way around -- see below.

When ID's paper definition comes before the one from Apple's printing dialog then downstream calculations of the current transformation matrix will go wrong which results in the scaling problems many users see with 10.5.5 on Intel macs.

Regards,

Thomas

Difference in PS code regarding appearance of paper size definitions between 10.5.4 and 10.5.5 when using CUPS' pstops filter:

10.5.4:

%%BeginSetup
% Disable CTRL-D as an end-of-file marker...
userdict dup(\004)cvn{}put (\004\004)cvn{}put
[{
%%BeginFeature: *Resolution 1200dpi
1 dict dup /HWResolution [1200 1200] put setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} stopped cleartomark
[{
%%BeginFeature: *PageSize A4

2 dict dup /PageSize [595.22 842] put dup /ImagingBBox null put
setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} stopped cleartomark
% x y w h ESPrc - Clip to a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrc/rectclip where{pop/rectclip load}
{{newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath clip newpath}bind}ifelse put
% x y w h ESPrf - Fill a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrf/rectfill where{pop/rectfill load}
{{gsave newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath fill grestore}bind}ifelse put
% x y w h ESPrs - Stroke a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrs/rectstroke where{pop/rectstroke load}
{{gsave newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath stroke grestore}bind}ifelse put
userdict/ESPwl{}bind put
Adobe_AGM_Utils begin
3 3010 Adobe_AGM_Core/ds gx
false Adobe_AGM_Core/begin_feature gx false {
%%BeginFeature: *CustomPageSize True
478.535432 654.283494 0.000000 0.000000 1

4 dict begin
3 1 roll
2 array astore /PageOffset exch def
2 mod 0 eq {exch} if
2 array astore /PageSize exch def
/ImagingBBox null def
currentdict end setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} Adobe_AGM_Core/end_feature gx
Adobe_AGM_Core/driver_media_override gx
Adobe_CoolType_Core/ds get exec
Adobe_AGM_Image/ds gx
currentdict Adobe_AGM_Utils eq {end} if
%%EndSetup

10.5.5:

%%BeginSetup
Adobe_AGM_Utils begin
3 3010 Adobe_AGM_Core/ds gx
false Adobe_AGM_Core/begin_feature gx false {
%%BeginFeature: *CustomPageSize True
478.535432 654.283494 0.000000 0.000000 1

4 dict begin
3 1 roll
2 array astore /PageOffset exch def
2 mod 0 eq {exch} if
2 array astore /PageSize exch def
/ImagingBBox null def
currentdict end setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} Adobe_AGM_Core/end_feature gx
Adobe_AGM_Core/driver_media_override gx
Adobe_CoolType_Core/ds get exec
Adobe_AGM_Image/ds gx
currentdict Adobe_AGM_Utils eq {end} if
% Disable CTRL-D as an end-of-file marker...
userdict dup(\004)cvn{}put (\004\004)cvn{}put
[{
%%BeginFeature: *Resolution 1200dpi
1 dict dup /HWResolution [1200 1200] put setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} stopped cleartomark
[{
%%BeginFeature: *PageSize A4

2 dict dup /PageSize [595.22 842] put dup /ImagingBBox null put
setpagedevice
%%EndFeature
} stopped cleartomark
% x y w h ESPrc - Clip to a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrc/rectclip where{pop/rectclip load}
{{newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath clip newpath}bind}ifelse put
% x y w h ESPrf - Fill a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrf/rectfill where{pop/rectfill load}
{{gsave newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath fill grestore}bind}ifelse put
% x y w h ESPrs - Stroke a rectangle.
userdict/ESPrs/rectstroke where{pop/rectstroke load}
{{gsave newpath 4 2 roll moveto 1 index 0 rlineto 0 exch rlineto
neg 0 rlineto closepath stroke grestore}bind}ifelse put
userdict/ESPwl{}bind put
%%EndSetup

[Micha...@adobeforums.com]

Matthew Laun:

These are the applications and printers that we have encountered the issue with. All printing done via an OSX 10.5.5 Server

Printers: HP LaserJet 4000, HP LaserJet 4200, HP LaserJet 4250, Lexmark C770. Tray selection is ignored. Prints are scaled to 200% origional.

