Talk:Reading/Web/PDF Functionality/2017/10

About giving feedback

Please read Reading/Web/PDF Functionality and comment on the plans we lay out there, to tell us what you need from the PDF service. We're especially interested in what you need in the future that doesn't exist in the plans laid out there – if there's a bug with something that should work right now (e.g. you get an error message when you try to create a PDF), we need to fix it, of course, but that would have been on the agenda I CANT SEE TO A BOOK Ann Kearney. i

Configurable Image Resolution

I need an easy way to configure the resolution of images in the PDF file that is generated by the rendering engine. Currently the resolution of images in the single-column PDF is always low. I need a way to be able to set a “preferences” configuration parameter for a default image resolution, which can easily be overridden just before the generation of the PDF, if need be. MickeyMudTurtle (talk) 17:13, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Configurable PDF Page Length

I need a way to be able to set a “preferences” configuration parameter for the default page length, which can easily be overridden just before the generation of the PDF, if need be. The allowed value should include “infinity,” which would imply no page breaks at all. This is useful for those PDFs which will always only be viewed on one’s device, and thus never be printed. MickeyMudTurtle (talk) 17:22, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Book Creator still hanging on

The "Later addendum" states that the Book Creator will be turned off - yesterday - but it is till there today. What is the current plan? Steelpillow (talk) 13:45, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Sorry about the confusion.

It'll be removed with this week's MediaWiki train, which means Thursday at the last wikis. The plan is still to have it back up within a few months. Johan (WMF) (talk) 13:55, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Quicker Pdf download would be appreciated

This isn't the biggest issue in the world I understand. But I think it's sort of frustrating being prompted all the time asking if I want the article without infoboxes and pictures or without them. A simple solution would be to add two links for example:

Link 1: Download as pdf (text only)

Link 2: Download as pdf (with everything) 203.206.207.204 (talk) 04:04, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestions! Johan (WMF) (talk) 13:56, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

When will is be ready to download a pdf from a book?

Hey there, when will it be ready to download pdf? at my interface the download button is still disabled 217.13.183.252 (talk) 07:09, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

The Book to PDF functionality will return later in the year. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 09:34, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Download single column PDF OK, request for LaTeX support.

Downloaded single column PDF via Chrome 61.0.3163.100 (Official Build) (64-bit), on Win 7 (64 bit), no issues.

Not essential, but would be a nice-to-have to be able to download LaTeX (I use TexStudio, MiKTeX & SumatraPDF v3.1.2 64-bit), thus I can keep a small text document & when I want EXPAND it into a large PDF! Might not make sense if end up with load of PNGs??? 74.112.164.130 (talk) 09:49, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for you feedback. (: Johan (WMF) (talk) 13:56, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Font Size

The font is too small. It appears others thought it was too large, so perhaps this should be an option that the user can specify. Wikipedia is used by people of disparate ages and [dis]abilities. 130.85.90.155 (talk) 20:54, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Donations

If you didn't ask for a life history when someone tries to donate, I would donate. Too many organizations have my personal history already, and share it. 165.138.139.59 (talk) 15:36, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for believing in us, even if you don't end up donating. (: We never share donor data with anyone – we have a very strict policy that's made to not allow us to wiggle out of this:

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donor_privacy_policy/en Johan (WMF) (talk) 21:57, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

For the amusement of potential readers of this: I don't work with fundraising and always tended to donate my spare time rather than my money, so I wasn't intimately familiar with exactly how the process looks.

I have now accidentally donated money to my employer.

At least I made certain you don't have to share a lot of information, because I thought that would come later in the process before the donation went through. Ah well. Johan (WMF) (talk) 22:00, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Removal of OCG

If I understand correctly, the removal of OCG (the two-column-layout-option) also means the removal of the LaTeX-based formula rendering of the old method (the one-column-layout-option). With the new rendering, the formulas seem to be rendered as images, completely independent of the text. This is sad. For me they are often not aligned correctly, the text-font does not match the math-font, the formula appears to be bold even though it is not etc. I don't want to say that everything was perfect with the old rendering method, but concerning mathematical formulas the new rendering option is much worse. 2001:638:A000:4301:0:0:0:70 (talk) 13:44, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, some things are worse than it used to be. We're not switching because we think we have a solution that's better in every way, but because the old code is causing more and more problems and we just can't keep it up, both because of the amount of hours it takes to fix problems that constantly turn up and because of security issues. In some ways, this is worse than it used to be. Sorry. We don't enjoy doing it.

@OVasileva (WMF), do you have a comment on this specifically? Johan (WMF) (talk) 21:52, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Problem in captions with wikilinks

An example of the problem occurs with the caption to the first image on the page Standard Model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model

In the pdf these words are run together: ofelementary, particles(more, threegenerations, theHiggs.

