Print to file option - no pdf

Print to file option - no pdf

On installing Ubuntu 12.04 I thought to switch to Opera by default - but have hit a snag that may prevent this

Below if the post I have made in the Ubuntu forum, hoping someone here amy also be able to shed light...
... have now discovered that for some reason I cannot yet work out the print to file option is there but the option to select pdf format has disappeared.

It is possible this belongs more on an opera forum and I may cross post there, but regardless thought it worth sharing on these fora also.

Anyone else experiences or has insights into this I should be interested to hear - thanks

It's there on 12.04



Also to get PDF shown in the drop down you need to install cups pdf.

Weird - on 12.04 with cups pdf installed I am seeing this...



PS my sig was out of ddate - I am running many distros/release levels, but this is from 12.04

Opera itself doesn't know how to generate PDF, it can only generate PostScript (since this is the format required by most native printers on Unix). KDE's printing backend allows you to let CUPS convert the PS file to PDF, GTK's backend doesn't. That's why this option isn't present in the GTK dialog.

So.............whats the solution?

I have the same issue. No Print to PDF option available on the printer selection screen. Cups-pdf is loaded. No print to PDF option from within the "Print to File" print option. Seems like a serious shortcoming in Linux if yu can't print to PDF just because you picked the wrong front end or X server.

I searched through some other forums. Here is the solution that worked for me (Opera 12.00 Lubuntu Linux):
Install cups-pdf (Use Synaptic Package manager. cups-pdf is one of the packages in the long list of installable packages).

1.Open a browser and type: localhost:631
2.A cups configuration window should appear.
3.Under the column for "Cups for Administrators" find/click "Adding Printers and Classes"
4.Under "Printers" click "Add Printer"
5.Under "Add Printers >> Local Printers" select "CUPS-PDF (Virtual PDF Printer)"
6.On the screen that appears, change the text to suit your needs. Anything can be entered here. If you want to share the PDF printer you are creating with other computers on your network (if you are on a network), select "share this printer". If you don't want to share it, dont select this option. Click continue.
7.Pick a printer manufacturer's name from the list. I believe this cups-pdf driver emulates various printers, so if you are familiar with the behavior of a particular printer, choose that manufacturer. If this cups-driver doesn't emulate specific printer behavior, then I don't know why cups-pdf offers a choice of manufacturers. Regardless, pick a manufacturer. If it turns out badly, go through steps one through 6 above again and pick a different manufacturer the second time around. I picked HP, since I am familiar with their printers. Click Continue.
9.Select a printer model from the list. If you screwed up and selected the wrong manufacturer, click "Select another make/manufacturer" to go back to the last screen, otherwise select your printer model and click "Add Printer"
10.There will probably be a screen to select options for the printer maek/model that you selected. Configure as needed. Click "set default options.
11. You are done. You should see a screen that has something like "Virtual_PDF_Printer (Idle, Accepting Jobs, Not Shared)" at the top. Print a test from the drop-down menu if you want. The test page and all print jobs created from this PDF printer will end up in your user account under the PDF folder.
12. Open up a web page in Opera or go to an email you received. Select Print. You should now see you Virtual/PDF printer in the list of printers. Print your document to this printer and it shold end up in th PDF folder under your user account. Rename it to somehting that is meaningful to you.
Hope this helps somebody.

Originally posted by AVL:

Opera itself doesn't know how to generate PDF, it can only generate PostScript (since this is the format required by most native printers on Unix). KDE's printing backend allows you to let CUPS convert the PS file to PDF, GTK's backend doesn't. That's why this option isn't present in the GTK dialog.

Frankly, I don't think so. 'Print to PDF' was working for me in Mint 9 Gnome with all versions of Opera prior to V12.00 and still is working for other applications like FF or gedit, leaving only one conclusion: it IS Opera's fault that the PDF option in its print dialog disappeared, because nothing else has changed on my system since then.

