| | <<<Back 1 day (to 2017/05/02) | 20170503 |
| sebras | salzh: I saw Brettk80's message. it seems as if you are still having problems, are you able to share the image? | 09:32.14 |
| | salzh: Brettk80 mentioned that you are collaborating, and he is not online. | 09:32.32 |
| | I'm thinking that the dimensions and the samples per pixel and bits per sample when combined might be too large..? | 10:02.24 |
| Robin_Watts | tkamppeter: ping? | 12:44.20 |
| | tkamppeter: There appears to be a problem with the dependencies in the latest ubuntu. | 12:44.37 |
| | We have a brand new 16.04 installation. If I try to enable multi-arch, so I can do both amd64 and i386 builds/tests on the same box, I find that I cannot install both libcupsimage2-dev and libcupsimage2-dev:i386 at the same time. | 12:45.57 |
| | This is a problem for us. | 12:46.01 |
| tkamppeter | Robin_Watts, hi | 15:21.23 |
| Robin_Watts | Hi | 15:21.29 |
| ghostbot | Welcome to #ghostscript, the channel for Ghostscript and MuPDF. If you have a question, please ask it, don't ask to ask it. Do be prepared to wait for a reply as devs will check the logs and reply when they come on line. | 15:21.29 |
| tkamppeter | Robin_Watts, what error do you get? | 15:21.58 |
| Robin_Watts | tkamppeter: It tells me there are conflicted dependencies. | 15:22.37 |
| | I don't have the exact error to hand at the moment. To get it I'd need to break our cluster. | 15:23.14 |
| | sudo apt-get install libcupsimage2-dev tells me that it will have to remove: libcupsfilters-dev:i386 libcupsimage2-dev:i386 | 15:25.47 |
| tkamppeter | Can you report a bug on Launchpad as soon as you hit the error again, and then post all the messages on your screen. | 15:25.51 |
| | Robin_Watts, ^^ | 15:26.03 |
| Robin_Watts | I will do that now, using the stuff I have in my terminal windows history | 15:26.29 |
| | seriously? I can't report a bug on the web? I have to do it via some magic incantation on the machine? | 15:30.43 |
| chrisl | https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu | 15:32.01 |
| Robin_Watts | chrisl: RIght. Now click "report a bug" | 15:33.10 |
| chrisl | Ugh :-( | 15:33.46 |
| | I guess it cuts down on some the sh*te reports we see coming in..... | 15:34.28 |
| Robin_Watts | And the magic incantation SEGVs. Quality stuff. | 15:37.21 |
| kens | Definitely cuts down on the bug reports though | 15:37.40 |
| | We should try that too | 15:37.45 |
| Robin_Watts | tkamppeter: Seriously, what am I supposed to do here ? | 15:38.52 |
| | tkamppeter: I have opened: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/1688023 | 15:52.56 |
| | Because the bug reporter crashed, I had to run it on a completely different machine, which means all the packaged information is utterly wrong. | 15:53.34 |
| | Hurrah for automated labour saving systems. | 15:53.53 |
| DiverGuy | i have a program that prints to a PCL printer. I now need to intercept that and create PDF files. | 17:15.02 |
| | i downloaded Ghostscript and found that I really need GhostPCL | 17:15.25 |
| | i downloaded and compliled GhostPDL and am using the gpcl5 command | 17:15.53 |
| | everything works in the converstion - except the 3of9 barcode font | 17:16.08 |
| | i added a 3of9 font to the font directory - but no joy.. still not using the barcode font | 17:16.31 |
| Robin_Watts | gpcl6, presumably :) | 17:17.02 |
| DiverGuy | all of the documentation I can find is for gs not gpcl5 , so i'm not even sure that the commands to look in directories for fonts are the same | 17:17.03 |
| | picky picky picky ;) yea.. gpcl6 | 17:17.25 |
| Robin_Watts | I've prodded our PCL expert. He'll be here if he's not too busy elsewhere. | 17:17.54 |
| DiverGuy | we're invoking the 3of9 with the pcl commands: | 17:17.57 |
| | CHR(27)+"(0Y"+CHR(27)+"(s0p8.11h12v0s0b0T"+CHR(27)+"&a"+STR(X)+"c&a"+STR(Y)+"R" | 17:17.58 |
| | presumably the esc (0Y invokes 3of9 | 17:18.18 |
| | and the rest just determines size, etc | 17:18.28 |
| | robin, thanks. | 17:18.48 |
| | i had an older version of gs installed and it had some issues with putting the 'painted background form' on the same page with the data, but updating to the newest version seems to have solved that | 17:19.40 |
| Robin_Watts | DiverGuy: I'd guess that the best way to proceed would be for you to open a bug on bugs.ghostscript.com, and attach the smallest possible file you can that shows the problem. | 17:20.07 |