Nearly run together: bosons in, boson in

Similar spacing glitch with the comma: matter,

In each case, the problem is at the beginning or end of a wikilink. If I cut-and-paste the text from the pdf to a text editor, it looks OK (single spaces in all the right places).

And the caption looks OK in a pdf produced by simply using the browser's Print / save to pdf. Gpc62 (talk) 01:24, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Coloring of links

At present, wikilinked words are styled to look exactly like ordinary, unlinked words. I think it would be better if they were colored. eg. Dark blue: so you can see it easily if you're looking for it, but not so bright that it's a huge distraction to just reading the text.

Ideally, the user would get an option: color links? yes/no.

(I know this has been mentioned before, but for some reason the old comment was hidden by someone.) Gpc62 (talk) 01:40, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

where is the two column option?

Today it is missing... 95.241.166.147 (talk) 09:57, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi, see Reading/Web/PDF Functionality. Johan (WMF) (talk) 16:52, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Desperate for Book Creator

I do not have a reliable Internet connection, but I do want to read Wikipedia pages. Book Creator is just what I want. Please fix it soon! Thanks! 2001:DA8:D800:139:2EC7:264B:EB1F:813A (talk) 04:07, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

We're working on it. Johan (WMF) (talk) 18:15, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Is there any word on when this will be finished? I've been waiting a couple of weeks to be able to download from the book creator again, but I finally gave up and downloaded 19 pdfs separately. There's a lot of white space, though, and bringing back the book creator download function would really be so much better. Mx. Granger (talk) 15:20, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

@OVasileva (WMF)? Johan (WMF) (talk) 23:10, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

We are currently working on replacing our current renderer with an updated version that we are hoping will be able to support books. Right now, we're in the process of testing the new renderer - our progress can be tracked here (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T178278). Once we have completed the performance testing stage, we will be in a better position to give an estimate on the Book Creator and will update this page with the new dates. Thank you for your patience. OVasileva (WMF) (talk) 12:09, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

I had some problems

When I try to download the documents sometimes I don't see the option of download with two columns, but other than that, I'm very apleased with the function, thanks Wikipedia! Manuel7703030 (talk) 03:36, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. Please do be aware that we're unfortunately removing one of the functions because of maintenance and security problems. Johan (WMF) (talk) 14:19, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

File Opening Problem

Sometimes the feature don't get downloaded and many downloaded features can't get opened.

Please solve the problem.

However many many thanks to wikipedia team. 2007Nasir (talk) 14:34, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

The table of cabinet members in the John F Kennedy article came out narrow. 194.236.207.174 (talk) 12:50, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

[1] the file does not open Glymmung (talk) 13:44, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Problems

• Images are shown at far too low a resolution for print documents (should have maybe doubled or quadrupled resolution).
• Sometimes not all the images are downloaded and the page has to be reloaded and purged for the PDF to be rendered properly.
• There is extremely weird spacing and kerning for me; maybe this is because the documents aren't actually supposed to be rendered with the Liberation fonts. References being floated on top of text, characters being given zero(?) width, and so on. I am using macOS 10.13 but downloaded the Liberation fonts separately.
• The hlist class should not be rendered smaller than other text because it is frequently used next to non-hlist text in infoboxes and templates. Most of the use cases for making it smaller (navboxes and sidebars) are hidden from PDF downloads anyway so it is not necessary here IMO.
• On some template pages with no text and a floated table (e.g. RDTs), the licensing text appears next to the rest of the content and there appear to be two thick black horizontal lines below the header. Is this deliberate? Jc86035 (talk) 08:00, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Can you please link to examples and per case specify if it was a 'download as PDF' or normal print ? —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 16:09, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

@TheDJ All of these were from "download as PDF". Regular "printable version" was not changed along with the move to Electron, AFAIK.

• The first two were on w:en:Template:Tsuen Wan Line RDT but any page with pictures would do (although it might be difficult to reproduce the image placeholder). All images are clearly pixelated, but this is particularly bad with BSicons since the details are very fine to begin with and some of them were not drawn to match the 20×20 grid (but some match the 40×40 grid better). (Naturally with SVGs using the original SVG instead of a PNG would be better, but this would be problematic because librsvg renders them differently to basically everything else, so errors would pop up in some files.)
• The third and fourth were on w:en:Songs About Jane. The third is on every page (it appears in the licensing text), and the fourth is on many musical album articles.
• The fifth seems to have been fixed in the meantime but would have appeared on w:en:Template:Political corruption sidebar.

