emails won't print, print preview shows only gray screen
Recently, perhaps since automatic update 38.3.0 occurred, my emails won't print. Even older ones or sent ones or those in trash, all of which I had already previously printed fine. Using print preview shows only a gray screen and will only print a blank page -- no header, footer, date or anything. An attachment will print, at least if it is a PDF, but not the email itself . I am using a Dell windows 8.1 computer and printer is HP deskjet 6940. I will have to start using another email program if I can't print my emails and I don't want to. Please help me!
Chosen solution
First check that your margins are not so wide that it is impossible to print. select email File > Print Preview or Menu icon > Print > Print Preview
Click on 'Page Setup' select; 'Margins & Header/footer' tab
If 'Margins (millimeters)' set top, bottom, left and right to 12.7 (twelve point seven)
If 'Margins (inches)' set top, bottom, left and right to 0.5 (zero point five)
click on OK
If this does not resolve the issue then try the following to reset all your print preferences.
In thunderbird 'Tools' > 'Options' > Advanced' > 'General' tab or 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > Advanced' > 'General' tab
click on 'Config Editor' button - it will tell you to be careful :) In top search type: print Look for these lines: print_printer and any line starting with: print.printer_name of printer
right click on each line and choose 'Reset'.
close window - top right X Close and restart ~Thunderbird
Test Print Preview.
Please report back on results.
Read this answer in context 👍 3All Replies (3)
Chosen Solution
First check that your margins are not so wide that it is impossible to print. select email File > Print Preview or Menu icon > Print > Print Preview
Click on 'Page Setup' select; 'Margins & Header/footer' tab
If 'Margins (millimeters)' set top, bottom, left and right to 12.7 (twelve point seven)
If 'Margins (inches)' set top, bottom, left and right to 0.5 (zero point five)
click on OK
If this does not resolve the issue then try the following to reset all your print preferences.
In thunderbird 'Tools' > 'Options' > Advanced' > 'General' tab or 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > Advanced' > 'General' tab
click on 'Config Editor' button - it will tell you to be careful :) In top search type: print Look for these lines: print_printer and any line starting with: print.printer_name of printer
right click on each line and choose 'Reset'.
close window - top right X Close and restart ~Thunderbird
Test Print Preview.
Please report back on results.
Modified by Toad-Hall
Oh thank you so much, Toad! I never thought to look into those properties. So simple. My margins were OK but the scale was out of whack and somehow was on 500%. Changed it to 100% and I'm back in business. Thank you again.
Thank you for pointing me to the area I needed, in my case a margin was set to a negative value.
Having margins set too small can also cause problems. Some printers have none printable areas and if the margins get set within this area problems can occur. Rather than reset all printer properties just resetting page size and margins (left, right, top and bottom) should solve any problems.