Determine media size from ppd file - printing

Ive got Dymo labelwriter 400. It works like a charm with a glabels on ubuntu. I am currently writing software to create automatic labels. for that I need to know the size of the png I want to print.
The paper I use is: Large Address, which is 89x36mm.
When I create and print such an image it is not taking the whole label. It is in fact 2/3 of the label size.
In ppd I found such thing:
*PageSize w102h252/30321 Large Address: "<</PageSize[102 252]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice"
I imagine 102 252 is a size. I created such png in gimp, still is too small.
How can I determine what size should the image have to fit the label?

The size will be in points (72nds of an inch). For example, 8.5 x 11 (letter) size paper is shown as
<</PageSize[ 612 792 ] /ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice
102 = 1.4 inches or 36mm
252 = 2.5 inches or 89mm

Related

Printing a PNG file at an accurate size

I have to print something to an exact size (precision to within a mm). I have written some python code to create the image, but when I try to print the size is completely wrong.
I am trying to print at A4 600DPI, which I found out should be 4960 x 7016 pixels. If I test the image I created through .shape it shows the PNG image is 7016 rows by 4960 columns. The printer is set to A4, 600DPI, print size 'Original Size (from image DPI)'.
Does anyone have an idea why the printing is coming out at such a strange size? It is not close, I can see maybe 1 percent of the top left of the image I am trying to print.

JIRA 5 logo size issue

In JIRA 5
Administration -> System -> User Interface -> Look And Feel
when I changing logo with image size 57x30px (width/height)
Text from page: "The height of the logo image will be constrained to a maximum of 30 px.
Also, it is recommended to use an image with a 57 px width."
its displayed on jira page with size 187x40px (width/height) and looks very blurry.
How can I fix this? (disable logo stretches)
For those interested in Jira 6.4 and confluence 5.8...
In JIRA, the image size you want (without scaling) will be 30px tall. Any image height taller than 30 will be scaled to 30. JIRA automatically puts padding on your image 5 top 5 bottom...for total of 40 pixels high. JIRA will allow you to do an image wider than 57...it pushes the menu over..at least in the default theme.
In Confluence, for some reason the authors decided 5 pixels was not enough padding. So, they added 3 more. Top and bottom. For a total of 16 pixels of padding.
Yes, the confluence tag line below the image upload says, "limit to 48 pixels tall", but this is a lie. if you make it 48px tall, it will be scaled to 24 px tall. Then the 16 pixels of padding is added for a total hight of 40px.
I will be checking on Stash/Bamboo in the future.