Applications: InDesign CS3 Mac; InDesign CS3 Windows via a OSX Server 10.5.5. We have not tested Illustrator or Photoshop.

Applications not apparently affected: Acrobat 8 Mac, Acrobat 9 Mac, Acrobat 8 Windows (see note) via OSX 10.5.5 server

Note: MS Windows has an additional issue - ALL Windows applications can no longer select tray, duplex, or other printer options when printing via OSX 10.5.5 server. Therefore, it appears that there is a very big bug in how Apple changed the printing system, semi-related to the Adobe printing issue.

[White_...@adobeforums.com]

To add to the problematic list:

Using InDesign CS3 5.03/OSX 10.5.5

Printers also Include: Xerox Phaser 7750 AND 7760

[Thomas...@phg-online.de]

@Michael Ney:

Please don't mix up different scenarios (like printing locally and using MacOS X Server as a print spooler -- the latter is one of the worst print spooler implementations I've ever seen)

And please don't blame Apple for Adobe's mistakes. Printing with InDesign on MacOS X is simply broken by design. Adobe's PostScript library generates perfect PS code including such details like paper size definition, positive/negative output, tiled printing, even handling of copies and so on.

This PostScript stream will then be sent through Apple's spool system (CUPS) which again modifies the PostScript data stream (adding code for paper size definitions, positive/negative output, tiled/n'up-printing and the like -- the same stuff that already happened before!). What's OK for PostScript generated by 'dumb applications' that don't have an own print settings dialog and do not generate their own PS code to handle that is wrong for applications that do so and produce fully-fledged PostScript that does not need further modifications.

The situation with InDesign on MacOS X is that both InDesign and the spool system add PostScript code to handle this sort of 'metadata' stuff apart from the actual page description. Fortunately the pstops filter did it prior to MacOS X 10.5.5 in the sequence "first CUPS then Adobe". With 10.5.5 this has changed to "first Adobe then CUPS". And "by accidence" printing problems occured using this insane approach to include PostScript code for the same purpose twice since from 10.5.5 on Apple's settings have higher priority than Adobe's.

In my opinion and based on some tests it's neither necessary nor desirable that the CUPS spool system modifies the PostScript InDesign produces. And if one forces CUPS to not alter the contents of InDesign's PostScript data stream everything is OK.

To compare yourself: I created two times a PDF using AdobePDF (Distiller-CUPS-Backend) from Acrobat 9 on MacOS X 10.5.5 Intel. The first PDF passed the pstops filter (wrong paper size from Apples printing dialog), the second not (no pstops filter involved --> no ill double modifications to printing metadata):

<http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/test-pdf900.pdf>
<http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/test-pdf900-without-pstops.pdf>

If you (or any of the Adobe folks reading this thread) asks how it can be achieved that the pstops filter doesn't modify InDesign's PostScript code...

Well, by either adding a line to the PPD used for the printer in question:

* cupsFilter: "application/postscript 0 -"

This approach is only OK for output devices that can handle PostScript directly since it overrides the whole CUPS filter chain (so it might be OK to use it for PostScript RIPs/printers but not for other devices that need ID's PS output to be filtered into their target format)

As an example where to put this line in a PPD compare with eg. <http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/Create_PS_without_pstops.ppd>

The other approach would be to alter CUPS' filter chain by adding a simple rule with higher precedence (lower number) eg. by generating a file /etc/cups/donothing.convs that contains

application/postscript application/vnd.cups-postscript 20 donothing

and adding a simple CUPS filter called donothing to the /usr/libexec/cups/filters/ directory that simply does nothing (read as: pipes the job through without modifying it). Such a filter can look like this:

<http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/donothing.txt>

I used the latter variant because using the PPD approach above will raise a problem with Adobe's PDF backend the Quark folks also ran in when trying to access the Distiller CUPS backends using a PS file instead a PS stream (also a problem originating @Adobe since they implement a CUPS backend in an insane way -- a backend has to deal with either a file or a data stream on stdin, Adobe's pdf backends are only able to cope with the latter).

