Bugzilla – Bug 130623
CUPS unnecessarily filters Firefox printouts, dramatically increases print time
Last modified: 2005-11-23 11:24:27 UTC
The CUPS mime.types file takes all printouts from Mozilla Firefox (and other Mozilla apps, I presume) and types them as "mozilla-ps." "mozilla-ps" then gets filtered through "pswrite" before getting sent to the printer. This dramatically increases the print file size and printing time. pswrite takes a 500kb file and turns it into a 8MB file. Understandably it takes my PostScript printer much longer to print an 8MB file than a 500kb file. The 500kb file starts printing almost instantly; the 8MB file can take over five minutes to start printing. I don't know why CUPS is set up to filter in this way. Firefox files are already PostScript, so pswrite doesn't add anything to them. Only mozilla-ps files are filtered in this way; PostScript from other apps is not filtered. I suggest removing the mozilla-ps entry from mime.types in future releases, unless there's some good reason for it to be there (e.g. other Mozilla apps need it.) Even then I would refine mime.types so that only the files that need additional filtering are so filtered, and so that Firefox printouts don't get pswrite filtering. (I commented out the mozilla-ps line in mime.types without incident. My printouts now emerge very quickly from my printer.)
Added Mozilla/Firefox to Cc for background information. For the reason see: http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/03/jsmeix_print-einrichten-91.html "Printing from Mozilla" As the PostScript level 3 printout from Mozilla/Firefox was the most often complained printing problem in Suse Linux 9.1, we enabled the prefiltering by default since Suse Linux 9.2. Meanwhile there have been changes in the Mozilla/Firefox PostScript generator so that it should be able to produce even PostScript level 1 printout but I don't know if any kind of Mozilla/Firefox (e.g. CJK web pages) will be always PostScript level 1 (or at most level 2). Therefore to be on the safe side the prefiltering is still enabled by default. See the article how to disable it for you. Pleasse report if you have PostScript level 1 or level 2 printers (or if you have only PostScript level 3 printers) and if any kind of Mozilla/Firefox printout works well for you after you disabled the prefiltering.
according to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=234182 the postscript module of mozilla apps do only create type 1 fonts instead of type 9 fonts in the past. So PS output should always be level 1 compatible. At least for 10.1 (if all mozilla applications do natively include this change) I think we should disable the filter. We should do this as soon as possible to get the chance for feedback.
Klaus, please disable the Mozilla prefiltering for CUPS in /etc/cups/mime.convs so that we get feedback for Suse Linux 10.1 alpha versions: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- /etc/cups/mime.convs.orig 2005-10-26 10:21:12.000000000 +0200 +++ /etc/cups/mime.convs 2005-10-26 10:22:40.000000000 +0200 @@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ application/postscript application/vnd.cups-postscript 66 pstops #application/x-dvi application/postscript 50 dvitops application/netscape-ps application/postscript 33 ogonki -application/mozilla-ps application/postscript 33 pswrite +#application/mozilla-ps application/postscript 33 pswrite +application/mozilla-ps application/postscript 66 pstops application/vnd.hp-HPGL application/postscript 66 hpgltops application/x-cshell application/postscript 33 texttops application/x-perl application/postscript 33 texttops -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above diff is wrong! Sorry for causing confusion. Here the corrected version: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- /etc/cups/mime.convs.orig 2005-10-26 10:21:12.000000000 +0200 +++ /etc/cups/mime.convs 2005-10-26 10:29:54.000000000 +0200 @@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ application/postscript application/vnd.cups-postscript 66 pstops #application/x-dvi application/postscript 50 dvitops application/netscape-ps application/postscript 33 ogonki -application/mozilla-ps application/postscript 33 pswrite +#application/mozilla-ps application/postscript 33 pswrite +application/mozilla-ps application/vnd.cups-postscript 66 pstops application/vnd.hp-HPGL application/postscript 66 hpgltops application/x-cshell application/postscript 33 texttops application/x-perl application/postscript 33 texttops ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=48862 is no longer valid? Shouldn't the line removed then, inclusive corresponding mime.types entry?
For testing with Suse Linux 10.1 alpha versions I would prefer to have it only disabled so that it is easy for the user to re-enable it. If there are no bug-reports during Suse Linux 10.1 alpha versions, the Mozilla prefiltering could be completely removed.
Ok. Will do as soon as priority and time permits.
fixed in next version.