Originally posted by cmikal:

I searched through some other forums. Here is the solution that worked for me (Opera 12.00 Lubuntu Linux):
Install cups-pdf (Use Synaptic Package manager. cups-pdf is one of the packages in the long list of installable packages).

Thanks a lot, cmikal, you really got me out of a pinch :-)
It is not quite as elegant as having the now lost original 'Print to File' option, but it works.

I don't really understand yet the inner workings of my Ubuntu based Mint9 Gnome distri, but for all I can tell it is Opera 12's fault, that the PDF option in Opera's 'Print to File' dialogue window disappeared. For all my other programs that is, this selection still is available and working.

Whatever the Opera coder did this time, they hopefully reverse it in the next update.

No problem.

I think this is an Opera problem. I don't think Opera generates PDF files inside the Opera program. I think it just reacts to a request to print a document or web page. It sees the print request when you click the print button, then hands the request off to some code that actually processes the document for printing or PDF generation. Whoever did the coding for the print dialog probably either forgot to add the "print-to-pdf" button, or screwed up the code so "Print to PDF" just disppeared. A third possibility is that someone at Opera made a decision to delete the "Print to PDF" function. If that's what happened, they should rethink their position. It's useful feature.

Originally posted by cmikal:

I think this is an Opera problem.

Yes, it is - Opera can't generate PDF files. Let me clarify this a bit:

I don't think Opera generates PDF files inside the Opera program.

Indeed it doesn't - we don't have code to generate PDF files in Opera.

I think it just reacts to a request to print a document or web page.

Yes.

It sees the print request when you click the print button, then hands the request off to some code that actually processes the document for printing or PDF generation.

No. Opera has to prepare the print document itself, since Opera doesn't use GTK's standard renderer (Cairo) to do drawing operations, it uses its own renderer (which is how it can get faster drawing operations in software).

Whoever did the coding for the print dialog probably either forgot to add the "print-to-pdf" button, or screwed up the code so "Print to PDF" just disppeared. A third possibility is that someone at Opera made a decision to delete the "Print to PDF" function.

It was removed because we don't support it. In previous versions of Opera when running with GTK the option was there (accidentally), but it would just generate PostScript instead (just as when printing from PostScript). The only thing Opera gets from GTK is a request that says 'print to this file path' and whether the format is PS or PDF. Opera can't print to PDF itself because it doesn't have a PDF generator.

The insight into the PDF function is good to know, but not including a "Print to PDF" button is, in my opinion. a bad idea.

"Print to PDF" is extremely useful. As a user, I don't see a good reason to keep it off the feature list. We already know that printing to PDF works. I added a PDF printer to my printer list. Other people have added PDF printers to Opera using other methods. Why make users jump through hoops to put something in place that should be easy to do from a programming perspective and provides a useful tool to the end user?

The folks that write software in support of the different 'Nix flavors do some things that are much more difficult than supporting a PDF print function in a browser/email client. Perhaps the Opera development team could see what can be done to add this feature in the next release.

Originally posted by cmikal:

"Print to PDF" is extremely useful. As a user, I don't see a good reason to keep it off the feature list.

It's not 'kept off' the feature list - it just happens to be a freebie when using KDE/Qt printing (where Opera doesn't have to do anything since the framework handles it) and potentially quite some work with GTK (where Opera would have to interact with external software, for example cups-pdf, to do it).

We are quibbling over semantics. Whether its kept off intentionally, by accident, by divine intervention, or pure happenstance is irrelevent to me as the end user. I don't care how the sausage is made. I just want to sit down to a meal and eat it.

Interacting with external softwre is what Linux does almost by definition. Everything in Linux is external software. Hell, I figured out how to add the function to my printer list, and I'm not a software engineer. If I can do it, an engineer with a degree should be able to make it happen.

This isn't a techenical issue. It is very do-able if someone at Opera chooses to make it happen.

Yes, you're completely right about that. It's just a question of what is given priority.

@ cmikal

It certainly helped me. Thank you for the clear directions. Knowing about localhost:631 is sure to come in handy also.