To summarize:

* InDesign creates PostScript on its own containing PS code for page site, copies, tiled printing and the like

* Adobe does not take care that Apple's spool system doesn't modify their PS output with conflicting code from Apples printing dialog

* In the past everything went well just coincidentally due to the precedence of modifications to the PS code Apple's pstops filter did

* Starting with 10.5.5 this does not longer work because the conflicting PS code fragments defining printing metadata changed their order

So one could blame Apple for this little change in their pstops filter in 10.5.5. Or Adobe for letting this whole scenario happen the past years? If an application wants to have control over the print settings it should avoid that the spool system can write conflicting PS code to the spool file. Which is simple by avoiding Apple's *tops CUPS filters.

Regards,

Thomas

[Zach_...@adobeforums.com]

HP Laserjet 5200.. I print separations in Adobe Illustrator and have been doing great since March.. I them updated my computer and HP drivers and every time I go to print on a 11X17 the image is scaled at around 300% and not formatted to the page at all.. I will open a new file and print 8.5 X 11 just fine.. I know it s an Illustrator thing because I printed an 11X17 file from Photoshop and it worked fine! Any help would be awesome! I have reinstalled Illustrator, I have trashed preferences and nothing! Like I said for six months it worked flawlessly until I updated! I am working on a 24" iMac running Leopard 10.5.5! Thanks!

Zach

[dave_s...@adobeforums.com]

I think adobe came up with solutios based on this forums:

check this out:

Unexpected scaling and/or rotation when printing from Illustrator CS3 or InDesign CS3 (Mac OS X 10.5.5) kb406381

<http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb406381>

[Dennis_Va...@adobeforums.com]

i'm having the simular problem since the 10.5.5 update.

it started with me Xanté Filmmaker 4 printer that was scaling all wrong. solved it by putting it under "Defined by Driver" the next time i turned the printer on, i could not even send the print job....
very stressy if you need to print a lot of films for silc screening
after that i turned to the solution of replacing the "/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops" file with the Mac 10.5.5 combined update "pstops" file
which worked out great!! different computers in the office that couldn't print to Filmmaker4 could suddenly print again!!

BUT, now after a weekend i turn the printer on and...yep, same problem cannot send the print job and i'm NOT planning on doing the "/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops" solution every monring

SO:
i'm working on the latest software
and printing colour-seperations through InDesign CS3
paper-size isnt the issue anymore
now its "Unable to open "FilmMaker 4:*": No route to host"
our otehr printer is fine, an Epson, but we cannot print our films on it :-/

anyone have the same problem???

[Lisa_M...@adobeforums.com]

To add to the list of scenarios, I have a MacBook Pro printing to a HP LaserJet 1200. This was working fine until the 10.5.5 update to the OS. Now when printing from InDesign or Illustrator CS3 my print jobs end up scaled about 300%. This happens when the page size is set to Letter in the print dialog, but the workaround of setting the page size to 'defined by driver' works for me.

The instructions for this and other workarounds can be found here:
<http://www.adobe.com/go/kb406381>

[George_D...@adobeforums.com]

Security update 2008-007 broke the pstops hack. Everything went back to the way it was before replacing the pstops file. Then when I replaced the pstops with 10.5.4 it completely broke printing. I'm going to fix this. This is starting to get really stupid. I'm trying to be cool about this, but it's absolutely ridiculous.

I was waiting on doing the security update to see what the outcome would be... I probably should have held off completely.

