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Print PDF's with builtin pdf viewer

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I'm using Firefox 70.0, 64-bit on Windows 10 Home and now I'm getting sick of the builtin PDF viewer. In the newest Firefox release I cannot download the viewed PDF document anymore in order to open it in another PDF viewer to print it. Because Firefox, when printing PDF's, scales the pdf down to about half the size leaving 50% of the printed page empty....

In the past I used to download the PDF and open it in Foxit/Adobe/whatever. These tolls print perfect, but now also this workaround is blocked...

I'm using Firefox 70.0, 64-bit on Windows 10 Home and now I'm getting sick of the builtin PDF viewer. In the newest Firefox release I cannot download the viewed PDF document anymore in order to open it in another PDF viewer to print it. Because Firefox, when printing PDF's, scales the pdf down to about half the size leaving 50% of the printed page empty.... In the past I used to download the PDF and open it in Foxit/Adobe/whatever. These tolls print perfect, but now also this workaround is blocked...

All Replies (5)

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Hi jannilrau, how were you downloading the PDF before? The Download button (on the viewer's black toolbar) should still work the same way -- what happens when you try it on your Firefox?


Regarding printouts not using the entire page, this can be caused by bad data that Firefox stored about the paper size. Try this:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste paper_data and pause while the list is filtered

Firefox should list this parameter for each of the printers it is familiar with.

(3) If any of these preferences has a value other than 1 (Letter size) or 9 (A4 size), double-click it to open a small dialog where you can enter the desired value, then click OK

If that doesn't work, you can do the more comprehensive settings reset described in this help article: Fix printing problems in Firefox.

Any improvement?

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Hi jfisher,

the download button did nothing. I now removed firefox and reinstalled it from the scratch.

Now it works as described the download dialog reopens again....

BTW: My printer settings show 9 (for DIN-A4 paper size, which is a stupid abbreviation). The PDF is an A4-PDF, but it looks like an A5 PDF is printed on an A4 sheet. See attached file. I print on my Samsung color laser CLP-325.....

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Hi jannilrau, the paper_data is usually the problem, but you also could check the preferences that refer to scaling, margin and edge to see whether any of them look off.

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not sure about the units.... obviously inches, I think...

and print_paper_size == 1 means what?

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I don't have a .print_paper_size for my printers. Do you mean .print_paper_size_unit ? I think 0 = Inches, 1 = Millimeters