| DiverGuy | now just need to find out if gpcl6 supports the 3of9 syntax to invoke the font. | 17:20.08 |
| | robin, i'm not sure it's actually a problem ;) :/ .. ... e.g.. | 17:20.37 |
| | when you run gs , you get a list of 'paths' and such.. | 17:20.47 |
| | when you run gpcl6 you get 'nothing' that gives any indication of whether it is even looking for fonts | 17:21.06 |
| | and there isn't any documentation (that i've found) that is specific to gpcl6 | 17:21.43 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: fonts are "built-in" to PCL. Otherwise they must be "embedded" as downloaded fonts | 17:21.51 |
| | DiverGuy: AIUI, you can add a font to the table of built-in fonts and re-build gpcl | 17:22.34 |
| DiverGuy | well, when printing to the printer, the font is in ROM.. and the esc (0Y invokes the 3of9 barcode font .. so my challenge is 'how do i tell gpcl6 where to find that font'? | 17:22.57 |
| Robin_Watts | ESC ( 0 looks like it calls pcl_primary_symbol_set to me | 17:23.03 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: there *might* also be a mechanism to "download" fonts and make them resident | 17:23.08 |
| DiverGuy | yes 3of9 is a font/symbol set | 17:23.28 |
| | in this case, we 'bought' the 3of9 font from xerox and 'installed' it on the printer. and esc (0Y tells the printer to use it. | 17:24.35 |
| Robin_Watts | ESC ( 0 Y might be asking for font symbol set 25 | 17:24.38 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: see pl/plftable.h | 17:25.00 |
| | DiverGuy: but for more information than that, you probably have to wait for HenryStiles to show up again. | 17:27.16 |
| Robin_Watts | DiverGuy: I'd hang around for a bit to see if our expert comes back. | 17:27.29 |
| DiverGuy | ray, thanks. i'm looking at the plftable.h now.. not entirely sure what i'd do there... but still looking .. | 17:28.00 |
| | robin, will do. thanks. | 17:29.40 |
| | i'm guessing this is a fairly unused area of printing... ive been trying to find documentation on it for a couple of weeks now (not just gs related info) and i havent found anything that .. for example.. highlights the differences between a font and a symbol set | 17:31.22 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: I'm not to sure, but I think a symbol set is an HP printer term that dates back to cartridges that had fixed size raster glyphs. A font is usually can be scaled | 17:33.17 |
| Robin_Watts | I suspect "symbol set" really means "a font full of symbols" or something like that. | 17:33.43 |
| DiverGuy | *nod* something like that | 17:34.37 |
| | but since we arent invoking a font 'by name'.. clearly the 3of9 must have some attribute that distinguishes it from Ariel or Courier .. hence the 'symbol' concept. | 17:35.29 |
| | I tried using the gs syntax to tell gpcl6 to 'look for fonts here->>' but no joy.. and so i wondered if it even supports those options on the command line... | 17:36.04 |
| Robin_Watts | When you installed it to the printer, did you say "install this font as symbol set 25" ? | 17:36.12 |
| DiverGuy | and as ray pointed out, perhaps it only supports 'compiled in' fonts | 17:36.15 |
| | i didnt personally install it, but I don't believe any specific location was required during the install... | 17:36.55 |
| | presumably in some grand control room of location assignments and classfiications, someone decided 3of9 barcode is symbol set 24 ? | 17:37.38 |
| | 25 | 17:37.44 |
| | ok that was odd... | 17:51.27 |
| Robin_Watts | DiverGuy: Well, the string "3of9" doesn't exist anywhere in our source code. | 17:52.32 |
| | Neither does barcode. | 17:53.25 |
| DiverGuy | 3 of 9 / 3of9 / 39 / Code39 / BarCode39 are all ways to identify the specific barcode font that encodes numbers to barcode. | 17:53.46 |
| Robin_Watts | so, I suspect we need to know exactly how your font was 'installed' on your printer. | 17:53.57 |
| DiverGuy | from what i have determined ghostscript doesn't support barcode fonts natively nor does it provide barcode fonts in the font sets.. | 17:54.08 |
| Robin_Watts | Indeed, but if we know how your font was installed to the printer, it may point us to how to do the same in gpcl6. | 17:55.02 |
| DiverGuy | but gs does allow/provide for users to add their own fonts.. and (presumably) when using postscript you would 'name' the font you want to use, like Ariel or 3of9 | 17:55.04 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: I know we have had people doing barcode 3of9 (and others) with gpcl since I recall bugs about it (usually people trying to print at other than 300 dpi | 17:55.11 |
