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How to change Firefox's default printer setting from landscape to portrait?

  • 5 replies
  • 2 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I've followed the instructions listed in this similar post - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1206121 - but nothing appears to change Firefox's default printer settings. For the past month or so, FF decided that the default printer settings page orientation would be landscape. WTF?

Besides changing the print.save_print_settings in about:config, I've also attempted to change the default in File>Page Setup, but that also has no effect on FF's default printer settings. Are there any solutions for this stubborn behavior?

I've followed the instructions listed in this similar post - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1206121 - but nothing appears to change Firefox's default printer settings. For the past month or so, FF decided that the default printer settings page orientation would be landscape. WTF? Besides changing the print.save_print_settings in about:config, I've also attempted to change the default in File>Page Setup, but that also has no effect on FF's default printer settings. Are there any solutions for this stubborn behavior?

All Replies (5)

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Did you install the printer driver? Also What O/S are you using? Printing is based off the Printer Driver software.

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Of course printer drivers were installed, ya big goofball. I went ahead and updated them to the latest version today, but updating has no effect on the issue described above. O/S is Mac 10.9.5

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ylff said

Of course printer drivers were installed, ya big goofball.

That is no way to respond to a person who volunteers their time here to provide support for Firefox users.


print.save_print_settings is set to true by default, which means that Firefox should remember the last setting that the user selected. Any change becomes the "new default" setting.

With that pref to false the setting in the printer software should take over. Not sure how that works with Mac OSX, as I am primarily on Windows, with Linux being used infrequently.

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I apologize. No insult intended. where I come from, YBG is a friendly term of endearment.

I'm familiar with the recommended about:config edit you mention. Since the edit appears to have no effect on this issue, I've tried quitting FF, restarting computer, relaunching FF, rechecking print settings in about:config, but FF still has printer default settings at landscape.

Printing from other browsers on my system [Safari, Brave], do not show landscape for default printer settings.

Is reinstalling FF the next step?

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You can create a new profile to test if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over problems.