How do I set up a printer so Flashplayer can print-to-file in Firefox?

RandomTroll · 05-06-2014, 03:03 AM

The menu offered when I right-click on a Flashplayer file in Firefox has 'print' as an option. When I try to use it it tells me I have no printer installed. It's right: I have no printer: I print-to-file. How can I make Flashplayer work with this?

jdkaye · 05-06-2014, 03:59 AM

Sorry but what flashplayer file? Are you talking about libflashplayer.so?
jdk

RandomTroll · 05-07-2014, 04:00 AM

Why would I want to print libflashplayer.so? A file that requires Flashplayer to display. The file that inspired this query is http://www.nejm.org/action/showMedia...attach_1&area= , a file that could usefully be printed (as opposed to an animation - though one could want to print a still from one).

I figured out that I needed to install a printer in Linux (i.e., run a printserver) that captures to pdf (e.g., cups-pdf), but this printed a blank where the swf should have been.

Has anyone a better idea?

pan64 · 05-07-2014, 04:38 AM

I think you only need to capture the screen into a jpg and cut it and print finally.
http://sourceforge.net/directory/gra...ently-updated/

RandomTroll · 05-08-2014, 12:51 AM

I don't want the whole screen, and I don't want just the screen. In the case of the example I provided the file I want to print is in a window that occupies only a small portion of the screen and the screen has only a portion of the whole document. I hope that someone has hooked the Flash API - I guess that's my job...

teckk · 05-08-2014, 02:02 PM

You can't print a flash video to file. You can capture a flash video using different tools, look at the web pages source-find the video location-download the flash video, get the video out of your browsers cache, find the rtmp: stream with rtmpdump, do a screen capture with ffmpeg.
That's like asking how to print a .mp3 to .pdf.
You can print a web page to file with ghostscript, cups-pdf, scrot(image), etc.

Quote:

The file that inspired this query is http://www.nejm.org/action/showMedia...attach_1&area=

That's a web page link, but you say that you don't want to print the web page.

Quote:

the file I want to print is in a window that occupies only a small portion of the screen

I can only assume that you are wanting to download or capture a flash video stream when you say a file in a window.

RandomTroll · 05-09-2014, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

You can't print a flash video to file.

I don't see why not. I'm trying, essentially, to capture a still. The Flash file I want to print is a still. I can separate the audio from a flash video file.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

You can print a web page to file with ghostscript, cups-pdf, scrot(image), etc.

Those print the whole screen, not separate parts, and in this case the part I want comes out blank when I use them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

That's a web page link, but you say that you don't want to print the web page.
I can only assume that you are wanting to download or capture a flash video stream when you say a file in a window.

If you try hard not to think you can only assume that. I don't want the Flash video stream, I want a static picture (could be a JPEG or PDF) of all the stuff the Flash stream that URI displays but not the extra information it displays if I roll-over an item, but I want the whole image. If a screen-capture utility worked I could capture the screen 3 times, clip the stuff outside the Flash stream's window, join them. I was hoping for something that would capture the whole thing. When I click on the portion of the screen this occupies it gives me a print option. It's at least theoretically possible that one can hook the Flash API to do what I want. I was hoping someone had.

jdkaye · 05-09-2014, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Those print the whole screen, not separate parts, and in this case the part I want comes out blank when I use them.

A screen capture program such as ksnapshot gives you the choice of capturing (a)The whole screen (b) a whole window open under the cursor (c) any rectangular region (d) freehand drawn region (e) section of a window
If one of these options doesn't suit your needs then I guess I really don't understand what you're looking for.
jdk

teckk · 05-09-2014, 08:00 AM

Yes scrot will capture an area too. And it's light.
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...1/scrot.1.html

Quote:

The Flash file I want to print is a still

Pause the flash video and capture and area of the screen with something like scrot to an image file.
I just tried that to make sure that it worked. Open a video, pause it,

Code:

scrot -s

Select the area, you have a .png image file of it.

Quote:

It's at least theoretically possible that one can hook the Flash API to do what I want.

