How a Cupsfilter Made a Hard Web Conversion Easier

How a cupsﬁlter made a hard web conversion easier

100s of web page HTML reports to convert to PDF

How do I do it?

Manually?

Buy a Tool

Some other way...

Google is your friend…

First AIempt: #FAIL Landscape VS Portrait; data missing/cut oﬀ; borders not right

RTFM $ man convert!No manual entry for convert!

Idea: What if convert, is something else SSck Bug

*NIX gives us symbolic links. $ ls -ln convert!lrwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 20 Aug 14 2009convert -> /usr/sbin/cupsfilter!

Is there a manpage for cupsﬁlter?cupsfilter(8) Apple Inc. cupsfilter(8)!NAME! cupsfilter - convert a file to another format using cups filters!SYNOPSIS! cupsfilter [ -c config-file ] [ -e ] -j job-id[,N] [ -m mime/type ] [ -n copies ] [ -o! name=value ] [ -p filename.ppd ] [ -t title ] filename!DESCRIPTION! cupsfilter is a front-end to the CUPS filter subsystem which allows you to convert a file to! a specific format, just as if you had printed the file through CUPS. By default, cupsfilter! generates a PDF file.!OPTIONS! -c config-file! Uses the named cupsd.conf configuration file.! -e! Use every filter from the PPD file.! -j job-id[,N]! Converts document N from the specified job. If N is omitted, document 1 is converted.! -m mime/type! Specifies the destination file type. The default file type is application/pdf. Use! printer/foo to convert to the printer format defined by the filters in the PPD file.! -n copies! Specifies the number of copies to generate.! -o name=value! Specifies options to pass to the CUPS filters.! -p filename.ppd! Specifies the PPD file to use.!

OpSons? /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/convert!Usage: convert [ options ]!Options:! -e Use every filter from the PPD file! -f filename Set file to be converted (otherwise stdin)! -o filename Set file to be generated (otherwise stdout)! -i mime/type Set input MIME type (otherwise auto-typed)! -j mime/type Set output MIME type (otherwise application/pdf)! -P filename.ppd Set PPD file! -a name=value ... Set option(s)! -U username Set username for job! -J title Set title! -c copies Set number of copies! -u Remove the PPD file when finished! -D Remove the input file when finished!/usr/sbin/cupsfilter!Usage: cupsfilter -m mime/type [ options ] filename!Options:! -c cupsd.conf Set cupsd.conf file to use! -e Use every filter from the PPD file! -j job-id[,N] Filter file N from the specified job (default is file 1)! -n copies Set number of copies! -o name=value Set option(s)! -p filename.ppd Set PPD file! -t title Set title!

Tweak #1: OpSons Cupsﬁlter uses –o to set the opSons; convert uses -‐a

Tweak #2: Media formats Media format opSons were "LeIer" "Legal" and "A4" but A4 worked best.

What opSons did I need? /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/convert !-f filename.htm !-o filename.pdf !-a landscape !-a scaling=75 !-a media=A4!

Working Example: /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/convert -f contactForm.html !-o contactForm.pdf !-a landscape !-a scaling=75 !-a media=A4!

Need to automate ConverSng hundreds of ﬁles. Shell to the rescue!

Shell out a soluSon for name in `ls *.htm` ; do ! /System/Library/Printers/Libraries/convert ! -f $name -o `echo $name ! | sed s/htm/pdf/` ! -a landscape -a scaling=75 -a media=A4; !done !

Room for improvement? •  Paul Hankin suggested this change for the subsStuSon to automate the conversion: $ {name/htm/pdf} instead of back quoSng using sed •  Use cupsﬁlter directly; specify the opSons from the manpage.

Victory! World is saved; the birds are singing, the rainbows are out, the sun is shining. *NIX variant (OS X) to the rescue! I could have used OS X, Linux, or CygWin on a PC for this. Ran in an hour and some change for 100s of ﬁles in a few diﬀerent directories.

CreaSve Commons Imagery List These images are CreaSve Commons licensed images I found on Flickr (through a Yahoo search) from the users listed below. The excepSons are the Adobe ™ icon taken from the Adobe ™ website and the wikipedia page where I got the Paper image from. •  Reports image: artnoose •  QuesSon Marks: crystaljingsr •  Manual labor/man digging a ditch: worldbank •  Chisels: cfa •  Australian Web Bridge: Smmythesuk •  Broken Bridge (#FAIL): ghostv •  Light Bulb Idea: preef •  SSck bug: safoocat •  Swirls for “opSons” page: kymberlyanne •  Paper size image: hIp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_size_illustraSon2_with_leIer_and_legal.svg •  Super Hero clip-‐art: hIp://www.clker.com/ •  Rainbow: homer4k

How a Cupsfilter Made a Hard Web Conversion Easier

by Matthew McCullough

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics