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Print Preview no longer accurate
Go ahead; try any of the Print Preview add-ons on a Mac. You'll see that what is previewed does not, when printed to a PDF and opened in Apple's Preview app, match what will really be printed. There is some degree of pagination "drift" that was not present in versions of FF prior to v57. Something has changed.
I've tried playing with the on-screen display options in the Preferences but it doesn't make a difference. Same problem
All Replies (13)
Please try Help then About to update to ver 57.0.1 You may have to shut browser and open again and try above. When have new version please let us know if still have the issue.
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
Already did the update to 57.0.1 but the print preview inaccuracy remains. I've attached a side-by-side view of Apple's Preview (left) and FF preview using the "Print Preview" add-on (right) so you can see what happens by the time you reach page 3. I'll note that this inaccuracy shows up no matter which of the the "print preview" add-ons I use. Would a number of different add-on developers all make the same error? Probably not. This appears to be something in whatever "engine"(?) they're calling in FF to get the job done. (I'm not a developer so my terminology may be completely wrong.)
Hope this helps.
Please try : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-printing-problems-firefox and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problems_printing_web_pages This all I have on the issue.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode If it cane print here am not sure. If does then it is Profile issues, Video Card Drivers or Flash or Extensions
If still issue : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings
Did you get your Mac Security patch today .....
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
I doubt if add-ons would affect that.
I am using Windows 7 and don't have access to a Mac. How about the Scale control in Firefox Print Preview?
Any difference in the pagination between "100%" and "Shrink to Fit" settings?
Pkshadow said
Please try : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fix-printing-problems-firefox and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problems_printing_web_pages This all I have on the issue.
--- ==Sorry, that didn't help. ---
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode If it cane print here am not sure. If does then it is Profile issues, Video Card Drivers or Flash or Extensions
--- ==No Flash, no weird add-ons nor extensions, video car drivers aren't an issue with iMacs or MacBook Pros. ---
If still issue : https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings
--- ==Done. No improvement. ---
Did you get your Mac Security patch today .....
--- ==I did not upgrade to High Sierra so this issue (thankfully) doesn't apply to me. ---
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance. </blockquote>
Endret
the-edmeister said
I doubt if add-ons would affect that. I am using Windows 7 and don't have access to a Mac. How about the Scale control in Firefox Print Preview? Any difference in the pagination between "100%" and "Shrink to Fit" settings?
No change in scaling (using either the Apple Page Setup or the Print Preview (add-on) rectifies the issue.
I will also note that the problem is -NOT- the vertical pagination (or not -only-); if you view my attachment (from yesterday's post), you'll see it's a difference in the text width (as lines will break in different places when comparing FF's print preview with Apple's Preview app).
I tried unchecking the "allow page to set fonts" checkbox in the Prefs>Fonts>Advanced screen but this made no difference.
I'll note this problem occurs on all of my Macs (iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air) whether running El Capitan (10.11.x) or Sierra (10.12.x).
rumplestiltskin said
Already did the update to 57.0.1 but the print preview inaccuracy remains. I've attached a side-by-side view of Apple's Preview (left) and FF preview using the "Print Preview" add-on (right) so you can see what happens by the time you reach page 3. I'll note that this inaccuracy shows up no matter which of the the "print preview" add-ons I use. Would a number of different add-on developers all make the same error? Probably not. This appears to be something in whatever "engine"(?) they're calling in FF to get the job done. (I'm not a developer so my terminology may be completely wrong.) Hope this helps.
I have a question here besides the print preview have you printed from either version to see if what it shows for either are the same or different from each previews? It seems we are talking preview but not about the print out jobs and if they are different or similar? Not all print preview are equal and isn't WYSIWYG. Until you actually print from either software and side by side comparison will anyone see if there are differences.
