Suddenly as of Oct. 14, 2020 Firefox won't print webpages to pdf's
Please help me return to being able to print webpages from Firefox to a pdf.
I installed my cd copy of Adobe Standard X when I bought my Windows 10 Thinkpad in December, 2019. It printed webpages to pdf just fine until 4 days ago.
I've attached 4 screenshots:
1) The Firefox error message I now get when I try to print a webpage.
2) This may not be relevant, but this is the page I got saying the screenshot couldn't be saved as a pdf or Word Doc.
3) The printer list in my Windows 10 settings, showing pdf is the default. I don't know if all along Firefox was printing from the version of Adobe I installed or something that came on the laptop.
4) The error message when I experimented to see if I could print to a pdf in Chrome.
Adobe quit supporting Adobe Standard X years ago, so I don't think that's the issue. Oddly, this happened right around the time Microsoft withdrew support from Office 2010, but I can't guess how that might be involved.
Opaite Mbohovái (4)
For #1, try resetting the printer preference, which store data Firefox previously extracted from Windows. Sometimes that data goes bad. Here's how:
(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 in the page, type or paste adobe and pause while the list is filtered
(3) For each preference that starts off with print.printer_Adobe_PDF, click the trash can icon at the right end of the row to remove it
Any improvement on the next print attempt?
For #2, this site only allows uploading images, so you chose a good format.
For #3, hmm, if you are running Windows 10, there should be a new printer named "Microsoft Print to PDF". That may not be as advanced as Adobe's Distiller, but it may be worth having for emergencies. See the attached screenshot for one method to enable it (using Windows Features). If it is missing, there are various threads on Microsoft's forums about various gymnastics to re-enable it (that I did not read in full).
Many thanks for your suggestions!
I'll respond first to your #3, and then move back to your #1, which is the one I need to get fixed most.
So - #3 - Yes, I have Microsoft Print to PDF on my program list. Frankly, I'd just as soon get rid of it :) It's the de facto default printer on my new Thinkpad, regardless of the fact that "Adobe pdf" is clearly checked as the default printer in my Windows settings. If I don't remember to use "Open with" and select "Adobe . . . " any pdf will open in Microsoft Print to PDF.
Back to your #1 - I went through your steps 1-2 and, delighted, ended up with around 20 print.printer . . . items. But as I got ready to trash them all I got cold feet because:
a) I'm not sure the "Adobe pdf" that's checked as my printer default is in fact the version of Adobe Standard X I installed myself, or if it came with the new Thinkpad, or I acquired accidentally along the way somehow.
b) I don't want to inadvertently delete my Adobe Standard X (or whatever Adobe pdf I've picked up that will work!) because it's a familiar program that can do everything I need pdf software to do.
The issue seems to an internal "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" Windows 10 communication problem, since Adobe pdf is clearly marked as my default printer in Windows Settings, but some other part of Windows' brain can't see or find the program, both in Mozilla and in Chrome, which I tried out of desperation, not like Chrome . . .
So, what are the risks with deleting all the "preferences that starts off with print.printer_Adobe_PDF," if any?
In my the last sentence I meant to write, "not liking Chrome."
The printer-specific preferences you see in about:config will be re-created using data extracted from the printer driver the next time you print to that printer, so deleting them is extremely temporary.