Blurry text in PNG image converted from PDF via TikZ and standalone package

I've got a problem converting a pdflatex-generated PDF image to a PNG image using the standalone package.
The pixelated rendering of the text in the converted image (PDF->PS->PNG via gs and ImageMagick?) is awfully blurry and inferior in quality (sharpness, crispness etc.) to the screen-dumped original PDF.
I have checked out these StackExchange posts:
Standalone diagrams with TikZ?
TikZ to non-PDF
and been guided in the setup of my workflow by the standalone package manual. But after considerable experimental adjustment of the various conversion settings in the code below, I have been unable to improve the quality of the outputted PNG image.
A sample of the settings I have played with:
density (increase the dpi)
size (increase/decrease the dimensions)
the TikZ picture width/height dimensions (no optimum found, but if too small the PNG image width does not equal that specified among the documentclass parameters)
using the command={} option, I have also played with options such as -quality and - set colorspace RGB (though I didn't really know what I was doing here)
Another approach I have taken is to try to set the TikZ picture width and height dimensions (in cm) in such a way that they agree with the conversion dimensions given among the documentclass parameters (using a dpi + pixels -> cm converter).
None of this worked! So any help in converting from PDF to PNG using the standalone package that preserves the sharpness and crispness of the rendered text in the image would be hugely appreciated.
For reference the versions of the various systems/applications I'm using are:
Windows 7
MiKTeX 2.9
TeXnicCenter
gs 9.09
ImageMagick 6.8.6 Q16 (32-bit)
standalone package installed using MiKTeX package manager late Aug 2013
\documentclass[preview,convert={density=300,size=900x300,outext=.png}]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\pgfplotsset{every x tick label/.style={at={(1,0)}, yshift=-0.15cm, xshift=-0.0cm, inner sep=0pt, font=\normalsize}}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
no markers, domain=-2.1*pi:2.1*pi, samples=1000,
width=30.0cm,
height=10.0cm,
axis x line*=middle,
x axis line style={densely dotted, opacity=0.75},
axis y line*=middle,
y axis line style={densely dotted, opacity=0.75},
ymin=-1.1,
ymax=1.1,
xtick={-6.28318530717959, -5.65486677646163, -5.02654824574367, -4.71238898038469, -4.39822971502571, -3.76991118430775, -3.14159265358979, -2.51327412287183, -1.88495559215388, -1.5707963267949, -1.25663706143592, -0.628318530717959, 0, 0.628318530717959, 1.25663706143592, 1.5707963267949, 1.88495559215388, 2.51327412287183, 3.14159265358979, 3.76991118430775, 4.39822971502571, 4.71238898038469, 5.02654824574367, 5.65486677646163, 6.28318530717959},
xticklabels={$-2\pi$, $-\frac{9\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{8\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{3\pi}{2}$, $-\frac{7\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{6\pi}{5}$, $-\pi$, $-\frac{4\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{3\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{\pi}{2}$, $-\frac{2\pi}{5}$, $-\frac{\pi}{5}$, $0$, $\frac{\pi}{5}$, $\frac{2\pi}{5}$, $\frac{\pi}{2}$, $\frac{3\pi}{5}$, $\frac{4\pi}{5}$, $\pi$, $\frac{6\pi}{5}$, $\frac{7\pi}{5}$, $\frac{\pi}{2}$, $\frac{8\pi}{5}$, $\frac{9\pi}{5}$, $2\pi$},
ytick=\empty,
enlargelimits=false, clip=true, axis on top]
\addplot [line width=0.5,cyan!50!black] {sin(deg(5*x))*cos(deg(x)};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
In order to investigate this problem I first created a PDF from your posted tikz/tex code (after copying it into a tikz.tex file):
pdflatex tikz.tex
pdflatex tikz.tex
The resulting PDF does contain the illustration as a vector graphic, not a raster image. Hence, pdfimages -list will NOT detect it.
Then I tested two ways to convert the resulting PDF file to a PNG:
Using ImageMagick's convert (which employs Ghostscript behind your back as a 'delegate' to process the PDF input)
Using Ghostscript directly
1. Using convertwith -density 720
I've used this command to create a PNG from the PDF:
convert -density 720 tikz.pdf tikz1.png
Here is the result:
Why did I use -density 720? Because 720 PPI is the default resolution which Ghostscript uses when creating PDFs (unless you override this default setting by providing your own via -rNxM on the gs command line)...
The resulting image has a size of 374 kB (the PDF had 49 kB) and a width x height dimension of 8060 x 2390 pixels. Any pixelization (which will happen whenever you create a PNG!) is not immediately visible at that resolution.
The runtime for a loop running this command 10 times was 47 seconds.
2. Using Ghostscript directly
To achieve the direct PNG conversion with a Ghostscript command I used:
gs -o tikz-gs.png -sDEVICE=pngalpha \
-dAlignToPixels=0 -dGridFitTT=2 \
-dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 \
tikz.pdf
Here is the resulting PNG:
It's file size is 308 kB, with dimensions of 8060 x 2390 pixels.
The runtime for a loop running this command 10 times was 17 seconds.
Analysis
PDF input file: Sizes of components
After looking at the source code of the PDF file after uncompressing all objects, I came up with the following statistics:
Total size of 5 embedded Type1 fonts................................ 38615 Bytes
Total size of v`/Contents` stream (mainly used by vector drawing)... 32630 Bytes
Rest of PDF structure ("overhead", if you want)..................... 5827 Bytes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total size of PDF (after uncompressing objects)..................... 77072 Bytes
The fonts are Type 1 (i.e. PostScript) fonts, according to the output of pdffonts. They are all embedded as subsets:
pdffonts tikz.pdf
name type encoding emb sub uni object ID
-------------------------- ------------ ---------------- --- --- --- ---------
FXXUVH+CMSY10 Type 1 Builtin yes yes no 7 0
BCSIZL+CMR10 Type 1 Builtin yes yes no 8 0
SFJZUV+CMMI10 Type 1 Builtin yes yes no 9 0
WPSSUY+CMR7 Type 1 Builtin yes yes no 10 0
SYHYOI+CMMI7 Type 1 Builtin yes yes no 11 0
Because...
...Fonts (unless they are raster fonts) are a different way to very efficiently code vector shapes for glyphs depicting text characters,
...Fonts + Vector drawing compose more than 90% of the total PDF size,
...there is no way in hell that lets you create a PNG raster image from the (compressed) PDF sized 49 kB (uncompressed size was 75 kB) that isn't larger by a few times than the original PDF file if you want to avoid directly visible "pixelization" and "blur".
Even if you use a resolution of 720 PPI (which creates a 308 kB-sized PNG), you'll still see pixelization once you start zooming in. Such pixelization does not occur with the PDF (because all its shapes are defined as vectors).
The following three images are screenshots:
top, from the tikz.pdf file at a high zoom level (~1000%),
center, from the tikz.png created with 720 PPI (at a similar zoom level),
bottom, from the tikz72.png created with 72 PPI (at a similar zoom level):
The text sizes used for the annotation of the coordinate axis are only around 10 points. If you rasterize those, you'll get clearly visible pixelization at any resolution below 400 PPI, maybe even above...
My Ghostscript is a self-compiled 9.17 GIT PRERELEASE. My ImageMagick is 6.9.0-0 Q16 x86_64.