WestEnd said
rumplestiltskin saidAlready did the update to 57.0.1 but the print preview inaccuracy remains. I've attached a side-by-side view of Apple's Preview (left) and FF preview using the "Print Preview" add-on (right) so you can see what happens by the time you reach page 3. I'll note that this inaccuracy shows up no matter which of the the "print preview" add-ons I use. Would a number of different add-on developers all make the same error? Probably not. This appears to be something in whatever "engine"(?) they're calling in FF to get the job done. (I'm not a developer so my terminology may be completely wrong.) Hope this helps.I have a question here besides the print preview have you printed from either version to see if what it shows for either are the same or different from each previews? It seems we are talking preview but not about the print out jobs and if they are different or similar? Not all print preview are equal and isn't WYSIWYG. Until you actually print from either software and side by side comparison will anyone see if there are differences.
Two things: 1. Printing to Apple's Preview app (via "Open PDF in Preview") always shows what will actually print as the "print job" is converted to PDF and then displayed within the Preview app. This is WYSIWYG. (This addresses your last comment about not seeing differences until actually printed. Perhaps you're not a Mac user and don't understand that Preview's WYSIWYG really is...WYSIWYG. See my earlier post with the screenshot attachment; the left-hand screen is from the Preview app and that, indeed, is how it appears when actually committed to paper.)
2. Previewing via any of the current add-ons in v57+ (necessary because FF for Mac doesn't have any native "print preview" functionality) results in something different than what Apple's Preview app will display. What this means is that using any of the print preview add-ons is worthless because it (now) never matches up with what actually will hit the printer. Remember: All printing on the Mac happens via a PDF intermediary file (well, unless you have some sort of printer/printing mechanism that addresses the printer directly but we haven't seen much of that since the old dot-matrix units, eh?).
The bottom line here is that the add-ons that used to permit editing the page (removing elements, etc.) and provide an instant paginated preview now produce inaccurate results and are a waste of time. Instead, it appears I'll have to revert back to my old habit of "Open PDF in Preview" before committing the page(s) to be sent to the printer.
Perhaps this will be addressed eventually but, for now, the print preview add-ons add nothing for Mac users.
@rumplestiltskin, no I don't have a mac but I had to use mac before. But seemingly as this is isolated from the read to your mac and unless we hear more from other mac specific users on FF57 print problem then doing a diagnosis will be even harder to find.
@WestEnd, you're undoubtedly correct; this seems like an issue that other Mac users will have to complain about before it can be treated as something more than "just one guy with an issue we can't see elsewhere".
The rest of FF57+ is fine and it is quite fast so this is my only complaint. I'll check it out on my HP under Windows 10 to see what happens there.
Thanks!
Just tried things on the Windows (10) side. Firefox 57.0.1. Using the native "Print Preview" and then printing what I see results in a wrongly paginated print job - the printed pages do not match the preview. However, when I print the previewed pages to Foxit PDF with a .4" margin, everything matches. But I can't reproduce the solution on the Mac. and I'm not even sure that what I did wasn't just a lucky kludge. :D
Back on the Mac. Just tried Google Chrome (latest version). Using the Print dialog it provides (which includes a print preview), I then used the "Open PDF in Preview" link that dialog provided. This resulted in a 100% accurately paginated (including line breaks) PDF which, of course, printed properly. The real test is how accurately did the Print Preview (within Chrome) send the print job directly to the printer. It was, indeed, 100% accurate.
So what can we learn from this? Chrome's print preview engine is accurate while Firefox's is not(?). The older versions of FF in Windows did have accurate print preview (IIRC) without any need for such an add-on.
Why is it that FF in Windows has print preview yet the Mac version does not? (More importantly: Why is FF's print preview function so inaccurate that it even throws off the add-ons?)
Geez; I hate to go to Chrome but an accurate print preview function is, IMHO, quite necessary.
v58 released. Print Preview inaccuracy issue remains. This isn't a problem for me any more because I've switched to Chrome full-time on all platforms (where print preview remains 100% accurate ).
I'll also remind readers that Safari's print preview is accurate so Webkit (used by both Safari and Chrome) is doing something right while Gecko (used by Firefox) is not.