If you print a binary file your going to get a bunch of characters like

Code:

cat /usr/bin/ls | tail -n 5
J
 ,�$ȁ��eA�G N
F
 CD����eB�E�E �E(�H0�H8�M@l8A0A(B BB$%0���<%(���@I@ I@��
\A����o�@P@P@                                           �!@
�
 �ah
@p�     ���o�@���o��o��a�!@�!@�!@�!@�!@"@"@&"@6"@F"@V"@f"@v"@�"@�"@�"@�"@�"@�"@�"@�"@#@#@&#@6#@F#@V#@f#@v#@�#@�#@�#@�#@�#@�#@�#@�#@$@$@&$@6$@F$@V$@f$@v$@�$@�$@�$@�$@�$@�$@�$@�$@%@%@&%@6%@F%@V%@f%@v%@�%@�%@�%@�%@�%@�%@�%@�%@&@&@&&@6&@F&@V&@f&@v&@�&@�&@�&@�&@�&@�&@�&@�&@'@'@&'@6'@F'@V'@f'@v'@�'@�'@�'@�'@�'@�'@�'@�'@(@(@&(@6(@F(@V(@f(@v(@�(@�(@�8A3:A�5A5:A;:AJ:AA:AG:AG:AM:AA:AS:AY:A_:Ae:Ak:Aq:Aw:A?�[AP�@�a�aGCC: (GNU) 4.8.2 20140206 (prerelease).shstrtab.interp.note.ABI-tag.note.gnu.build-id.gnu.hash.dynsym.dynstr.gnu.version.gnu.version_r.rela.dyn.rela.plt.init.text.fini.rodata.eh_frame_hdr.eh_frame.init_array.fini_array.jcr.dynamic.got.got.plt.data.bss.comment
                                                                 8@8T@T !t@t$4��o�@�>
                                                                                     P@P
 FP@P�N���o�@�[���o�@�jp@pt@h

~�!@�!y�!@�!��(@�(���\A\        ��A�Q ��nA�n
 �0�'�                      ��uA�u������������a���a��T �a�@

Not too useful.

RandomTroll · 05-10-2014, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

If one of these options doesn't suit your needs then I guess I really don't understand what you're looking for.
jdk

Exactly: you don't. I don't use KDE so I can't use ksnapshot. The other screen-capture utilities I have tried capture the portion of the screen outside the window that displays the Flash but not the portion of the window in which the Flash is displayed: it's blank - some kind of copy prevention?

All the screen-capture utilities I have used, when they work, capture only the portion of a file on display. Sometimes the file I want to capture the image of is larger than the screen, as it is in this case. If it were a jpeg or pdf or png... I could save the file; in the case of a Flash that won't work.

RandomTroll · 05-10-2014, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Yes scrot will capture an area too.

scrot works; unfortunately I had to build giblib and imlib2, but that's life

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Pause the flash video

This image is a still, pausing unnecessary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

If you print a binary file your going to get a bunch of characters like

Yes: of what relevance is this comment?

scrot captures what's on-screen, not the whole image

Automatic · 05-10-2014, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTroll

scrot works; unfortunately I had to build giblib and imlib2, but that's life

This image is a still, pausing unnecessary.

Yes: of what relevance is this comment?

scrot captures what's on-screen, not the whole image

Just give me the file and I'll crop it for you if it's that much of a pain.

jdkaye · 05-10-2014, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandomTroll

Exactly: you don't. I don't use KDE so I can't use ksnapshot. The other screen-capture utilities I have tried capture the portion of the screen outside the window that displays the Flash but not the portion of the window in which the Flash is displayed: it's blank - some kind of copy prevention?

So you want something like this.
And you are claiming that no other screen grabber is capable of doing this?
I don't know about screen grabbers for other DE's but this may helpful: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Apps/screen-capture.html
jdk

RandomTroll · 05-13-2014, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Automatic

Just give me the file and I'll crop it for you if it's that much of a pain.

I was searching for a general solution. Your comment is anti-contributory.

RandomTroll · 05-13-2014, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

And you are claiming that no other screen grabber is capable of doing this?

No. I reported that a few that I tried, that work in other cases, didn't.

Further I want not just a single screen but an image that stretches over the width greater than a few screens, preferably one that captures only the target image not the whole screen. To use a screen grabber in this case would require grabbing 5 images, cropping the parts I don't want, joining the 5 resulting images. I asked in case someone knew of something easier.

If a webpage displays a static image, such as a jpeg, larger than my screen's width, I can download the file and have the whole image. It seems reasonable to me to imagine that such a thing would be possible for an image in an SWF. When I right-click on an SWF 'print' is one of the options. (On my computer it passes it through to the system printer, which captures a blank in this case.) That SWFs offer so few options to right-click suggests to me that Flash thinks some may want to print images from an SWF, which could be the whole image, not just what's displayed. Whether there is a way to do that is my question.