Dennis: could that be your problem too?

Thomas: that's awesome stuff. I'm glad to see you're on it... now hopefully someone will listen to you and get this done instead of everything breaking again. I hope this isn't another disappearing InDesign problem that never gets fixed...

[Alex_A...@adobeforums.com]

My company is having similar issues with an odd twist. Please forgive me if this is a dupe but I read through most posts but not all of them. Here's our setup:

2x Mac Pros with 10.5.5 and ID CS3 5.0.3
1x PowerBook G4 with 10.5.5 and ID CS3 5.0.3
1x Epson Pro Stylus 7800
1x CGS ORIS RIP
1x Xinet Fullpress 15.03

I can't say for certain that our issues started with 10.5.5. We recently upgraded from 10.4.11 to 10.5.5 and that's when we noticed the problems. When printing long documents to our Epson 7800 from the Mac Pros, we have to define the size of the page in the driver in order to get the proper length (a tip that I learned from this forum). Page sizes in ID CS3 5.0.3's Print dialog box seem to not matter.

However, long before we'd upgraded the Mac Pros to 10.5.5 from 10.4.11, we had upgraded the PowerBook G4. The reason why we upgraded to 10.5.5 was that it finally seemed stable and reliable enough on the PowerBook G4 and we had done a lot of testing. The PowerBook CAN PRINT our long documents to the Epson Pro Stylus 7800 without having to specify the page size in the driver.

I'm not a programmer and I understand that there are many differences between a G4 and Core 2 Duo CPU but why would the hardware architecture matter? Do Apple or Adobe maintain separate code repositories for the different architectures? I thought XCode was supposed to take care of the cross platform issues.

[Thomas...@phg-online.de]

Alex,

you're right. The 10.5.5 printing problems only affects InDesign when running with Intel code. If you run ID CS3 on a PPC or on an Intel machine using Rosetta you will not incur problems while printing.

The reason is very simple:

Adobe uses different spool types depending on whether Intel or PPC code will be used. PPC code generates "PICT with embedded PostScript" (pictwps) which will be postprocessed by the pictwpstops CUPS filter. Intel code will produce plain PostScript which then will be postprocessed by the pstops CUPS filter. (Please don't ask me why ID spools as PICTwPS when running PPC code and PostScript when running Intel code -- this is a question only Adobe can answer)

The main problem is that both Adobe inserts PostScript code to control specific page settings as well as Apples printing dialog. The Adobe folks simply do not care about inserting conflicting PostScript code by both application and operating system (the Quark folks for example do -- they insert all page specific code on their own and take care that CUPS will not postprocess their PostScript generated from Xpress for one simple reason: Preventing things that actually happen with ID and 10.5.5)

Starting with 10.5.5 the order of interspersed PostScript code regarding these page settings changed when the pstops filter is used (so only Intel machines will be affected due to different spool formats -- see above):

Prior to 10.5.5 Apple's settings came before Adobe's. With 10.5.5 the order has changed: First Adobe's and the Apple's. The result is as expected: Wrong calculation of the CTM (current tranformation matrix) because the page format (and other settings) from Apples dialog overwrite the calculations the Adobe code does based on their page format/size definitions --> et voilà: the printing problems many users on Intel machines are affected have been introduced.

The fastest workaround (in terms of changing a setting) is to run ID on Intel machines under Rosetta emulation -- well it's fast to do this change but ID will be slow(er) afterwards.

Another opportunity would be to bypass CUPS' pstops filter completely. In that case you won't be affected by scaling problems and the like. But you won't be able to setup anything that can solely be done by Apple's printing dialog (eg. tray selection, duplex printing, printer-side watermarks or in general: Using so called 'PPD features' of the output device in question).

I've created a small installer that manipulates the CUPS filter chain so that spool files of type "application/postscript" (which will be generated by ID and other Adobe apps on Intel machines) will bypass Apple's pstops filter (and the installer or the little CUPS filter invoked will also correct another Adobe bug regarding document names containing special characters like eg. umlauts).

