Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Using 32-bit or 64-bit Opera? The image Opera generates of the page for use in the PDF problem has a height that is too long. Depending on how Opera does that, using 64-bit might give you some more room to work with. Depends though.

If you choose to print, set the destination to PDF and save as a PDF that way, does it work then?

If you don't actually need it to be in PDF format, you can save as an mhtml file. Just enable opera://flags/#save-page-as-mhtml to make it show up in the regular save as dialog.

Thank you very much for replying. I've tried 64-bit and 32-bit, and both have the issue. Saving a very long page using build-in save-as-mhtml or "Save Page WE" extension behaves normal. The issue only exists with saved PDF. However, actually, I really prefer PDF over those html based files since it is easier and intuitive for distribution. Still looking for a solution for that. Many thanks again though.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Saving a very long page using build-in save-as-mhtml or "Save Page WE" extension behaves normal.

Does the print to pdf way work fine though? Just curious. That way will be paginated. Just wondering if it works in that case.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Saving a very long page using build-in save-as-mhtml or "Save Page WE" extension behaves normal.

Does the print to pdf way work fine though? Just curious. That way will be paginated. Just wondering if it works in that case.

Printing will split the webpage into multiple A4 or other sized pages, while save-as-pdf will export what you can see exactly from the original webpage. The page style will preserved pretty well by save-as-pdf, but could possibly change for printing.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@jackyspeed Yes, but just wanted to know if all pages for the page are made available to print to pdf and actually end up in the pdf file.

Anyway, have a link to a page the reproduces the problem? From there, a minimal testcase could probably be made. As in, I'm wondering what the height and width limit currently is.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

@jackyspeed Yes, but just wanted to know if all pages for the page are made available to print to pdf and actually end up in the pdf file.

Anyway, have a link to a page the reproduces the problem? From there, a minimal testcase could probably be made. As in, I'm wondering what the height and width limit currently is.

Thank you very much for discussing this with me.

Yes, it can be confirmed that printing will actually cover all the page content even it is a very long one.

Here is an example of the lengthy page that can reproduce the issue for save-as-pdf function:

https://www.quora.com/Do-people-notice-when-you-wear-a-Rolex

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @Guest last edited by

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Here is an example of the lengthy page that can reproduce the issue for save-as-pdf function:
https://www.quora.com/Do-people-notice-when-you-wear-a-Rolex

Right-clicking and choosing save as pdf on that page works fine for me in Opera 54.0.2952.60 64-bit on Windows 10 x64 with 8GB of RAM. Loading the saved pdf in Opera works fine too. And, the pdf seems to be complete.

Have another example?

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@jackyspeed

Here is an example of the lengthy page that can reproduce the issue for save-as-pdf function:

With Opera's current stable version 54.0.2952.60, I manage to save that website as a pdf file even with my old netbook (Windows 7 32-bit, 2 GB RAM). And my PDF Reader opens this file without any problems and displays it completely. With Opera's ad blocker enabled, the file size of that pdf file is 1.08 MB. I could upload it somewhere, if needed, for comparison.

Also the storage of more extensive websites with Opera's built-in PDF-function is possible for me, for example an arbitrarily chosen lengthy Wikipedia article.

I think there must be another limiting factor beyond too little RAM which triggers this error message on your computer, @jackyspeed.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Here is an example of the lengthy page that can reproduce the issue for save-as-pdf function:
https://www.quora.com/Do-people-notice-when-you-wear-a-Rolex

Right-clicking and choosing save as pdf on that page works fine for me in Opera 54.0.2952.60 64-bit on Windows 10 x64 with 8GB of RAM. Loading the saved pdf in Opera works fine too. And, the pdf seems to be complete.

Have another example?

@yanta said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

@jackyspeed

Here is an example of the lengthy page that can reproduce the issue for save-as-pdf function:

With Opera's current stable version 54.0.2952.60, I manage to save that website as a pdf file even with my old netbook (Windows 7 32-bit, 2 GB RAM). And my PDF Reader opens this file without any problems and displays it completely. With Opera's ad blocker enabled, the file size of that pdf file is 1.08 MB. I could upload it somewhere, if needed, for comparison.

Also the storage of more extensive websites with Opera's built-in PDF-function is possible for me, for example an arbitrarily chosen lengthy Wikipedia article.

I think there must be another limiting factor beyond too little RAM which triggers this error message on your computer, @jackyspeed.

Thank you both for the testing. Inspired by your comments, I have another try on a lengthy page, as well as the mentioned wiki page. I occurred to me that maybe the issue is not with the opera, but with the PDF reader. And it turns out to be true. When I open the saved lengthy page using Adobe PDF reader, error pops up. When I open it using other reader, such as WPS, it behaves normal. Truth is, the pdf is saved by Opera probably in a correct way, yet the reader fails to read such a long pdf layout.

May I ask, what PDF readers you used?

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

@yanta said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

I think there must be another limiting factor beyond too little RAM which triggers this error message on your computer, @jackyspeed.

