Firefox printing problems

[EchoMike]

Firefox 3 - won't print text portions of web pages. FF3 on W2K box, going to Brother 1440 printer. Have a laptop with XP & FF3 on it, works fine, prints fine on same printer. Main computer will NOT print . . . IE7, Netscape, etc, all work fine, FF3 won't. Checked page size, page layout, fonts, changed everything to match laptop computer, no joy. Images print, no text. (Also - can't keep signed in on PPrune, and can't make paragraph breaks either!) Biggest problem is the no printing - what should I look at/for? Best Regards, Echo Mike

[Gertrude the Wombat]

The standard open source weenie answer goes like this:

"Firefox is open source. If it doesn't work, you've got the source code, you can fix it yourself, that's what open source is all about. When you've worked out the fix, please post it for the benefit of the community."

Or, seeing as IE works, you could just use that.

[EchoMike]

Ahh, but I am not looking for the standard open source weenie answer. That's why I asked here . . . I was looking for some help or advice in this case, and not along the lines of "see your dealer" (and bend over). I'd rather use Morse Code than Internet Explorer - IE has too many vulnerabilities, crashes, can't block ads, that is not the answer for me - I'd be painting "Hack me!!!" on my computer. I've used alternative browsers for years - every once in a while I run into a glitch, and once it is solved, I can continue to avoid IE further. There are only two things wrong with open source software - first, you sometimes can't get help on it (and have you tried getting help from Microsoft - ever?), and second, Bill Gates doesn't get any more of my money. I'd rather have unsolvable problems with something I didn't pay for than have unsolvable problems with something I did, and sooner or later, I'll find - or be told - the answer for this one, too. Best Regards, Echo Mike

[Bushfiva]

Does it print OK from Print Preview?

[Saab Dastard]

Does FF2 work on the W2K box? If so, stick with it!

I'm still on FF2 on all my XP machines.

Bushfiva - is this what you are alluding to:

* Windows 2000
* Firefox 3 (U.S. English)
* Several printers: HP Color LaserJet 2550n (PCL6), FinePrint 5.85, pdfFactory 3.30

Most web pages would print ok, but some (notably account statements and other tabular information on Handelsbanken) would be completely garbled.

I found this thread and started trying solutions. I tried setting the default encoding to "Windows 1252", as suggested by Peter Staack, but it didn't help. Only after this did I try "Print preview" and this looked ok, albeit with rather odd character spacing. I then tried FinePrint again and to my astonishment it too produced correct output (even with correct character spacing). I then reverted the default encoding back to "ISO 8859-1" and did another "Print preview" which still looked ok. Actual printer output is also still correct.

I don't know how to explain it, but either invoking "Print preview" alone did it for me, or else switching to "Windows 1252" combined with "Print preview" did it, but after getting it right I don't need "Windows 1252" any more.

SD

[Bushfiva]

Bushfiva - is this what you are alluding to

Yes, that's the sort of thing. FF2/3's printing seems to be pretty iffy for many people, but printing through print preview seems to work for some of them. Changing the default printer also seems to work for some, in the same way that Word can take forever to start with certain network printers. Changing the rendering engine seems to work, too, but we're heading into areas I've no experience with, and indeed don't care to experience :-) Well, not for free. :-) Fixing FF3 printing seems to be a "press all the buttons you can see" thing, rather than a "push the right buttons, and these are they."