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

When using print selection in Firefox 12.0, it prints wherever the selection is on the page (on paper) instead of at the top of the page (of paper).

  • 9 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by jamjps

more options

When attempting to use print selection, printing starts in location it starts as on the web page. For example, if it is down half way on web page, it starts printing half way down on printer paper. Then continue on to another paper. This only happens in Firefox, not other browsers. This is really making me want to change default browser so I don't have to keep switching to print correctly. Tried Print Edit plugin but it is to time consuming to do something that should be simple.

When attempting to use print selection, printing starts in location it starts as on the web page. For example, if it is down half way on web page, it starts printing half way down on printer paper. Then continue on to another paper. This only happens in Firefox, not other browsers. This is really making me want to change default browser so I don't have to keep switching to print correctly. Tried Print Edit plugin but it is to time consuming to do something that should be simple.

Chosen solution

Yes, the print selection feature has been tweaked a few times in recent versions. It was very broken in Firefox 11, and the fix has exacerbated the issue of the position of the selection not moving to the top of the page (which has existed for a long time, but is worse now).

Workarounds

I agree that the Print Edit add-on, which allows very fine control of items on the page, is not the best workaround for this issue because you often have to click many items to get the same selection.

The add-on Nuke Anything Enhanced has the option to remove everything except your selected text from the page. Then you can print normally (i.e., without choosing the Selection bubble). I don't see a feature to undo that, so you would need to reload the page afterwards in order to continue working with it.

Some screen shots illustrating this usage appear below this post.

(Note: from the earlier thread how to get print selection to work, page 2.)

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (9)

more options

Try Reset Firefox printer setting and check it again.


thank you

Please mark "Solved" the answer that really solve the problem, to help others with a similar problem.

more options

I tried that and don't have command line print.print_printer.

more options

i have same problem on www.radisan.com

more options

It doesn't matter what site I'm on. Does it on both my PC's running 7 & Vista.

more options

See : Reset all Firefox printer settings and try again.


thanks again

more options

Chosen Solution

Yes, the print selection feature has been tweaked a few times in recent versions. It was very broken in Firefox 11, and the fix has exacerbated the issue of the position of the selection not moving to the top of the page (which has existed for a long time, but is worse now).

Workarounds

I agree that the Print Edit add-on, which allows very fine control of items on the page, is not the best workaround for this issue because you often have to click many items to get the same selection.

The add-on Nuke Anything Enhanced has the option to remove everything except your selected text from the page. Then you can print normally (i.e., without choosing the Selection bubble). I don't see a feature to undo that, so you would need to reload the page afterwards in order to continue working with it.

Some screen shots illustrating this usage appear below this post.

(Note: from the earlier thread how to get print selection to work, page 2.)

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

more options

ideato, I most be ignorant or blind because I can't find any print setting pertaining to firefox! There are plenty of other printer settings but I won't reset something if I'm not sure about it. Thanks anyway! jscher, I'll try that add-on but seems easier to just use different browser.Seems to me though, Firefox would fix this problem!!!!!!!

more options

Once the bug that leads to a completely blank page with print selection is fully fixed, I hope someone will turn their attention to this problem of positioning the selection on the page. But print bugs historically have taken a long time to fix, so you probably will need a workaround for a while yet.

more options

jscher2000, tried Nuke Anything Enhanced and it worked great! Even printed whole top line, not just half of it! Thanks a million!