What Happened to "Print Preview"?
A recent Firefox update has totally disrupted our ability to print from browser windows. There used to be a "Print Preview" button that allowed us to set things up the way we wanted them. That's now missing. As a result, stuff that used to cost us for ten pages now costs us for twenty pages. Also, when we print double-sided, the second side prints upside down.
This strikes me and my wife as a horrible development, and we would like to go back to the old version ASAP!
Chosen solution
Hi Anan, Firefox 85 has a new print experience where the preview is integrated with the settings panel. It should appear if you choose Print from the menu or press Ctrl+P. Do you not get the overlay? What happens?
The double-sided printing problem -- short edge binding instead of long edge binding -- was a bug in Firefox 85 that should be fixed in Firefox 86 (according to this reply). Firefox 86 was released yesterday, but automatic updates are notified slowly during the first few days while Mozilla watches for any major problems. So you might not get it right away.
Firefox 85-86 has a preference to switch between the new print experience and the classic one. Here's where you can find that:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
WARNING: Changing preferences through this interface not officially supported Hidden settings edited using the about:config tool are explicitly not supported, which means that Mozilla makes no guarantees they will be supported in the future, or that Mozilla will fix them if they break. Mozilla does not test these preferences, and will not in the future. That includes security and performance testing which these preferences may affect.
[Warning added by moderator]
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste tab_mo and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the print.tab_modal.enabled preference to switch between true (new experience) and false (classic) -- here's what that looks like:
All Replies (4)
I can only add my regrets to the others. I use "file>print preview>simplify page" several times a day. It's a primary utility and a good one for me - me not a nice to have. The new print utility is not even ergometric. When I want superficial glitz I'll buy an Apple device, thank you.
Besides that, FF is legend - nothing like it.
Modified by sjpalubinski
This fix put the preview back, but apparently the last update caused some documents to print cut off on the right side when printed and no adjustments will correct it.
The document displays correctly in the browser view, but the print window shows it incorrectly, although the initial FF preview shows it correctly, regardless when sent to the printer it is not correct no matter what printer or virtual printer is used. Also the default printer is not picked up.
This did not happen with the previous FF version, and works correctly with all other browsers.
Our Firefox print preview function has been working normally since early April.
rfm said
This fix put the preview back, but apparently the last update caused some documents to print cut off on the right side when printed and no adjustments will correct it. The document displays correctly in the browser view, but the print window shows it incorrectly, although the initial FF preview shows it correctly, regardless when sent to the printer it is not correct no matter what printer or virtual printer is used. Also the default printer is not picked up. This did not happen with the previous FF version, and works correctly with all other browsers.
HI rfm, there is a bug in Firefox 90 when printing pages that need to be scaled -- either manually by setting a value other than 100% or automatically using Fit to page width / Shrink to Fit. Several bug reports have been submitted to the developers and someone has started work on a fix. We don't know how soon it will be available to us in an update.