Content rendered via HTML doesn't print on some printers

[ZachSARAO]

Description of the bug

When printing a PDF rendered via PyMuPDF, I have found that physical printouts omit text in some cases:

insert_htmlbox(
    some_rectangle,
    f'<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; font-size: 8px; line-height: {height}px; color: #587BBD;"><b>{title}</b></div>',
)

I can see that content on PDF on screen, and printing out on my printer that text is visible. However, a different printer omitted this content.

Please let me know if I'm misusing the library in any way / or in general what could cause this?

How to reproduce the bug

A PDF produced via PyMuPDF prints correctly on some printers, but not on others.

PyMuPDF version

1.23.9

Operating system

Linux

Python version

3.10

[JorjMcKie]

This is obviously a question and no bug report.
Transferring to "Discussions".

[JorjMcKie]

Please provide an example of non-printable text.
Otherwise, if the file looks good in a PDF viewer, then this problem is outside the scope of this library.

[JorjMcKie]

A printer does not know fonts! Only the document-producing application does.
The Nimbus font in the PDF is a Helvetica-implementation!
The word "Helvetica" as such is just a definition of details that together describe what is typical for a font to be a Helvetica implementation.

When sending stuff to a printer, then this is a stream of bits that the hardware translates and hopefully understands
No idea what is going wrong in your setup ... e-mail? ... e-mail attachment?
Do all PDFs you are sending over this way show the problem, etc., etc.

[ZachSARAO]

I sent a PDF as an email attachment that contained text drawn via html and via the insert_text method. The text written via insert_text shows up fine, whereas the text drawn via html does not (in the same pdf). I've just tested that the email attachment re-sent to me still includes printable text on my side

[ZachSARAO]

On a slightly different note, when I choose to print this PDF on a Mac the default printer setting is '100%' whereas with other pdfs, the default printer setting is 'scale to fit'. this means that unless I scale explicitly on a mac, some of the edge to edge content is cut (header and footer).

Looking around the metadata I can't see why that would be the case. Do you have any pointers?

[JorjMcKie]

When sending something to a print - depending on the operating system and the printer hardware - you usually make a choice about the output properties like scaling, color and grayscale, how many document pages on a paper sheet, double sided printing and what not.

[ZachSARAO]

I sent a PDF as an email attachment that contained text drawn via html and via the insert_text method. The text written via insert_text shows up fine, whereas the text drawn via html does not (in the same pdf). I've just tested that the email attachment re-sent to me still includes printable text on my side

Sorry - that to confirm that nothing is being stripped from the PDF during email transmission (i.e. I still don't know why at least one printer doesn't print some text)

When sending something to a print - depending on the operating system and the printer hardware - you usually make a choice about the output properties like scaling, color and grayscale, how many document pages on a paper sheet, double sided printing and what not.

I have two similar PDFs - one that defaults to 'letter' size, and one that defaults to A4 size despite that the page dimensions are roughly the same (the one that defaults to letter size is slightly different /MediaBox [ 0 0 595.2756 841.8898 ].

What can prompt the printer settings to select one size (or scaling) over another?