Why do strange symbols appear on an eps printout, but not on the screen?

0 votes
asked Jun 20, 2016 in Bug by anonymous
reshown Jun 20, 2016 by plantuml
I am running the following version of PlantUML

====================================

PlantUML version 8042 (Tue May 31 12:48:21 EDT 2016)
(GPL source distribution)
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
1.6.0_45-b06
Linux

The environment variable GRAPHVIZ_DOT has not been set
Dot executable is /usr/bin/dot
Dot version: dot - graphviz version 2.36.0 (20140111.2315)
Installation seems OK. File generation OK
 

============================

I am creating an eps file, and have tried command line options of -Teps and -eps. Both give the same result.

The output appears perfect when viewed on the screen with evince. However, when the output is printed, parts of the text (not all of it) are overwritten by strange symbols which appear to be the characters that should be displayed, but in a very strange font.

I would like to include a scan of what appears on the printer, but can't see how to do it. The "image" button doesn't seem to accept a URL of file://......
commented Jun 21, 2016 by anonymous
Further investigation seems to indicate that this only occurs when the text on an arrow is longer than some predetermined (but unknown) length. It happens with

"Message 2 (1343)"

but not with

"Ack (1344)"

2 Answers

0 votes
answered Jun 21, 2016 by plantuml (294,960 points)
Could you post here (or send by mail) the text diagram, and the EPS file ? Thanks
commented Jun 21, 2016 by anonymous
I've created an artificial diagram that illustrates the problem:

@startuml

participant Fred
participant Joe
participant Chris
participant Jane
participant Alison

rnote over Joe : His name is\nJoe
rnote over Chris : His name is\nChris
rnote over Fred : His name is\nFred
Fred -> Alison : This is some text (1666)

@enduml

I compile this with

java -jar ~/plantUML/plantuml.jar -eps test.txt

and then look at the output on the screen. No problem at all. Beautiful.

However, when I print it, the text on the arrow reads "This is some text (1" and then gives some horrible and unreadable symbols. I'd be happy to upload or send an email of the scanned printout if that would help. Email address? Method of uploading?
commented Jun 21, 2016 by anonymous
More diagnosis:

1. Using evince as the eps reader, the picture displays fine on the screen and prints corruptly.

2. Changing printers does not help.

3. Embedding the eps into a document processed by pdflatex to produce a pdf and then opening the pdf with evince shews no problem on the screen, but prints corruptly.

4. Opening the eps file with gimp and printing gives no problem at all. So this seems to be something in the eps that evince can't handle.

5. Opening the pdf document, with the eps embedded (see step 3) with acroread shews no problem on the screen. But the corruption appears when the document is printed.

So, in summary, the eps file appears OK on the screen whether opened with gimp or evince and appears OK on the screen if embedded in a pdf document and opened with evince or acroread. However, when printed from acroread or evince, the picture is nastily corrupted.
commented Jun 21, 2016 by anonymous
Yet more diagnosis.

As mentioned above, I have embedded the eps output from PlantUML into a pdf file. I sent a copy of that pdf to a colleague who is still using Microsoft's "Windows" operating system. He opened the document and looked at the diagram: no problem. He printed it on the same printer than I have been using. No problem: diagram appears fine on screen and printer.

Back to my Linux system, I have viewed the identical pdf document with both evince and acroread. All appears fine on the screen. Each is badly corrupted on the printout.

Very odd.
0 votes
answered Jun 21, 2016 by plantuml (294,960 points)

Try to create the "smallest EPS that crashes".
Starting from:
@startuml

participant Fred
participant Joe
participant Chris
participant Jane
participant Alison

rnote over Joe : His name is\nJoe
rnote over Chris : His name is\nChris
rnote over Fred : His name is\nFred
Fred -> Alison : This is some text (1666)

@enduml


And try to remove \n or parenthesis. [Parenthesis are used in EPS, so it might be the cause of the bug]

We have built a beta that generates a slightly different EPS file (without EPS macro)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13064071/plantuml.jar
You might try it and tell us the result.

It would be nice if we could correspond by mail (plantuml@gmail.com) because I guess that this remote debug will take some time.

Thanks!

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