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Accepted
Adam Monsen
Asked: 2013-06-05 16:06:59 +0800 CST

messed up characters in PDF printed from Ubuntu 12.10

  • 772

When I print a particular PDF from Ubuntu 12.10, I see many garbled characters. I tried printing the same PDF from Mac OS X and it worked. Any ideas of what I should look into to fix this?

Here's the PDF: https://www.yousendit.com/download/WFJWOGNYQzNmVFlYRHRVag (SHA-1 checksum is 955496e5d8aea341422a61e83bf2c8867d92cebf ).

It was compiled from this very simple LaTeX file:

\documentclass[12pt,english]{letter}
\usepackage[margin=.75in]{geometry}
\usepackage{babel}

\begin{document}
\address{sender \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\letter{recipient \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\signature{My Full Name}
\opening{Dear Recipient,}
Here's a letter for you.
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{document}

Using this command:

pdflatex test.tex

Here's page 1: page 1

Here's page 2: page 2

I got the same result from two different Ubuntu 12.10 computers printing to two different printers.

Here's a little more debugging info:

$ pdflatex --version
pdfTeX 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012/Debian)  
kpathsea version 6.1.0  
Copyright 2012 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).  
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is  
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and  
the Lesser GNU General Public License.  
For more information about these matters, see the file  
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.  
Primary author of pdfTeX: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Compiled with libpng 1.2.49; using libpng 1.2.49  
Compiled with zlib 1.2.7; using zlib 1.2.7  
Compiled with poppler version 0.20.4

Here's the .log file:

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.4-1.40.13 (TeX Live 2012/Debian) (format=pdflatex 2013.1.9)  3 JUN 2013 20:33
entering extended mode
 restricted \write18 enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**test.tex
(./test.tex
LaTeX2e <2011/06/27>
Babel <v3.8m> and hyphenation patterns for english, dumylang, nohyphenation, lo
aded.
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/letter.cls
Document Class: letter 1999/04/29 v1.2z Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size12.clo
File: size12.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)
\longindentation=\dimen102
\indentedwidth=\dimen103
\labelcount=\count79
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/geometry/geometry.sty
Package: geometry 2010/09/12 v5.6 Page Geometry

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/keyval.sty
Package: keyval 1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC)
\KV@toks@=\toks14
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifpdf.sty
Package: ifpdf 2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO)
Package ifpdf Info: pdfTeX in PDF mode is detected.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifvtex.sty
Package: ifvtex 2010/03/01 v1.5 Detect VTeX and its facilities (HO)
Package ifvtex Info: VTeX not detected.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty
Package: ifxetex 2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
)
\Gm@cnth=\count80
\Gm@cntv=\count81
\c@Gm@tempcnt=\count82
\Gm@bindingoffset=\dimen104
\Gm@wd@mp=\dimen105
\Gm@odd@mp=\dimen106
\Gm@even@mp=\dimen107
\Gm@layoutwidth=\dimen108
\Gm@layoutheight=\dimen109
\Gm@layouthoffset=\dimen110
\Gm@layoutvoffset=\dimen111
\Gm@dimlist=\toks15
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.sty
Package: babel 2008/07/08 v3.8m The Babel package

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/english.ldf
Language: english 2005/03/30 v3.3o English support from the babel system

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/babel/babel.def
File: babel.def 2008/07/08 v3.8m Babel common definitions
\babel@savecnt=\count83
\U@D=\dimen112
)
\l@british = a dialect from \language\l@english 
\l@UKenglish = a dialect from \language\l@english 
\l@canadian = a dialect from \language\l@american 
\l@australian = a dialect from \language\l@british 
\l@newzealand = a dialect from \language\l@british 
)) (./test.aux)
\openout1 = `test.aux'.

LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OML/cmm/m/it on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for T1/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OT1/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMS/cmsy/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMX/cmex/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for U/cmr/m/n on input line 5.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 5.

*geometry* driver: auto-detecting
*geometry* detected driver: pdftex
*geometry* verbose mode - [ preamble ] result:
* driver: pdftex
* paper: <default>
* layout: <same size as paper>
* layoutoffset:(h,v)=(0.0pt,0.0pt)
* modes: 
* h-part:(L,W,R)=(54.2025pt, 505.89pt, 54.2025pt)
* v-part:(T,H,B)=(54.2025pt, 686.56499pt, 54.2025pt)
* \paperwidth=614.295pt
* \paperheight=794.96999pt
* \textwidth=505.89pt
* \textheight=686.56499pt
* \oddsidemargin=-18.06749pt
* \evensidemargin=-18.06749pt
* \topmargin=-75.06749pt
* \headheight=12.0pt
* \headsep=45.0pt
* \topskip=12.0pt
* \footskip=25.0pt
* \marginparwidth=90.0pt
* \marginparsep=11.0pt
* \columnsep=10.0pt
* \skip\footins=10.0pt plus 2.0pt minus 4.0pt
* \hoffset=0.0pt
* \voffset=0.0pt
* \mag=1000
* \@twocolumnfalse
* \@twosidefalse
* \@mparswitchfalse
* \@reversemarginfalse
* (1in=72.27pt=25.4mm, 1cm=28.453pt)

LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <12> on input line 9.
LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <8> on input line 9.
LaTeX Font Info:    External font `cmex10' loaded for size
(Font)              <6> on input line 9.
[1

{/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./test.aux) ) 
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
 995 strings out of 495059
 13062 string characters out of 3182031
 68184 words of memory out of 3000000
 4226 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
 6376 words of font info for 23 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
 14 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
 25i,6n,32p,170b,104s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,50000s
</usr/share/
texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr12.pfb>
Output written on test.pdf (1 page, 14134 bytes).
PDF statistics:
 12 PDF objects out of 1000 (max. 8388607)
 7 compressed objects within 1 object stream
 0 named destinations out of 1000 (max. 500000)
 1 words of extra memory for PDF output out of 10000 (max. 10000000)

Here's info on printer #1...

  • Make and Model: Brother MFC-8840D BR-Script3
  • Device URI: ipp://192.168.1.9:631/printers/Brother (it is connected via USB to an Ubuntu 12.04.2 machine, and I print to it over the network)

Printer #2 (more info in a few hours)...

  • Make and Model: TBD
  • Device URI: TBD
12.10

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Fixed by adding \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}. Maybe https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/664/why-should-i-use-usepackaget1fontenc explains why. Diff from my original LaTeX code, above:

    --- orig.tex    2013-06-06 10:50:08.669371329 -0700
+++ new.tex     2013-06-06 10:50:19.829371518 -0700
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 \documentclass[12pt,english]{letter}
+\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
 \usepackage[margin=.75in]{geometry}
 \usepackage{babel}

    Here's the entire LaTeX file that compiles fine with pdflatex, looks fine in evince, and prints fine from both Ubuntu and OS X:

    \documentclass[12pt,english]{letter}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[margin=.75in]{geometry}
\usepackage{babel}

\begin{document}
\address{sender \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\letter{recipient \\ address line 1 \\ address line 2}
\signature{My Full Name}
\opening{Dear Recipient,}
Here's a letter for you.
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{document}
    • 2