How to print any web page to PDF in Windows 7 after Firefox version 8?
Some web pages do not print to PDF after Firefox Version 8. The result is either incomplete PDF or the print progress stops at some point and Firefox is stuck. For example the following web page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln prints to PDF with Firefox Version 8, but it does not print with any version of Firefox newer than 8. Note that the latest version of Acrobat Professional produced the same results as well as other PDF generating tools such as "FreePDF XP" and "Bullzip". Also the same web page on this same machine does print from within Internet Explorer. However using Internet Explorer is not a solution for our needs.
Thank you for looking into this. Plamen Djambazov
edited to remove email address
Modified by TonyE
Chosen solution
That page prints to PDF for me in Firefox 17 on Windows 7x64 -- I tested pdfFactory Pro and PDF Creator.
You might try resetting all your print preferences in case some corruption has crept in over time. This article describes that in more detail: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problems_printing_web_pages
Could you also try disabling graphics hardware acceleration? I don't know whether this affects printing at all, but just in case.
You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced
On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"
If you restart Firefox, do you notice any difference?
A standard diagnostic to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings) is to try Firefox's Safe Mode.
First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles. (You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder.)
Next, restart Firefox in Firefox's Safe Mode (Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode) using
Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode."
If you can print PDFs normally, this points to one of your extensions or custom settings as the problem.
To also disable plugins, you can try here:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Add-ons > Plugins category
Any change?
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That page prints to PDF for me in Firefox 17 on Windows 7x64 -- I tested pdfFactory Pro and PDF Creator.
You might try resetting all your print preferences in case some corruption has crept in over time. This article describes that in more detail: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problems_printing_web_pages
Could you also try disabling graphics hardware acceleration? I don't know whether this affects printing at all, but just in case.
You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Advanced
On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"
If you restart Firefox, do you notice any difference?
A standard diagnostic to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings) is to try Firefox's Safe Mode.
First, I recommend backing up your Firefox settings in case something goes wrong. See Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles. (You can copy your entire Firefox profile folder somewhere outside of the Mozilla folder.)
Next, restart Firefox in Firefox's Safe Mode (Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode) using
Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled
In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode."
If you can print PDFs normally, this points to one of your extensions or custom settings as the problem.
To also disable plugins, you can try here:
orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Add-ons > Plugins category
Any change?
Setting the "Use hardware acceleration when available" to false fixed the problem. Thank you!
Still puzzled why this option has no effect with Firefox 8, but any version after. And more importantly why this option when turned on (checked) works fine on most machines, but on some others PDF does not print and Firefox freezes.
What suppose to be the benefits of the "Use hardware acceleration when available"? Testing some large files both ways did not show any significant difference one way or the other.
Graphics driver support seems to be a difficult area to get right...
I'd just be guessing as to any specific differences between Fx8 and Fx17 that affect the Adobe Acrobat plugin.