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Customizing headers and footers for printing.

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The ability to edit and customize the headers and footers for printing was one of my main reasons for switching from Chrome to Firefox. Now I can't find where to do this. I don't know if it was a recent update or what but I am using Windows 10 Home. Please help so I don't have to find a new browser.

The ability to edit and customize the headers and footers for printing was one of my main reasons for switching from Chrome to Firefox. Now I can't find where to do this. I don't know if it was a recent update or what but I am using Windows 10 Home. Please help so I don't have to find a new browser.

All Replies (16)

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I'll give you two options with the details to follow:

(1) Become comfortable with entering header/footer detail in the Advanced Configuration Editor (about:config) screen.

(2) Roll back to the old school Firefox approach of separate Print/Preview/Page Setup displays.


Left, Center, and Right Header and Footer Preferences

Headers and Footers are split into three parts each of which can contain free-form text and placeholders that Firefox replaces with values computed at print time. The placeholders are:

  • Title => &T (placed in Header-Left by default)
  • URL => &U (placed in Header-Right by default)
  • Page number of total (x of y) => &PT (placed in Footer-Left by default)
  • Page number (x) => &P
  • Date/Time => &D (placed in Footer-Right by default)

Here is how you can update your header and footer content for particular printers or all printers:

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

Headers

(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste print_h and pause while the list is filtered -- you'll see something like the first screenshot (the exact number of custom preferences depends on how many different printers you have used)

The following three preferences are the default, but any printer-specific value overrides them, allowing you to customize individual printers:

  • print.print_headerleft
  • print.print_headercenter
  • print.print_headerright

To edit a default setting, double-click in the implicit second column (wide area to the right of the preference names before the pencil button) or click the edit button. After making changes, press Enter to save your change, or click the blue checkmark button.

To modify a setting for a particular printer (for example, print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_headerleft), you have two choices:

(A) To have Firefox use the default setting, delete the current custom setting using the trash can at the right end of the row for the custom setting.

(B) Edit the custom setting as desired.

Footers

(3) In the search box in the page, type or paste print_f and pause while the list is filtered

As with headers, the following three preferences are the default, but any printer-specific value overrides them, allowing you to customize individual printers:

  • print.print_footerleft
  • print.print_footercenter
  • print.print_footerright

Edits work the same way for footers as they do for headers.


Roll Back Printing Changes

This preference may be removed in the future once everything is fully debugged, but it's still available for now:

(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 tab_mo and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the print.tab_modal.enabled preference to switch between the new experience (true) and the classic experience (false)

(4) If there is another preference named app.normandy.startupRolloutPrefs.print.tab_modal.enabled you can double-click that one to switch it to false as well. If you do not have that one, no need to create it.

Since you are setting to false, it will look roughly like this:

Ezalaki modifié na jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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These features must be implemented to the new modal, too! I and loads of people all over the globe need for example a quick way to determine for each printout (PDF or paper, for example) what kind of info there should be as the headers and footers. In a case where page number and count is not relevant, the date and time can definitely be relevant. Just to name one example.

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Is Firefox deeming these two workarounds as the solutions, or is work being done to bring the header/footer options to the new UI?

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Easy header/footer customization along with exact margin specification was also a main reason for me using Firefox over Edge. What is up with companies taking away features? Having to change configuration every time I get a situation where I want a different type of header/footer is ridiculous. Sometimes I want the URL shown, sometimes I don't, etc. Why make this so difficult? I like the new ease of specifying a custom scaling % but certainly would give that up to go back to being able to easily change header/footers. Thank you jsher2000 for showing us how to roll-back options. I hope that stays.

Ezalaki modifié na Amy

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To add my $.02 to the requests to preserve/re-establish header/footer customization as "first class citizen": please do not overlook that "printing to PDF" is a (the?) common way to persist information published on web pages and to produce a format that can be annotated, shared, etc.

And, while I am at it: adding some support for long header/footer elements (e.g., multi-line wrapping) would be most welcome (think: URLs in header/footers).

With many thanks to jscher2000 for the informative posting!