In addition, I was inexplicably unable to download w:en:Special:ElectronPdf/Songs About Jane for at least five minutes (it never completed) but downloaded it through Tor in about half a minute. This was also the case for every other page I tested today; maybe this is my ISP or the WMF's servers in the Asia region.

Another issue is that there are thin white lines between the images in the RDT, which usually shouldn't happen. This is probably because the rounding on the image transform functions is a bit off (though I might be wrong since I'm looking at the PDF file through Inkscape, which converted it to an SVG).

If Phabricator bugs are filed I will upload images there. Jc86035 (talk) 10:16, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

> Regular "printable version" was not changed along with the move to Electron, AFAIK.

It was, it got new styling as well, as announced on the village pumps.

• image resolution: I think this is dpi mismatch between image and print.. We should probably check if dpi is set correctly, and if it is perhaps possible to get the higher res retina versions of images. And indeed using the SVG version for should be looked into (but that's not an new issue). Not sure if this is due to the new styling, or due to electron
• That's a serious problem... Maybe it has to do with the image fallback chain... Likely an Electron problem.
• I can definitely reproduce the kerning issues: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/F10309467 I don't remember this in the old stylesheets+electron, so presume it has something to do with the font selection now being different after the new styles. We might be missing a font (or font variant) on the rendering server.
• Are you referring to the size of the dot here ????
• The fifth I fixed locally on en.wp already and should come to other other wikis in the future.

The white lines.. is probably hard to fix. I think it's a subpixel rendering problem of the PDF engine of Electron... —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 11:00, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I believe the print styling for enwiki was actually mostly changed in July, but I don't think it was announced until last month or so. Not a lot of bugs popped up, aside from some spacing errors in RDTs (I think).

• For the fourth: No, the size of the text (in the track listing). The hlist text is slightly smaller than the regular text, which doesn't look very good since {{hlist}} was omitted for the single-item cells. Jc86035 (talk) 11:12, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

A found it. Due to '.vector-experimental-print-styles ul li' changing the font sizes for lists, which does not account for hlist being an inline list.. Seems a bit dangerous rule in general, as li is also used for galleries and a few other things... If need be, we can fix it specifically for en.wp (as hlist is en.wp specific). But hm... not sure what's the best course here.... —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 11:29, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Is hlist enwiki-only? FWIW there's a liste-horizontale on frwiki which seems to do roughly the same thing (and there are always cases of templates and probably CSS classes being mass-exported to other wikis). I think you could plausibly get away with making the text smaller only if the list isn't inside a table or div, but I'm not sure what side effects there would be. Alternately you could apply the rule only to "galleries and a few other things" and not to other lists. Jc86035 (talk) 11:38, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Tickets: phab:178656, phab:T178658, phab:T178664, phab:T178665, phab:T178667 —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 09:37, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Recent problems in printing out Wikipedia RDT line templates

I am now informed that owing to what appears to be some life-expired Wikipedia equipment, it is now only possible to print out such templates as a PDF instead of the printability version that existed until recently. What is the truth of the matter and if that be the case, will Wikipedia obtain equipment to allow the printing out as before.? Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 15:18, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Where are you getting this information, because it's not true. Also, if you have a problem with a type of content, please LINK to an article and the template in question, so that people can look at it. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 15:54, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

I think that Jc86035 is also addressing parts of the points that I endeavour to make, in his recent comments on this page. Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 13:14, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Or use a screenshot to show what the problem is. (: The one thing that's been removed for now is the ability to create PDF books by combining articles and then turn them into a PDF. How other services you use look might have changed a bit, though.

(It's not equipment per se, it's just that code doesn't live forever. It ages, for various reasons.) Johan (WMF) (talk) 00:19, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I note your final sentence above and indeed it is the code, not the equipment, that seems to have been the problem. I would like it noted that I regard the PDF sanserif print typeface as a retrograde step when compared to the typeface used in the printable version on the RDT templates. Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 13:19, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I am sorry if I have not expressed myself with clarity. My main complaint is the "Printable Version" option no longer seems to exist on the various Wikipedia RDT template options that were once so readily available, Whilst not many seem to use this facility, I actually do use it in tasks that I perform. Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 13:09, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

> My main complaint is the "Printable Version" option no longer seems to exist

Hmm, i don't remember we changed anything about the presence of printable version/Print page, but there is indeed no printable version link on Template pages... That seems like a bug. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 15:59, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Is this a bug that can be fixed, so the "printable version" on RDT templates can be made available. Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 18:35, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Ping @OVasileva (WMF). Johan (WMF) (talk) 12:52, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

This has now been done in an e-mail. Xenophon Philosopher (talk) 22:19, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

click the pdf download link in aside,then there is no way to Modify default language

click the pdf download link in aside,then there is no way to Modify default language ImAmelie (talk) 14:10, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Sooooooooo Slowwwwww

Download PDF....

