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Printing to PDF does not include web links.

GreatLand1959
GreatLand1959
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When "printing" to Adobe Acrobat from Firefox/Mac, the resulting pages do not include url link data. When "printing" to Adobe Acrobat from Apple Safari/Mac, the resulting pages *do* include url link data. I have asked in the Adobe and Apple forums and the consensus seems to be that it is because of the printing method used in Firefox. Does anyone have any idea if this can be worked around by some setting in FF? If not, does anyone know if this is an issue that is planned to be fixed soon?

When "printing" to Adobe Acrobat from Firefox/Mac, the resulting pages do not include url link data. When "printing" to Adobe Acrobat from Apple Safari/Mac, the resulting pages *do* include url link data. I have asked in the Adobe and Apple forums and the consensus seems to be that it is because of the printing method used in Firefox. Does anyone have any idea if this can be worked around by some setting in FF? If not, does anyone know if this is an issue that is planned to be fixed soon?

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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I don't use this feature because I run Windows...

Generally speaking, most PDF converters work by capturing the print job as a PostScript file and then converting the PostScript to PDF. Because the print job itself only shows the visible portions of the page, links may have the appearance of being links but are not actually links.

The only solution to this is to use an add-on that bypasses the normal print process and embeds the links into the PostScript file before it is converted to PDF. I'm not aware of whether any such add-ons are available for Firefox. Would be great to have one!

I wonder whether someone could create an add-on that would "save this page to PDF from Safari"?

GreatLand1959
GreatLand1959 Question owner
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It is interesting that Safari manages to do it and no other browser does. It inevitably leads to the question, "How does Safari do it, and is there any way to replicate that behavior in other browsers?" I don't have the answer to the first part, but I'll bet the answer to the second part is 'yes'. Now, the next question is, "Can we get the Firefox/Mozilla people to investigate how that is working and incorporate that capability into FF"?