Re: [libreoffice-users] corrupt files when using command line --print-to-file

Hi Mike,

I'm using LO 6.4.7.2 on UbuntuStudio 20.04 LTS and your --headless command line instruction works 
and produces a pdf file which passed the pdfinfo check with flying colours. I just rechecked to 
make sure.   So maybe your problem is distro related?

But I don't use the --headless command very often because it breaks the links in my pdf output. So, I 
make use of the LO Writer gui to do   file> export as>export as pdf  which gets me a workable pdf 
with working links (clickable table of contents etc). If I need to reassemble some pdf docs, I use pdftk 
utility because so many of the others break those links.

Philip

On 11/04/2022 10:51, Mike Scott wrote:
> I'm having a spot of bother trying to get a .ps or .pdf produced from a .odt using the command line.
>
> I've revisited some code last used a few years ago, whose last step is just to use LO to do this 
> conversion. It used to make a .ps file, but that now seems to have changed, and I get a .pdf 
> instead - which is corrupt.
>
>
> So I get for example
>
> > > > libreoffice --headless --print-to-file --outdir "./"  "./y.odt"
> print /dhome/mike/homebrew software/service sheet production/web generator/y.odt -> /dhome/mike/homebrew 
> software/service sheet production/web generator//y.pdf using <default_printer>
>
> > > > pdfinfo y.pdf
> Syntax Warning: May not be a PDF file (continuing anyway)
> Syntax Error (2432): Illegal character '{'
> Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary
> Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary
> Syntax Error: Couldn't read xref table
>
> The resulting pdf won't load into a browser and upsets several of the pdf tools, although gimp or 
> xreader can read it. Fortunately, pdf2ps accepts the file, so as a workaround, I do the LO 
> --print-to-file and then run the result through pdf2ps and then back through ps2pdf; the result of 
> that contortion seems OK.
>
>
> Looking at the GUI instead, under the tools|options|print page, if I try to set options for print 
> to file, the tick box for pdf is set and disabled. Yet if I select print to file in the normal 
> print dialogue, I get a valid .ps file not a pdf.
>
> I need to run this as a print job, since '--convert-to pdf' doesn't honour the brochure setting in 
> place in the document. Using the GUI and printing works fine, but isn't useful for automated 
> processing.
>
> If anyone has a way better of doing a command line conversion to a pdf while honouring in 
> particular the 'brochure' setting, I'd be grateful.
>
>
>
> (This is with LO 6.4.7.2 under mint 20)

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