Monterey breaks printing?

[project_2501]

Printing suddenly broke for me on upgrading to Monterey.

Anyone else seeing this?

---

PDFs that previously printed fine no longer print - they give a postscript error.

Big Sur also introduced postscript problems - which I think were resolved with updates.

I use a true postscript printer so the drivers don't really do anything - apart from toner levels etc. The OS just sends postscript/pdf over the IPP protocol to the printers which has a true postscript engine to render it and print it. This is why I have has almost zero problems with printing over 2 decades from Linux, Windows, MacOS, BSD, etc ...

With the Big Sur upgrade I worked with Xerox for a month diagnosing the issue and it turned out to be a MacOS issue.

 

[hirstjl]

Yes, I have experienced this. In particular, pdfs generated with TeXShop or Overleaf using pdfLaTeX will not print to postscript printers when the print job is sent from TeXShop or from Preview. As a temporary work-around, the pdfs will print when sent from Adobe Reader. Using alternative TeX engines can generate pdfs that will print, e.g. using dvi and ps in TeXShop or XeLaTeX in Overleaf. See also:
https://forum.support.xerox.com/t5/...-printing-broken-on-macOS-Monterey/m-p/246571

 

[project_2501]

Thanks hirstjl that's useful information. Do we know what the root cause is?

 

[hirstjl]

People in the xerox forum linked above seem to think that it is a problem with PDFKit in Monterey.

I have attached a pdf file that causes the problem. If you open the file in Preview and save as a postscript file in the print menu, the resulting postscript file produces a "Postscript Conversion Error" when opened in Preview. Whatever code is used to "save as Postscript" in Preview is probably the culprit.

 

[hirstjl]

I received an e-mail from Richard Koch indicating that the problem is in the system software that converts pdfs to PostScript. Apple has been informed. As a temporary work-around for TeX users, switching to the lmodern fonts (that is, inserting \usepackage{lmodern} in your TeX file) seems to avoid the bug. Fonts in embedded illustrations may continue to cause errors.

 

[project_2501]

I spoke to aI spent 3 hours struggling to get through to someone suitable at Apple yesterday - finally got through to someone who confirmed Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

Given how hard it is to even get Apple to acknowledge a bug - this is an achievement.

I guess I'll be using opensource software (Ghostscript) until Apple get their act together on basic stuff like.... printing PDFs that everyone else can manage (Linux, Windows, BSD, ...)

 

[drdudj]

I spoke to aI spent 3 hours struggling to get through to someone suitable at Apple yesterday - finally got through to someone who confirmed Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

Given how hard it is to even get Apple to acknowledge a bug - this is an achievement.

I guess I'll be using opensource software (Ghostscript) until Apple get their act together on basic stuff like.... printing PDFs that everyone else can manage (Linux, Windows, BSD, ...)

Sounds promising. thanks for the time spent on this. soon I hope.

 

[David Chappell]

The problem I now have is with pdf's that are created in Illustrator that have a scanned image in the file. I can see the image when opened in both Preview and Acrobat. When I print from Preview the file will print but the scanned image mysteriously isn't there, meaning doesn't print that layer. I went back and tried printing similar files going back to march and I have the same issue. They printed fine from earlier OS. Now, when I open the same file in Acrobat, it fails and I have to Force Quit to get out of the print window. Not good as this process I use virtually daily!!

 

[hirstjl]

The newest release of the macOS software (Monterey version 12.1) appears to have fixed the previous difficulties with postscript printing for certain computer modern fonts. The previous workarounds still work, but are no longer necessary when originating print jobs from machines with the updated macOS.