Okular (on Ubuntu 9.10) prints multiple pages per sheet (n-up) very small

Question

I'm trying to print a set of beamer slides with multiple slides per page (4-up or 6-up). When I select 4 pages or 6 pages per sheet in the Okular print dialog, the pages print quite small (perhaps even tiny -- about 1.75" by 1.25") and leave significant white-space on the page.

I can get around this behavior by using the pdfnup utility (in the pdfjam package); which will correctly generate a 4- or 6-up pdf file but it's annoying to generate a second pdf file when I should be able to accomplish this task from the print dialog.

Details: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), 64-bit, Color Postscript printer.

Answer 1

Obviously, it would be nice if there was some configuration tweak that would correct the behavior you're experiencing; if there is, hopefully someone else will post it.

But it's likely there's not, and this feature of the tool is just broken. You've already figured out the proper workaround -- find another tool and use that instead. But as you say, this is not ideal.

One thing you should definitely do is check Ubuntu's Launchpad for Okular bugs, and report this one if it's not already listed. (It doesn't appear to be, but my search wasn't very thorough.) Ubuntu packages are largely free software, developed by volunteers, and bug reports help make the software better.

Answer 2

This issue is still there, not only on Okular---also on Evince, Firefox, etc. as long as you use the system print dialog.

The way to fix it is as follows. Open up the print dialog. Switch to the "page handling" tab. In the page scaling box, select "Fit to printable area" (NOT "Shrink to printable area"). Then in "page setup" select the number of slides you want on one single page. Then print.

UPDATE: it seems the KDE print dialog does not have this option, but the fix above should work for GTK applications. See this KDE bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319476