This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Print preview page is not print properly in Firefox alone

  • 11 cavab
  • 3 have this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by MrDoh

more options

Since the Firefox quantum version of 66.0.5 (64-bit), print is not working properly. We have shown the entire web pages in the "Print Preview" page with some customization. But browser print only the default page. There is not customizations in the print. This has been working in other browsers. How can I resolve this?

Since the Firefox quantum version of 66.0.5 (64-bit), print is not working properly. We have shown the entire web pages in the "Print Preview" page with some customization. But browser print only the default page. There is not customizations in the print. This has been working in other browsers. How can I resolve this?

All Replies (11)

more options

Vengatesh_Maniraj said

Since the Firefox quantum version of 66.0.5 (64-bit), print is not working properly. We have shown the entire web pages in the "Print Preview" page with some customization. But browser print only the default page. There is not customizations in the print. This has been working in other browsers. How can I resolve this?
more options

I agree, I need to be able to see the page to be printed after I've applied settings changes. If I need to scale a page, how can I know if the scaling factor that I've chosen does what I need unless I can see the scaled page before printing.

And I echo that both Chrome and Safari show print preview for pages before they're printed.

Don't know yet if this is enough for me to go back to Chrome, but could be. When I need to print, I need to see what I'm printing before I print it.

As background, I have Firefox 70.0 on macOS 10.15 (Catalina).

more options

Hi Vengatesh_Maniraj, sorry you didn't get a reply in the Spring!

Print definitely should match Preview. If you are calling window.print() during the loading of the page, there is a problem where the content for window.print() is captured before the CSS is applied. You could consider using window.setTimeout() to scheduled it for a bit after loading and see whether that helps.

If that's not it and you're just using Ctrl+p to print, I'm not sure what would cause that. Has it improved since Firefox 66?

more options

Hi MrDoh, on Mac, I think Preview is supposed to be integrated with the Print dialog. Unlike Windows, Firefox doesn't expose the in-tab preview on Mac. But you can use an add-on to access it.

Specific-purpose add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/preview-print-button/

I also have a Print Preview button as an option in my "Print Doctor" extension if you ever encounter the problems it is designed to address: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/printable-the-print-doctor/

more options

jscher2000 said

Hi MrDoh, on Mac, I think Preview is supposed to be integrated with the Print dialog. Unlike Windows, Firefox doesn't expose the in-tab preview on Mac. But you can use an add-on to access it. Specific-purpose add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/preview-print-button/ I also have a Print Preview button as an option in my "Print Doctor" extension if you ever encounter the problems it is designed to address: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/printable-the-print-doctor/

The print preview button would work if it was incorporated into the print dialog window. Problem is that the print preview button belongs to the main FIrefox window, and when you're printing, the print dialog window takes the focus and makes the print preview button inacessible.

So, looks like I'm shopping for browsers again, too bad. Maybe I'll give Brave another try, I was enjoying the privacy features of Firefox. Printing is too important to just try to ignore it. Both Chrome and Safari provide a built-in print preview in the print dialog, just that easy. Since Brave is built on the Chromium base, it should as well.

Thanks.

more options

Hi MrDoh, on Windows, it's easiest to call Preview first, then call Print from the Preview screen. But you'll need an add-on button for that on Mac, apparently.

more options

jscher2000 said

Hi MrDoh, on Windows, it's easiest to call Preview first, then call Print from the Preview screen. But you'll need an add-on button for that on Mac, apparently.

No go, once that print dialog window comes up, cannot access anything else, it has total focus, and the print preview window isn't updated during the print dialog. I tried the print preview button before and during, and just nothing that I can do with it.

So it goes.

Thanks for your efforts.

more options

Hi MrDoh, why do you need to access Print Preview after calling up the Print dialog from the Preview screen? Is Firefox's Print Preview screen incomplete on Mac -- doesn't have all the needed controls to set up the printout the way you want it? I'm attaching a screenshot of the Print Preview toolbar as it appears on Windows for comparison.

more options

There is no print preview available on my Firefox...there's the initial copy of the page that you then press the "Print" button on (from the three-line menu on the upper right hand corner of the page), and that brings up the print dialog window. The print dialog window has no print preview on it. And since the print dialog has focus until I print or cancel, no way to get one outside of that print dialog.

I've moved to the Brave browser now. The print dialog window has a preview of the actual page that will print, not a copy of it before I've applied any of the print dialog settings. So, as I need to scale or change orientation, I see the actual page that I'll get when I press "Print". The only drawback I've run into so far is that Brave doesn't yet provide functionality to save settings in the cloud, like Chrome with your Chrome account, or Safari with iCloud. Or Firefox, for that matter. On the other hand, I've found where those settings are stored on my Mac, and they are saved in my internet cloud backup. And I could put them on a flash drive from time to time as well.

I'm happy...maybe I'll try Firefox again in a few months, and hope that it's been fixed. I sure can't use it the way that it is. On the other hand, Brave is working pretty well for me at the moment, with startpage.com as my search engine. It's a little over the top on the privacy hype, but that's okay with me.

If I have problems with Brave, then I still have Safari as a last resort :-).

Modified by MrDoh

more options

Hi MrDoh, just in case I was not 110% clear: if you want to use Print Preview in Firefox on MacOS. you need to use an add-on to give you a Print Preview button (for example, one of the two I suggested). Then you can call up Print Preview, make your adjustments there, then click the Print button on the Preview toolbar.

more options

You were 100% clear...I tried it, and it didn't work for the printing that I do every day from my daily newspaper app, which is why I originally posted about this. It mostly works for direct printing from Gmail, etc. I hardly ever do that, though, mostly puzzles from the daily newspaper app. And having a separate button is nowhere as usable as having the print preview be part of the print dialog that I get with Chrome, Safari, Brave, etc.

I appreciate your efforts, though, thanks for that.