| DiverGuy | ray, my assumption was that it should work, i just cant find the documentation to tell me how to make it work, hence my appearance here ;) | 17:55.48 |
| Robin_Watts | DiverGuy: I suspect we can wrap the 3of9 font into a PCL file that you send to gpcl6 first, and that 'installs' it. Then you print your job and it gets used. | 17:56.12 |
| DiverGuy | Robin_Watts, : http://www.morovia.com/kb/Download-Select-Remove-PCL-Fonts-10002.html | 17:57.26 |
| | i ran across that site/page .. | 17:57.35 |
| | it actually references the same esc (0Y that we use | 17:57.43 |
| | it also lacks information. and doesnt directly relate to ghostscript | 17:57.56 |
| | but it also suggests esc (0Y invokes 3of9 | 17:58.10 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: there are all sorts of things in plchar.c and plfont.c for downloaded fonts, and our PJL supports downloading "nvram" files | 17:58.16 |
| DiverGuy | whether that is a coincidence that overlaps our use of the same or whether it is just a 'standard' i cannot say. | 17:58.30 |
| | ray, up until now i've been using the working theory that gpcl6 already does what I want and that I'm simply ignorant as to how to get it to do it. I've not ventured into the code as that requires I assume i'm adding functionality that isn't built in. | 18:00.24 |
| | i'm not opposed to editing code, which is one reason i'm here.. to find out of that is the solution | 18:00.42 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: good luck. Hopefully HenrysStiles can provide some reasonably simple method | 18:03.08 |
| DiverGuy | agreed ;) | 18:03.16 |
| | i'm a little surprised that gs doesn't include barcodes.. i'd have thought enough people used barcodes that it would just be a standard included option/font | 18:04.11 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: it probably is because there aren't "free" barcode fonts for PCL (AGPL, GPL or even AFPL) | 18:05.34 |
| Robin_Watts | gpcl6 aims to be compatible with the HP4700, I believe. | 18:05.40 |
| | If that had a barcode font, we'd include it. | 18:05.54 |
| | The fact that you had to buy a barcode font suggests that it's not a 'standard' thing. | 18:06.09 |
| ray_laptop | Robin_Watts: there are probably copyrights on barcode fonts | 18:06.22 |
| DiverGuy | ray could be.. i'm still learning how all of this plays together.. | 18:06.25 |
| | Robin_Watts printer manufacturers like to make money.. so they offer barcodes as a purchased item upgrade for their printers | 18:06.53 |
| Robin_Watts | ray_laptop: copyright is not a problem - clones are fine. patents might be. | 18:07.00 |
| ray_laptop | Robin_Watts: or even patents, since the barcode has design elements to make it machine readable, etc. | 18:07.07 |
| | but they (patents) are probably lapsed | 18:07.28 |
| DiverGuy | as for free barcodes, they aren't as common for barcodes as they are for 'type-font' | 18:07.30 |
| | there are some free barcode fonts out there.. i found a couple for 3of9 (which is one type of barcode encryption) | 18:07.59 |
| | and i even found one that uses the same name suffix that gs supports | 18:08.26 |
| Robin_Watts | and "free" can mean a multitude of things. | 18:08.34 |
| DiverGuy | indeed. | 18:08.39 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: the other thing about barcodes is that they can be VERY printer specific since the "dot spread" of a printer affects the bar code accuracy (and thus suitability for scanning) | 18:09.00 |
| DiverGuy | right... but once converted to raster in a pdf, it wouldn't be a barcode font anymore | 18:09.32 |
| Robin_Watts | Who says we'd convert it to a raster? | 18:10.18 |
| ray_laptop | that's one common complaint we get -- people put an "image" of a barcode in, or emulate a bar code with rectangular fills, and neither one scans correctly when printed with "my_very_special_printer" | 18:10.20 |
| DiverGuy | and (presumably) you can control height and width of the font, so you can 'stretch or shrink' it to make it useable | 18:10.21 |
| | Robin_Watts nobody said you would, that was just one possibility. | 18:10.49 |
| | if i knew how it was done, or knew how to do it, or knew hos it all worked, i'd have this solved :) heh | 18:11.06 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: mono-spaced fonts aren't a problem. eg., I think our "LinePrinter" font is monospaced | 18:11.22 |
