Missing envelope format B6 (ISO) 17,6 x 12,5 cm

Asked by Zbigniew Luszpinski

In OpenOffice 2.3.0 I can set page format B6 (ISO) for creating/printing envelopes.
B6 (ISO) format is:
width: 17,60 cm
height: 12,50 cm
orientation: landscape

When I try to print such envelope I can not find format B6 (ISO) on paper tab->paper format in Deskjet_5900 properties.
HP Device Manager->Print Settings->Page Size has the same list of paper formats but B6 (ISO) is also missing.

I would like to know where I should ask for adding B6 (ISO) envelope format (hplip, cups, elsewhere)?
How can I manually add custom paper size in hplip so will not ask for it in the future?

thank you,
zbiggy

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Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount) said :
#1

What printer are you printing from?

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Raghothama Cauligi (raghothama-cauligi) said :
#2

hplip supports custom papersizes, but currently, there is no input dialog to specify custom sizes.
We will consider adding this in our toolbox.
However, you can print to custom sizes in two steps, first, from OO, print to file, which saves as
PostScript file. You can then use gs with command line options, setting -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS and
-dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS to the size you need (these are in PS points - 72 = 1inch)
for example:
gs -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs -dIjsUseOutputFD -sDeviceManufacturer="HEWLETT-PACKARD" \
-sDeviceModel="Deskjet 5900" -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=499 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=354 \
-sIjsParams=Quality:Quality=0,Quality:ColorMode=2,Quality:MediaType=0,Quality:PenSet=2 \
-r600 -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sOutputFile=- myOOFile.ps -c quit | lpr -o raw -PHP_DeskJet_5900

here you will be selecting plain paper, color, normal printmode. By setting -sOutputFile=-, gs will
send output to stdout, so you will have to redirect it to lpr. myOOFile.ps is the PostScript file you saved
from OO.
Hope this helps.
Raghu

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rpr nospam (rpr-nospam) said :
#3

This question was asked 5 years ago and HPLIP drivers still do not support all the envelope sizes defined by ISO 269 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelope) including ISO B6. Why is that?

There are applications (most notably LibreOffice) which can print only to page sizes defined in the printer driver (PPD file) and do not provide a GUI option for specifying a custom page size in printer properties.

The PPD file for a printer should support all page sizes defined by ISO standards that the printer is able to print to.

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Johannes Meixner (jsmeix) said :
#4

I didn't test it on my own, therefore only a "shot in the dark":

If - and only if - the printer drivers in HPLIP (HPIJS and HPCUPS)
work in full compliance how PPDs are meant to be used,
then it should be possible that you add manually
missing page sizes to the PPD file that is actually used
for printing (i.e. /etc/cups/ppd/<queue_name>.ppd)
and restart cupsd afterwards (so that it re-reads its PPDs).

To add one page size you need to add those PPD entries:
*PageSize
*PageRegion
*ImageableArea
*PaperDimension

Run "cupstestppd /etc/cups/ppd/<queue_name>.ppd" after
your changes to make sure your PPD is syntactically correct.

Then applications would show your manually added page size
but the question remains whether or not the printer drivers in HPLIP
also work with your manually added page sizes - i.e. whether or not
the printer drivers in HPLIP actually produce printing output that
matches your manually added page sizes.

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rpr nospam (rpr-nospam) said :
#5

I know I can manually add specifications for missing page sizes to a PPD file.
(I reported that at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1028891/whats-the-easiest-way-to-add-custom-page-sizes-to-a-ppd)

But as the procedure is not trivial for most users I'd say that a PPD file should be generate so that it includes by default all standard page sizes a printer model supports.

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Johannes Meixner (jsmeix) said :
#6

Of course HPLIP should provide ready-made PPD files which
include all standard media sizes that the printer supports or at least
all "Paper sizes known to Ghostscript" that the printer supports, see
http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/9.06/Use.htm#Known_paper_sizes

In current HPLIP version 3.12.11
neither in hp-deskjet_5900_series-hpijs.ppd "HP Deskjet 5900 Series hpijs, 3.12.11"
nor in hp-deskjet_5900_series.ppd "HP Deskjet 5900 Series, hpcups 3.12.11"
I find a PageSize entry for "B6".

I think this is a (minor) bug and accordingly I filed
https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1092472

Revision history for this message
Sanjay Kumar (sanjay-kumar14) said :
#7

Hi,

Thanks for reporting the issue in HPLIP. HPIJS ppds are no more tested by HP. Please use hpcups ppds. Procedure is mentioned below..
=> Download and install the latest HPLIP release from
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/install/index.html (automatic installer) or
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/index.html (manual installation, if automatic installer does not work)

=> run "hp-check --fix" command in the terminal if manual installation is done

=> Reconfigure print queue with the commands in the terminal mentioned below.
       => system-config-printer (remove all print queues)
      => su -c "hp-plugin"
             or
      => sudo hp-plugin (This will download right plugin)
       => hp-setup (It should not be run in a root mode. This command is adding print queue, make sure you select ppd name having "-ps" or "hpcups" substring)
=>Try printing now.

If problem does not get solved then please run following command to capture the logs and send the logs.

$su -c "hp-logcapture"

=>Document used for printing.

=>Scaned copy of printed document.

**Please use "Create a bug report" to attach the logs as "Ask a Question" does not provide the file attachment option

Revision history for this message
Sanjay Kumar (sanjay-kumar14) said :
#8

Sorry.. Please ignore my previous post. I wanted to write it somewhere else.

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