[GRASS-user] Odd scaling issue with ps.map output and ghostscript ps2pdf

[Hamish]

Tom Russo wrote:
> On several occasions I've created
> maps with ps.map at 1:24000 scale, converted
> to PDF form with ghostscript's "ps2pdf" script, and sent
> them off to a printer
> (i.e. paid a shop to print them) only to find that they've
> come back in
> 1:25000 scale instead.  The first time this happened
> was after I'd imported
> the PDF into Inkscape to clean up labels, so I attributed
> it to Inkscape.
> 
> This time, however, I cleverly avoided using Inkscape to
> monkey with the map,
> and found it came back to me in 1:25000 again anyway. 
> And when I investigated,
> found that the PDF file was indeed shrunk from the
> PostScript --- when I 
> viewed on screen at 1:1 scale, I found that my 1:24000 UTM
> interpolator worked
> great with the on-screen postscript file, but I needed to
> create a 1:25000
> interpolator for the PDF version of the same file.
> 
> I'm really puzzled how this can happen, and am guessing
> that somehow ghostscript
> is using a different DPI to create the PDF file than it
> should.
> 
> Has anyone else ever seen this odd behavior?  I'd
> really like to understand 
> it and avoid it again.  For both delivering to a print
> shop and for importing
> to Inkscape, PDF format is better than PostScript, so I'm
> really keen to fix
> this problem.
> 
> For those who want a look, the map in question is
> temporarily available in
> both PDF and PostScript versions at <ftp://ftp.swcp.com/pub/tmp/russo/>.
> The files at that ftp site are automatically deleted after
> 4 days, though.
> 
> Can anyone suggest a way around this scaling of the map by
> ghostscript?  Or
> point me to a reason it should be happening?

(sorry about yahoo's broken line wrap)


no idea, but from now on I'll keep an eye out for it. :)
perhaps an A4 vs. Letter papersize adjustment?

how are you converting to PDF? "ps2pdf13" or another GS wrapper?

what does acrobat's "About the Document" say about the PDF paper size
versus what is in the header lines of the .ps file?

does it happen for self-printed PDFs, or only ones from the print shop?

how are you/them printing? via Acrobat's File->Print? is the "adjust to
fit on page" tickbox ticked?


Hamish