Sometimes it works - sometimes it doesn't 146.90.171.179 (talk) 13:42, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Robustness

(1) Please forget 2-column - I doubt anybody wants it. I don't; it makes using

the pdf file impossible. (2) Please make sure your pdf output is

PDF level 1, (as created by ps2pdf12) otherwise my printer can't print it!

(3) Don't be cute - don't be fancy, be robust! 72.205.3.85 (talk) 17:33, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Infortunadamente

Esa palabra no se encuentra en el diccionario de la RAE

El término correcto sería desafortunadamente. 83.56.28.251 (talk) 16:59, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Need URL of page info in pdf

First, is this functionality to create a pdf file of an individual page available yet?

Next, I have looked at the pdf examples and don't see that a URL link or Namespace or Category being printed in the file, in order to get back to the webpage. On the site I am working on, people will want to go back to the page on their computer. Can this be added in the footer?

Thank you. AmieH (talk) 20:53, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

It is!

@OVasileva (WMF), can you comment on the second question? Johan (WMF) (talk) 22:32, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, Johan...that's what I had hoped.

Is there somewhere that I need to post in order to request that the URL be placed in the PDF file? AmieH (talk) 17:41, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

The link to the source article is already included in the pdf. 197.218.89.135 (talk) 18:22, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Indeed, every PDF and every print includes the link to the source article at the bottom of the page.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pagetitle&oldid=revisionnumber" —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 11:25, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I apologize, I am just getting back to mediawiki after a long illness. Can someone please point me to the extension that I need to install on my site in order to save pdf files of pages? Thank you. AmieH (talk) 20:14, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

Source code of the OCG renderer?

Does anybody know if the source code is available for devs to maybe resurrect parts of it and fix it (within a couple of years span)? 84.133.95.171 (talk) 21:58, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/GOCG/repository/master/

and there is also

http://mediawiki2latex.wmflabs.org —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 11:22, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Need double column download... Plz do

What makes a 2 Column download useful or even desireable ? > and most importantly worth the time (and money) to program it ??  I download a lot of information in PDF format; simple text 'tables' are edited to fit an 8.5 x 11 page with margins. When I search for data which I want to analyze, Most sites offer a spread-sheet in EXCEL format ( *.xls or *.csv) If you really want what is displayed on the website do a capture, paste it into an Excel worksheet; where you remove all of the Internet links before editing for content. If you want (need) to present a document that will not have anyones eyes "glaze over" , save each worksheet in PDF formate. You be happy to know that many sites have PDF versions of their data.. 119.160.64.216 (talk) 16:46, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

Next don't create PDF

Next page don't copy in PDF 119.160.64.216 (talk) 16:49, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

фото загрузка

не могу понять как загрузить фото на страницу. Все очень запутанно на вашем сайте. Помогите. LOVE 15:01, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard

You can only upload images you have created yourself, or know for sure are not under copyright protection that makes it illegal to upload them. Johan (WMF) (talk) 15:46, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Need color Main word in PDF as files

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 Mustaqeemkhan (talk) 14:09, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Problem

When I download next page of files there is the first files in PDFs.... 🙋🙋🙋🙌🙌👍👍👍👍 Mustaqeemkhan (talk) 14:22, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Spacing and superscripting problems with PDF

I am so grateful for all the hard work you all do.

Here are, hopefully, some helpful observations on improving the PDF rendering.

Look at the PDF from 'Euler's Theorem'.

1. In 3rd paragraph, there isn't enough space before underlined 'Carmichael's theorem'.

2. the underline doesn't match up with the text it is underlining.

3. In 4th paragraph, the '7 ^ 222' the superscript isn't positioned correctly after the 7.

4. in 4th paragraph, the word 'large' has the 'r' and 'g' over writing each other

5. In the paragraph starting 'In General...', the phi(n) parenthesis are not rendered correctly.

6. (asthetic) The font size of math formulae relative to text appears to be larger than it should be.

ps; Im rendering the PDF on both windows xp and windows 7 and the same PDF displays identically

on both systems.

Thank you for all your hard work. You're doing a great job! 174.21.97.45 (talk) 16:52, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Johan (WMF) (talk) 08:22, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

In the new one column version there are words crowed together with no spacing inbetween. Also the formatting is bad with the page margins too narrow. You absolutely need one inch page margins! 2600:1700:D591:1170:97B:9353:9FFF:BF93 (talk) 14:05, 1 November 2017 (UTC)