Most problems I can fix or work around, but this is a show-stopper. I am a photographer, and I _need_ to print photos. I use the GIMP to print them out on my Canon S800 - here's the setup:

Server: RH8.0 running CUPS (stock RH8.0 version), Canon S800 on USB.
Client (the PC I actually sit at): RH8.0, GIMP (stock RH8.0), printing via HTTP on above printer.

Here's the problem: In the GIMP (and only in the GIMP) some photos print, and some don't.

Here's what I do:
1. start GIMP.
2. Open jpg photo.
3. File -> Print...
4. Set up orientation, position, size, brightness, contrast, saturation, density, etc.
5. Print command I use is 'lpr -P <printer name>'.
6. Hit print - some photos print out (perfectly) and some don't. They don't even get as far as the print queue on the server.

Here's the offending bit of the CUPS error log:
----------
Found: %%BeginFeature: *Quality 1200x1200dpi
Option: Quality=1200x1200dpi --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *InputSlot Auto
Option: InputSlot=Auto --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *MediaType GlossyPaper
Option: MediaType=GlossyPaper --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *PageSize A4
Option: PageSize=A4 --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
0 %%kMo(MbIp%7eIo^VYInb;_Ip@RnJo^MSInFlPEp%@hJp@7hKnFuVHp@[tLo^V\JoD&%Op\"1Rp@\(Kn`f6!nF#Z>q=jU
D [23/Jan/2005:16:30:03 +0000] UpdateJob: job 24, file 0 is complete.
D [23/Jan/2005:16:30:03 +0000] CancelJob: id = 24
D [23/Jan/2005:16:30:03 +0000] StopJob: id = 24, force = 0
D [23/Jan/2005:16:30:03 +0000] StopJob: printer state is 3
----------
As you can see, after setting the page size, there's a huge line of rubbish! What's all that? The actual line is much longer - I've only included a small section of it here. As a comparison, this is what that log should look like:
----------
Found: %%BeginFeature: *Quality 1200x1200dpi
Option: Quality=1200x1200dpi --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *InputSlot Auto
Option: InputSlot=Auto --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *MediaType GlossyPaper
Option: MediaType=GlossyPaper --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
Found: %%BeginFeature: *PageSize A4
Option: PageSize=A4 --> Option will be set by PostScript interpreter
0 %%EndPage
0 %%EOF
Saw EOF!
options: -><-
/usr/lib/cups/filter/cupsomatic: inserted option PS code:
<</Gamma 1.000000>>setpagedevice
<</Density 1.000000>>setpagedevice
<</Brightness 1.000000>>setpagedevice
:
UpdateJob: job 23, file 0 is complete.
CancelJob: id = 23
StopJob: id = 23, force = 0
StopJob: printer state is 3
----------

Some photos print and some don't - this is entirely consistent - despite rebooting, reinstalling, stopping, starting, etc. the same photos refuse to print, each giving that garbage in the CUPS error log. I haven't been able to find any evidence of this happening to anyone else, so I must be doing something stupid. It's so frustrating, because when it does print, the quality is outstanding - the GIMP is such an excellent program, it's a shame this kind of thing lets it down. Other programs (e.g. OpenOffice) don't seem to be affected. Please help!!

by any chance, are the photos all the same format , does only 1 certain format fail?

but just out of curiosity, is that line long enough to be the picture ?

All the images are of the same format and size - straight off the camera (.jpg). I tried re-saving them as different formats (xcf, png, etc). but the same thing happens. Different pictures produce different streams of characters, so it does seem that the image data is somehow getting into the log file.

FYI, the printer driver I am using is Canon S800 gimp-print + foomatic, All straight 'out of the box' in RH8.0.

Latest: I just upgraded foomatic and gimp-print to the latest versions - now it prints every file OK, but the colours and dithering all totally foobar! They were perfect before. So I'm going to take the plunge and upgrade to FC3 this week - in the hope that higher versions of the GIMP and the whole printing subsystem will fix this.

In answer to your question, The line isn't long enough to be the whole file - only a few hundred characters - but the fact that it is different for each photo that fails suggests that it is a portion of the binary image data.

I have also had problems printing. My symptom is that it prints raw postscript as text. One thing that seems to work for me is to select "Print to file", then I cat that file to lpr.

Using old version of RedHat (old, old CUPS)

Printer not well supported

Upgarde to Fedora Core

Upgraded all my machines to Fedora Core 3. Printing is fine now - as soon as I connected the USB printer, CUPS configured itself! Fantastic.

I'm glad it worked out for you!