Printing problems with OpenOffice.org 2.0 for Mac OS X

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Reporting printing problems

UPDATE : fixes are under tests. Work in progress

 NOTE: before reporting problems with printing in OpenOffice.org 2.0 for Mac OS X, please make sure 
 that you are using the latest available OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 or 2.0.4 release candidate if your locale is QA'ed  
 Please look at  [1].
  Builds using 2.0.4 and superior include macosxcups cws, and are using native cups implementation. 
  (some special builds will soon be available )

Known problems in OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 and later for Mac OS X (X11)

The advanced features of printing don't seem to work unless you have printer drivers that support them. The drivers that you need for X11 are different from normal Mac OS X applications.

Please try installing the GutenPrint printer drivers from http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 which often allows you to access the advanced features of you printer.

When I talk about advanced features, I'm taking about: getting colour prints; tray selection; and the duplex; to work.

As a work around, if this is not possible or doesn't work, then you can export the file as a PDF and then print it using Preview.

Printing problems

In order to be able to examine the most important issues, every problem type MUST BEGIN using this syntax :

 [ verified : number times] 
 means the first entering the problem put 1, next people will simply increment the counter. Also, write:
 1) your name ( without personnal informations, please)
 2) the version of OpenOffice.org you are using, your locale
 3) the printer you are using : Mark Model ... whatever you think usefull for this field
 4) in a few words, the problem you have

[ verified : 1 time ] Printer freatures appear and are adjustable, but have no effect

Matt P OOo2.0.3 MacOS 10.4.8

Xerox Phaser 6100 color laser with duplex, attached via router and Ethernet

Printer features, such as duplex and page orientation, appear in OOo but, when selected, have no effect on printing. This makes me say naughty words.

FIX: This is probably caused by the lack of proper printer drivers in X11 for your printer. See the "known problems" above.

[ verified: 2 times ]Printer features appear and are adjustable, but have no effect

Robert OOo2.0.4 MacOS 10.4.8

hp laserjet1012

The printer features appear as described by Matt P above. You click print and the printing dialog flashes briefly but the printer prints nothing - just sits there quietly, no lights flashing. Looking in the printer dialog box, you see the following error message "the process 'stopdiffilter' terminated unexpectedly on signal 5." I installed Gutenprint 5.5 as suggested in the known problems, but the printer still doesn't print. What can be happening here and can it be fixed??

[ verified : 1 time ] Installed printers work with regular Mac apps do not appear in OOO 2.-2rc4 printer dialog

None of my installed printers appear in the dialog box. On my Powerbook if I open a file in an MS Office format that had printer information embedded, then all the printers appear. Printing to network attached printers works fine then. This does not happen on my Powermac, none of the installed printers ever appear.

[ verified : 1 times ] Printer configured but not found

Peter K OOo2.0.2rc4 MacOS 10.4.6 Locale EN (NZ)

All cups printers appear in Print... dialog box. Select any, properties are present and correct. Print simple one line document: - nothing is printed. pstopdf runs ~25% for a few seconds, then runs continuous at 90% cpu. OOo is frozen. Some other apps will run slowly. If left running it appears to generate new swapfile at abt 20MB per minute for a simple one word doc. Recovers OK by killall -TERM pstopdf.

Cups test page prints OK. lp prints from terminal. OOo 2.0.1 printed OK from OS 10.4.5, but not now on 10.4.6.

[ verified : 1 times ] Network printing

I'm having problems with : Network Printer : HP4730 multifunction printer / photocopier /scanner. The printer is a standalone network printer serving a group of workers, with a fixed IP address. The MacOSX is 10.3 Panther, Locale : FR. The printer can be seen and printed to from OOo 2.0.x from the Linux workstations. The printer does not appear in the list of CUPS printers in the OOo print dialog under OOo 2.0.x for the MacOSX workstations. The printer is available and the print options configurable from OOo 1.1.x on MacOSX. -- alex

Alex: Please try again with the latest OOo 2.0.2 build (dated 11.3.2006 or later) and report your results again.

[ verified : 0 times ] Printing stops before the end

I've had this happen with other Mac OS X apps, but not OOo yet. The process lpmanager ends up using all the CPU. --Smsm1 15:18, 15 March 2006 (CET)

[ verified : 3 times ] Features not available

Printing is just black and white. Solution:

1. File > Print...
2. Select Printer from pop-up menu
3. Click Properties to the right of the printer menu.
4. Click 'Device' tab
5. Change the colour pop-up menu from 'From Driver' to 'Color'

This should resolve the problem.

It worked for me on a Cannon iP4000 connected to an Airport Express. Computer iMac G5 (iSight) 2.1 GHz. This printer was added using Bonjour. --Smsm1 15:19, 15 March 2006 (CET)

Glenn L OOo 2.0.3 MacOS10.4.8 Canon PIXMA MP150. FLorida USA All my printing comes out in very faint purple. Even the color is tinged purple and very faint.

Glenn L OOo 2.0.4 Mac OS10.4.8 Canon PIXMA MP150. Florida USA I am now using OOo 2.0.4 and my printing still comes out in very faint purple. I had this same trouble in earlier versions. Please help.

Other printing related issues

In Issue 62847 , the Lexmark X1100 printer software causes OpenOffice.org X11 not run properly. [will be fixed just after macosxfondu2 integration -> available in 2.0.4]

In Issue 63376 , there is a possibly some help for the printing problems: using the native cups system, instead of OOo's emulation of cups. [FIXED] Work in progress

Special characters in print queue name: The ln command, which is used by OOo for printing to CUPS is a bit sensible to special characters. So if your printing queue is named something like PSC_900_Series(Printer) like mine, OOo won't print because of the parentheses in the queue's name. You can check this by opening a terminal session and typing ln -d <printqueue> <filename> where filename should be a small testfile which you can create by TextEdit. If you get an error Message like -bash: syntax error near unexpected token `(' , you're a victim of this problem too. This can be fixed using spadmin. Go to the properties of the printer. There the complete printing command is displayed and edible. Put the name of the queue in double quotes: ln -d "PSC_900_Series(Printer)" worked well for me after all. --Uwealtmann 13:01, 21 April 2006 (CEST)