Ezalaki modifié na gensym

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The two primary reasons I use Firefox: 1. The static Bookmarks column. 2. Custom headers and footers for printing.

Please don't ruin it!

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johnh6 said

The two primary reasons I use Firefox: 1. The static Bookmarks column. 2. Custom headers and footers for printing. Please don't ruin it!

I hope customization is not removed, even if it's less convenient to use.

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Firefox version 86 is horrible. I loved the ability to edit Printer Header/Footers.

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TedTheTechGuy said

Firefox version 86 is horrible. I loved the ability to edit Printer Header/Footers.

Fortunately, you still have the ability to edit them. See this reply earlier in the thread: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1323433#answer-1387419

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themills98 said

The ability to edit and customize the headers and footers for printing was one of my main reasons for switching from Chrome to Firefox. Now I can't find where to do this. I don't know if it was a recent update or what but I am using Windows 10 Home. Please help so I don't have to find a new browser.


MY CURRENT SOFTWARE RELY ON THIS FOR USERS (APPROXIMATELY 1K USERS IN MY COUNTRY) TO CONTROL AND PRINT THE REPORT QUICKLY WITH OPTION TO SELECT FOOTER HEADER OR NOT.

PLEASE ADD THE OPTION ASAP

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kooteanhoh said

MY CURRENT SOFTWARE RELY ON THIS FOR USERS (APPROXIMATELY 1K USERS IN MY COUNTRY) TO CONTROL AND PRINT THE REPORT QUICKLY WITH OPTION TO SELECT FOOTER HEADER OR NOT. PLEASE ADD THE OPTION ASAP

How do you offer the option to select header/footer or not? If it's a web app, you can offer the option in your page using CSS. For example, if the user wants a quarter inch margin all around with no headers and footers, this combination will accomplish that:

@page {
  margin: 0px;
}
@media print {
  html {
    margin: 0.25in;
  }
}
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The solution is not feasible at all. Option to select footers and headers as per old version is a must for me as so many users of my application complain to me after the features have been removed.

I have no choices and ask them to downgrade to the Firefox old version

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kooteanhoh said

The solution is not feasible at all. Option to select footers and headers as per old version is a must for me as so many users of my application complain to me after the features have been removed. I have no choices and ask them to downgrade to the Firefox old version

You do have a choice: you can tell them about the "Roll Back Printing Changes" section of my earlier reply:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1323433#answer-1387419

Also can be found here if you want to refer them to a thread where it is included in the "Solution":

That is a temporary option, but likely to be included in Firefox 87 from what I can tell at this point.

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I am not happy that Firefox removed the easier way of configuring the print headers & footers, but at the same time am very grateful for the workaround provided (even though it's a bit more complicated to make the changes). Thank you for continuing to allow the 3 sections of headers and 3 sections of footers to be personally configured. The "all on or all off" approach does not work for me, which is why I prefer Firefox over all other web browsers.

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I am having trouble figuring out how to change the header and footer margins when I print. I would like for them to be not as close to the edge of the paper. Does anyone know how to change the margins for them? I have used the about:config command and changed some of the header and footer options but nothing with the margins yet.

Thank you for your help

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darin3 said

I am having trouble figuring out how to change the header and footer margins when I print. I would like for them to be not as close to the edge of the paper.

The outer margin around Headers and Footers? If your printer doesn't handle that automatically, or if you mean the built-in "Save to PDF" printer, try it this way:

(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 print_edge and pause while the list is filtered

Each printer has a set of preferences like:

  • print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_edge_bottom
  • print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_edge_left
  • print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_edge_right
  • print.printer_Mozilla_Save_to_PDF.print_edge_top

By default the value is zero. I find that 20 -- which means 20/100 or a fifth of an inch -- is a good cushion, but your printer may vary.

To edit a default setting, double-click in the implicit second column (wide area to the right of the preference names before the pencil button) or click the edit button. After making changes, press Enter to save your change, or click the blue checkmark button.

For example:

Does that work on yours?

It's possible that when Firefox reads data from the printer, that might override this value; I don't have physical printers these days, so it's hard for me to know.