I've also added potential relevant information from the "Thunderbird Help->Troubleshooting Information" menu option as follows in case this helps. Also in case the information is of any relevance, Print Preview works fine in my Firefox 53.0.3 (32-bit) installation.

Mozilla Thunderbird Troubleshooting Information:-

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 52.1.1
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.1.1
   Profile Folder: Open Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20170509142926
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory
   Profiles: about:profiles

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 5.4.1.1, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 52.1.1
     font.internaluseonly.changed: false
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.tr: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-baltic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-central-euro: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.tr: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-baltic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-central-euro: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.tr: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-baltic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-central-euro: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.tr: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-baltic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-central-euro: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.tr: 17
     font.size.variable.x-baltic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-central-euro: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: d25151b5-0fe2-40d1-98dc-f615a7a79d9
     mailnews.database.global.views.conversation.columns: {"threadCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"1"},"flaggedCol":{"visible":true,"ordinal":"3"},"attachmentCol":{"visible":false…
     media.gmp.storage.version.observed: 1
     network.cookie.cookieBehavior: 2
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.database.lastMaintenance: 1496354506
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 122334
     plugin.importedState: true
     plugins.update.notifyUser: true
     print.print_printer: hp deskjet 980c series
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_bgcolor: false
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_bgimages: false
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_colorspace:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_command:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_downloadfonts: false
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_duplex: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_edge_bottom: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_edge_left: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_edge_right: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_edge_top: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_evenpages: true
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_footercenter:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_footerleft: &PT
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_footerright: &D
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_headercenter:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_headerleft: &T
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_headerright: &U
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_in_color: true
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_margin_left: 0.5
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_margin_right: 0.5
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_margin_top: 0.5
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_oddpages: true
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_orientation: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_page_delay: 50
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_data: 9
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_height: 11.00
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_name:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_size_type: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_size_unit: 1
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_width: 8.50
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_plex_name:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_resolution: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_resolution_name:
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_reversed: false
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_scaling: 1.00
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_shrink_to_fit: true
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_to_file: false
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0
     print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0
     security.sandbox.content.tempDirSuffix: {2aa7aac6-acdb-40f4-9613-54d39483b3ea}

 Graphics

     GPU #1
     Description: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
     Vendor ID: 0x10de
     Device ID: 0x0fc6
     RAM: 1024
     Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
     Driver Version: 9.18.13.1106
     Driver Date: 1-18-2013

     Features
     Direct2D: false
     DirectWrite: true (6.2.9200.22084)
     WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 2.1.0.2a250c8a0e15)

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureCanvasAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: skia

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.13.1
     4.13.1

     NSS
     3.28.4
     3.28.4

     NSS Util
     3.28.4
     3.28.4

     NSS SSL
     3.28.4
     3.28.4

     NSS S/MIME
     3.28.4
     3.28.4

Hi all, I have obtained a resolution that seems to work, (although I haven't rebooted PC yet to see if fix continues to work after PC Restart)

Following information from this post:- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1353625

It appears that a way to resolve this is quoted by Tobias Becker as follows:-

1. Open about:config 2. Look at setting print.printer to find <name> of selected printer, example value is "HP LaserJet 5L". 3. Replace spaces by underscore for further reference, so example <name> becomes "HP_LaserJet_5L". 4. Change value of print.printer_<name>.print_paper_height to "-1" 5. Change value of print.printer_<name>.print_paper_width to "-1" 6. Close about:config

Either immediately or latest after restart of Thunderbird, issue is gone.

When later looking at the changed settings, values are displayed as "-1,00".

Former values while the issue existed were "11,00" and "8,50", obviously the dimensions of the "US letter" format measured in inches (25,4 mm). As being located in Germany, such a format was most likely never configured for the printer.

Worked for three profiles in total, all rather old ones that gathered a lot of print* settings over time and that show also that the structure of the settings changed at least once in the past, e.g. there is print.printer_<name>.* and printer_<name>.* with the first appearing to be the active one.

I would appreciate if this could fixed in a future update such that this issues disappears without manual edit in about:config.

That ends the quote from Tobias Becker. I am from the UK, but I too had later noticed that Thunderbird was using "Letter" from print size whilst my Printer in "Devices and Printers" was set to "A4". So from his above post, I applied the following change to my about:config which was already using underscores in the printer name in my case:-

print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_height: -1 print.printer_hp_deskjet_980c.print_paper_width: -1

(Note I entered the modified value of "-1" with no spaces.)