| DiverGuy | ray i'm sure there could be issues with fonts and printers when printing barcodes.. which explains why barcode fonts for printers tend to be a 'purchase' item for your specific printer... | 18:12.16 |
| ray_laptop | and most 1-d barcodes can be scaled (intentionally) with independent H and W. | 18:12.39 |
| DiverGuy | but with the horizontal and vertical spacing/size options, i suspect going to a pdf document shouldn't pose serious issues | 18:12.52 |
| | and - at this point - just about everything i'm saying is pure speculation - since i'm very much still 'learning' how all this plays together... | 18:13.46 |
| | all i do know.. is that we're printing pcl to a printer and that a custom 3of9 barcode font is 'installed' on the printer. and that when i intercept the PCL stream and divert it to gpcl6 - I get a nice PDF file with Text instead of barcodes. | 18:14.56 |
| ray_laptop | well, maybe this will prompt HenryStiles to create the very first gpcl doc ;-) | 18:15.11 |
| DiverGuy | hahaha ;) perhaps? :) | 18:15.25 |
| | he probably has absolutely nothing else to do anyway, right? :) | 18:15.46 |
| ray_laptop | gpcl has only been around 20 years, so maybe it's time ;-) | 18:16.01 |
| DiverGuy | well now you're just being silly.. documentation clearly isn't due for another 12 years. ;) | 18:16.32 |
| DiverGuy | has to run out... and will be back.. no doubt Mr Styles will arrive while i'm gone ;) | 18:17.49 |
| | Stiles too | 18:17.56 |
| ray_laptop | DiverGuy: you're right. my mistake. 0x20 years | 18:19.15 |
| DiverGuy | practices thumb twiddling ;) | 19:37.40 |
| | he arives! | 20:43.44 |
| | the crowd cheers! | 20:43.49 |
| | :) | 20:43.51 |
| | arrives too | 20:43.56 |
| DiverGuy | takes a number and stands in line in Henry's queue | 20:47.21 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: I assume that you sent me email alos | 21:02.13 |
| | /alos/also | 21:02.20 |
| DiverGuy | yes i sent the email. | 21:16.22 |
| | reply is on the way. | 21:17.24 |
| | i didn't want to assume you'd provide any support via email, so i stayed here | 21:29.55 |
| | i do have to leave now though.. .. i'll be available by email this evening and can be back here tomorrow. | 21:30.30 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: you can't fix this without modifying the code. You can get barcode tt font and add it to the pcl intepreter | 21:31.10 |
| | 3of9 looks to be free after a quick search don't know about quality | 21:31.49 |
| DiverGuy | i did download a (free) 3of9 barcode font and tried installing it | 21:32.00 |
| | earlier someone (here) suggested modifying pl/plftable.h | 21:33.14 |
| HenryStiles | that assume you don't want to change the pcl code at all, you could make a downloaded pcl font ... | 21:33.34 |
| DiverGuy | i'm guessing that gpcl6 doesn't utilize the same font loading that gs does | 21:33.36 |
| HenryStiles | nope | 21:33.44 |
| DiverGuy | i don't have a problem changing the pcl output.. those barcodes are all done with a 'function' that is called during the page generation | 21:34.04 |
| | i can easily edit the function | 21:34.11 |
| | or i can edit the gpcl6 code and recompile | 21:34.22 |
| | i am/was just clueless as to exactly what needed to be done (on either side) to make it work | 21:34.47 |
| | i dont necessarily need a free solution either if this is a service your company would normally provide | 21:37.00 |
| | everyone needs to pay for their groceries. | 21:37.11 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: "a function" or a "host pcl driver" | 21:37.20 |
| DiverGuy | it is generated by a 'basic' program. Basis Pro5 | 21:37.41 |
| | the current function... | 21:37.59 |
| | 0826 DEF FNBAR1$(X,Y,BAR$)=CHR(27)+"(0Y"+CHR(27)+"(s0p8.11h12v0s0b0T"+CHR(27)+"&a"+STR(X)+"c&a"+STR(Y)+"R"+"*"+BAR$+"*"+CHR(27)+"(10U"+CHR(27)+"(s0p10h0s0b4099T" | 21:38.00 |
| | invokes bar 3of9 embeded in the printer, prints the barcode and then resets to default font | 21:38.30 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: does the basic have code to create a downloaded font? | 21:38.51 |
| DiverGuy | not built in, no. | 21:39.03 |
| | i'd have to hand code whatever is required | 21:39.12 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: so you must have documentation for the 0Y symbol set, how does your program know which symbol is where? | 21:42.38 |
