[texhax] bad printout of large brackets

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 29 December 2009 I.J.L. Garces wrote:

 > Hello, everybody!
 > 
 > I have a problem on my latex printout.
 > 
 > I am using WinEdt to typeset my LaTeX file. I have two examples below.
 > 
 > \[ f(x)=\left\{
 > \begin{array}{lcl}
 > \dfrac{2}{2-x} & & \mbox{if $0 \le x < 2$} \\
 > \\
 > 0 & & \mbox{if $x \ge 2$,}
 > \end{array}
 > \right. \]
 > 
 > \[ \left\{
 > \begin{array}{lcl}
 > 2x & \equiv & 11 \pmod{13} \\
 > 3x & \equiv & 7 \pmod{9} \\
 > 7x & \equiv & 5 \pmod{8}
 > \end{array}
 > \right. \]
 > 
 > After I compile it using pdflatex, in the paper printout, the big  
 > bracket turns out not a solid curly bracket, but a broken one. There  
 > are some breaks near the middle of the curl in the printout. Only on  
 > the printed copy on the paper, but the pdf copy I see onscreen is  
 > perfect. I use pdflatex compilation because I have figures in pdf  
 > format.

If what you see on screen looks good, it seems to be a bug in your
printer or in the printer driver.  There is no reason to avoid
pdflatex.  I can't provide a solution but there are several things you
can try.  Many printers understand more than one graphic format, I've
never seen a PostScript printer which doesn't understand at least PCL5
or PCL6 too.

First, find out what you actually send to the printer.  Then look into
the manual in order to find out what else your printer understands.
Ghostscript can translate PostScript and PDF to many other formats
which printers understand.  You can circumvent bugs in the PostScript
interpreter if you convert the file to PCL5, for instance, and send the
PCL5 file to the printer.

Remote diagnosis is very difficult, but it's easier to provide help if
you tell us which operating system you are using, which printer you
have, and, if you are on Windows, whether the TeX distribution you are
using provides a program "pdftops".

Regards,
  Reinhard

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