But unfortunately all those special settings from Apple's printing dialog (once again: mainly PPD features) can't be used any more.

So this is only a fix for some installations that do not require these specific printing settings.

Only Adobe can provide a real solution. By either preventing CUPS from inserting *conflicting* PostScript code or from altering the PostScript code *at all*. The latter would require that Adobe implements a fully flegded PPD parser in their applications, enhances their own printing dialog to present the users with the specific PPD features and insert the PS code fragments used by specific printer features into the resulting PostScript data stream so that there is no need for CUPS to insert PS code or manipulate anything.

Shouldn't be that hard for the company that 'owns' the PostScript page description language --> Adobe.

Regards,

Thomas

[Dov Isaacs]

Actually, Apple acknowledges MacOS bugs in 10.5.5 that cause these problems and has committed to fix same for 10.5.6 (release date yet unknown). In terms of the print subsystem on MacOS, Adobe generates PostScript per agreement with Apple; we don't "do our own thing" in this regards. The problem was that some changes in 10.5.5 broke the "agreement" and caused the symptoms that users of 10.5.5 are experiencing.

- Dov

PS: Indeed, Adobe's Core Technologies components do have a full PPD parser (at least in terms of features, not the UI constraints). It is used for a number of issues such as whether TrueType fonts can be used, page sizes, etc. The agreement that Adobe has both with Apple and Microsoft in terms of the passthrough modes we use is to let the OS do the appropriate injection of setpagedevice commands for the job allowing use of the OS' native feature selection which provides much more flexibility for the printer manufacturers to add table-driven printer features without Adobe having to modify our applications to make use of them.

[Alex_A...@adobeforums.com]

So should I wait for 10.5.6 or should I try out Mr. Kaiser's patch?

[Dov Isaacs]

Whether you use Mr. Kaiser's patch depends on how adventuresome you are! :-)

Just make sure that you exercise discipline so that you can reverse the patch when the official fix is made available.

- Dov

[Dennis_Va...@adobeforums.com]

to George Dedopoulos: this "could" be the problem, i don't really know.
i've unplugged the printer out of the electric circuit, and reconnected everything. then reinstalled it and it works again.
BUT i do not turn it off, because then i'll have to repeat everything again.

the makers of the printer cannot trace this problem themselves.... seems like a 10.5.5 ghost

[Alex_A...@adobeforums.com]

I'm sure that most or all of you know by now but the 5.0.4 update doesn't fix this issue.

[Dov Isaacs]

Hopefully you didn't have any expectations that Adobe's InDesign 5.0.4 code would fix an Apple-acknowledged bug. Per my previous response, we expect 10.5.6 will fix the problem Apple introduced with 10.5.5.

- Dov

[Chris...@adobeforums.com]

Hi All,

We've had a few of users of our print accounting application PaperCut ( <http://www.papercut.com/> ) complain about this problem and I spent some time investigating thinking the cause might have been PaperCut (as we hook ourself into the cups filter/backend chain). Just an idea (I have not yet tried it), but would it be possible to add a set of MIME types and conversions so that "the hack solution" only applied to the affected job times (e.g. InDesign documents)? This way the "don't touch this Postscript" pass through only applies to Adobe originating documents and does not break all applications. For example:

afile-hack.types:
application/hack-postscript contains(1, 2048, "InDesign")

afile-donothing.convs:
application/hack-postscript application/vnd.cups-postscript 20 donothing

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Chris

[Kevi...@adobeforums.com]

I finally got around to installing the latest Security Updates and sure enough, all printing in InDesign went back to sizing at the default size in page setup, which is Letter. It doesn't shrink it, just cuts off anything over Letter size. Which is very annoying when you are printing a 30" x 24" piece of film.

But I ran George's solution again - replacing the pstops file with Pacifist - and all is back to normal again.