| DiverGuy | i didnt write the original code ^above^ but from what i have decoded is it the ESC (0Y that selects the 3of9 symbol/font | 21:42.46 |
| | the IT guy here bought the font from xerox and downloaded it to their printer ROM | 21:43.03 |
| HenryStiles | ESC (0Y selects the symbols set and that the barcode font's symbol set matches so it is selected | 21:44.27 |
| DiverGuy | i wasn't sure how the esc (0Y selected 3of9 symbol/font but i came cross this website... which suggested to me that esc (0Y was 3 of 9 | 21:44.43 |
| | http://www.morovia.com/kb/Download-Select-Remove-PCL-Fonts-10002.htm | 21:44.43 |
| | ok | 21:44.51 |
| | does the gpcl6 have the ability to mimick that feature and find the matching symbol set? | 21:45.54 |
| HenryStiles | no I suspect you bought the 0Y with the font and installed it, it isn't standard | 21:47.13 |
| DiverGuy | ah | 21:47.38 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: I think you need to rethink using this font. Us a free font, regenerate pcl using the downloaded font. I really can't look at proprietary fonts and ape a solution in PCL. | 21:48.15 |
| | s/Us/Use | 21:48.27 |
| | create a pcl program that will work on any printer. Wish I had a better suggestion | 21:49.25 |
| DiverGuy | right, i wasn't intending or trying to use the Xerox font, i was hoping there was a font that would be 'equivalent' and accessible using the (0Y ... | 21:49.30 |
| | and i'm not finding a lot of documentation on PCL that is useful for this specific area | 21:50.04 |
| | tons of documentation.. but all of it is vague | 21:50.11 |
| HenryStiles | well you can rewrite the basic, at least you have the code. | 21:50.19 |
| DiverGuy | yes... my challenge is not knowing what to rewrite it 'to' | 21:50.42 |
| | i don't really understand the details of fonts and how they are selected | 21:51.08 |
| | i get (0Y calls up the symbol font - which (in my case) equates to the xerox 3of9 | 21:51.21 |
| | and presumably http://www.karrman.org/barfonts/ | 21:51.44 |
| | should work as a barcode for 3of9 but not necessarily in the same way | 21:51.59 |
| HenryStiles | the PCL technical reference manual (google) the free Truetype font can be made into PCL font with a windows PCL print driver by capturing the PCL stream with a standard HP printer. It is a good amount of work | 21:52.34 |
| DiverGuy | earlier you said i could edit the code - presumably you meant the gpcl6 code | 21:53.55 |
| | and add support for 3of9 font? | 21:54.05 |
| | is it involved to modify gpcl6 to add support for (0Y (or some other font invoked in a similar way)? | 21:55.26 |
| | obviously its easy to change (0Y to (&99q on my end | 21:55.51 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: yup you can do that too. You would have to figure out their 0Y encoding. | 21:58.14 |
| DiverGuy | i'm assuming that the fonts on this site ( http://www.karrman.org/barfonts/ ) are for postscript? | 21:58.18 |
| | rather than PCL ? | 21:58.26 |
| HenryStiles | pcl will use any truetype font | 21:58.44 |
| DiverGuy | (just trying to understand the issue and basics)... so if those barcodes ^ karrman.org ^^ are tt fonts, and pcl can use them.. i just have to change esc (0Y to the correct PCL sequence to use the karrman.org 3of9 font? | 22:00.18 |
| | and, presumably, add those font (names/details) to gpcl6 and recompile it? | 22:01.02 |
| | i guess i dont quite grasp how a symbol set (0Y is different from a TT font. | 22:03.34 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: Sorry I think you do need to read the PCL technical reference manual, font and symbol set sections first then we can talk more about it. | 22:05.10 |
| DiverGuy | ok | 22:05.17 |
| | i wasn't anticipating it would be this involved.. in this instance i'm more of a user than a developer, but i'm capable of learning.. and reading.. i have a copy of the HP PLC 5 printer tech refernence manual and it's pretty uninspiring and not very enlightening.. like most unix man pages it requires you to know what you're looking for in order to find it. ;) | 22:06.45 |
| | s/PLC/PCL | 22:07.54 |
| | more so, i'm surprised that nobody else has needed this functionality ;) | 22:08.28 |
| | thanks for your time. | 22:08.51 |
| HenryStiles | DiverGuy: no problem | 22:10.43 |
| | oh my bad I did find symbol set 0Y on the web, we don't have it though, maybe I'll add it. Doesn't help without the font though | 22:26.44 |
| | Forward 1 day (to 2017/05/04)>>> | |
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