Jasper report margins larger than what is set

I have a jasper report set to portrait letter, which, in pixel terms, translates to 612 x 792 in iReport. I have the left margin set to 17 pixels and the right set to 10. That leaves the single column width at 585 with no spacing.
Now, I have two vertical lines that are used to form the report's border, and they're positioned at x-coordinates 0 (for the left bar) and 585 (for the right). When this reported is executed, the resultant PDF looks perfectly fine. However, when I go to print, the two vertical lines are missing, and I have to select shrink to fit (which sets the zoom to 94% and displays everything).
I've done some experimenting, and, without shrinking the report at print time, the vertical lines need to be positioned at x-coordinates 2 (for the left) and 575 (for the right) in order to display, which translates into essentially an x-margin of 19 pixels. Playing around some more, if I set the left margin to 19, the left vertical bar displays at print time when positioned at x-coordinate 0.
Is something else setting the margins at 19 pixels aside from the jasper report itself? I can't find any culprits in the report itself that seem to be responsible for the discrepancy. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Most printers can't print up to the edge of a page. It sounds like you are hitting this limit. The print driver is detecting that the PDF doesn't fit inside the printer's printable area and allows you to shrink the content to fit what the printer supports.
This is just a guess. In my reports I use the Background-Band in iReport and draw a rectangle for the background of my reports.

How to get font size in delphi

I am looking for a function which should take parameters as Font name, sample character, width, height of the sample character and should return Font Size.
It must look like this:
GetFontSize(<Font Name>, <Sample Character>, <Sample Character Width>,
<Sample Character Height>)
which must return the font size,
Is this possible in delphi?
You may want to take a look at this page that discusses font size and points.
It uses the following to convert between the points and pixel size:
Arial 12pt at 96 dpi:
font size in points 12
font size in pixels = ------------------- × 96 dpi = ---- × 96 = 16 pixels
72 points per inch 72
You could use that for your conversion. You just need to be aware of possible differences in your screen dpi as Blorgbeard stated. Points are usually used to describe the size on paper. You need to decide how you want to map that to the screen. For example many programs will allow you to set a zoom level. That does not change the printed size on paper but does affect the pixel height on the screen.
Depending on what you are trying to accomplish you may need to get the actual sizes of the font. If you are trying to find out exactly how the font is put together take a look at Obtaining Font Metrics The code on that page uses the .Net libraries but it has a good explanation. If you want to get the Text Metrics in Delphi you would use the GetTextMetrics function.
As Rob stated in his comment you can draw text at a specific height by setting the Font.Size property to the negative height in pixels. Windows will then draw the text out at that height. In that case you don't need a specific letter or the width as you have in your prototype function. For a given font size each letter will have a different height and width. I.E. capital letters will be taller than lower case letters and letters like "W" will be wider than letters like "i".
I'm only aware of methods to do the opposite - that is, to get pixel sizes from point sizes.
The only way I can think of is to set up a TCanvas, and repeatedly call GetTextExtent on it, changing the font size each time, until you get a size that's acceptably close to what you want.
Depending on how accurate you need this, you could just convert your desired height in pixels to points - a point is 1/72 of an inch, and your screen is probably 96 pixels per inch (but check GetDeviceCaps to get the real figure). See this question.
That would get you a font size pretty close to the pixel size you want.

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