By the way, I am using a 16 GB memory, so this may no be the reason. I am using the latest version of Opera.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by A Former User

I have a deeper dig, and found that the saved PDF is on the version of "Acrobat 5.x". I am not sure, but maybe the saved version is pretty low, which leads to a less compatibility? (200-inch limitation) Just my guess.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

@jackyspeed

May I ask, what PDF readers you used?

As mentioned above, I use Sumatra PDF.

You may want to try its portable version, which doesn't modify anything outside its own folder and which runs without any installation process, just double click on the "SumatraPDF.exe"

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

I have a deeper dig, and found that the saved PDF is on the version of "Acrobat 5.x". I am not sure, but maybe the saved version is pretty low, which leads to a less compatibility? (200-inch limitation) Just my guess.

I have read about such a restriction within some Adobe (Acrobat) products too. Maybe @burnout426, whose knowledge I can't keep up with, knows more...

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

I had just tested the PDF in Opera and Chrome. I didn't test in Adobe or Foxit or anything.

As for the version of the PDF, you can try modifying the pdf header in the file with a hex editor to see if it makes any difference in Adobe. Change it from 1.4 to 1.7 or 2.0 for example. You can try versions in between too. I don't know how much syntax changed between those versions, so you'll have to test to see if it makes Adobe happy. You also might want to generate a PDF with Adobe if you can and see what version it uses by default. I'll install Adobe later and play with it.

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by

@yanta said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

@jackyspeed

May I ask, what PDF readers you used?

As mentioned above, I use Sumatra PDF.

You may want to try its portable version, which doesn't modify anything outside its own folder and which runs without any installation process, just double click on the "SumatraPDF.exe"

Got it. Thanks!

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

I had just tested the PDF in Opera and Chrome. I didn't test in Adobe or Foxit or anything.

As for the version of the PDF, you can try modifying the pdf header in the file with a hex editor to see if it makes any difference in Adobe. Change it from 1.4 to 1.7 or 2.0 for example. You can try versions in between too. I don't know how much syntax changed between those versions, so you'll have to test to see if it makes Adobe happy. You also might want to generate a PDF with Adobe if you can and see what version it uses by default. I'll install Adobe later and play with it.

Much appreciated for your suggestion. I will take a look at those file headers.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

Changing the version alone in the header of the file doesn't fix the issue. Looking on the net, the issue is with Adobe and something like a 200in limit. Using pdf version 1.6 and adding/modifying some UserUnit entry to 75,000 entry is supposed to fix it. Have to investigate more. If we can find a solution, perhaps Opera could add that automatically. But, ultimately, it's an Adobe issue.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by burnout426

It looks like you have to add

/UserUnit value

(where value is something high)

to every obj entry in the pdf source that's out of range to get Adobe load things right. But, I have yet to confirm this as there are quote a few obj entries to modify in the file.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Hmm, actually, the /UserInit has to be in the /Page section near the end of the file.

replace_all(src, "<</Type /Page\n", "<</Type /Page\n/UserUnit 72\n");

(for example).

However, all that does is scale the font-size kind of. It doesn't get rid of the error in Adobe or anything like that. I tred a value of 75000, but that didn't do the trick. Tried 2 and 2.83 to see if that'd increase the allowed dimensions, but that again just increased the scale. There's something about /Mediabox dimensions, but I have know clue if those have to be modified too. I don't think so though.

So, I don't know. If I find any more info I'll post. For now, use a different reader.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Changing the version alone in the header of the file doesn't fix the issue. Looking on the net, the issue is with Adobe and something like a 200in limit. Using pdf version 1.6 and adding/modifying some UserUnit entry to 75,000 entry is supposed to fix it. Have to investigate more. If we can find a solution, perhaps Opera could add that automatically. But, ultimately, it's an Adobe issue.

@burnout426 said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Hmm, actually, the /UserInit has to be in the /Page section near the end of the file.

replace_all(src, "<</Type /Page\n", "<</Type /Page\n/UserUnit 72\n");

(for example).

However, all that does is scale the font-size kind of. It doesn't get rid of the error in Adobe or anything like that. I tred a value of 75000, but that didn't do the trick. Tried 2 and 2.83 to see if that'd increase the allowed dimensions, but that again just increased the scale. There's something about /Mediabox dimensions, but I have know clue if those have to be modified too. I don't think so though.

So, I don't know. If I find any more info I'll post. For now, use a different reader.

Thank you very much for the efforts you've made for this issue. Indeed, if Opera can do this modification automatically, it would be most convenient for all users. There are too many technical things after all.

[A Former User]

A Former User @Guest last edited by A Former User

@jackyspeed said in Opera build-in save as pdf for lengthy webpage:

Indeed, if Opera can do this modification automatically, it would be most convenient for all users. There are too many technical things after all.

Yes, the question is how can we make them know about this issue, and that you are not alone in that?
I guess they are not checking every topic of this forum, and even if they found it, still they will consider it as not important/waste of time probably.

Same in my case, I found that Acrobat opens wrong the document, but it's saved as a whole and I can open in correctly in other pdf viewers.