cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
paul921
Strollin' around
Status: New idea

Many users do not like the new print user interface, so they have been staying with the old print user interface by setting print.tab_modal.enabled to false.  Everything was fine until Firefox 97 removed this option.  Many users have complained about this on support.mozilla.org.

I normally print to PDF and do not want a preview.  I usually do a "postview" to check the resulting PDF.  The new print user interface would just slow things down without providing me with any benefit.  The old print preview should be available for those users who need it.  I have reverted to Firefox 96.0.3.

Please bring back the whole of the old print user interface, i.e. what was provided by setting print.tab_modal.enabled to false.

42 Comments
user1
New member

It bothered me enough to downgrade back to 96.0.3 where "print.tab_modal.enabled" can be set to "false".

silvercan
New member

Yes the new Print function takes too too long while the circle spins and spins. Meantime, all on-line work has to stop for a few minutes! This is outrageous. So yes bring back the old Print function box.

Hegner
New member

Same here!

rw335i
New member

I agree. Give me the choice - I prefer the system print dialog - there was no need to remove this option. It is always better to give a choice rather than force the users into a path they may not like.

jscher2000
Leader

Hi user1, I doubt that the old design will return in its original form, but there is potential for improvement of the new design. What are the things that bother you about the new preview?

For myself, the text can get too small if the window isn't maximized. Some people have mentioned they preferred the settings on the top rather than the side, but that isn't an issue for me personally.

It would be helpful to hear more details about what you find to be problems with the new preview.

Driveway
New member

Please, please bring back print preview!  It was the best feature in Firefox and saved me lots of paper by only printing what was needed.

philm333
New member

Yes, bring back the old print preview.  But well Firefox do that?

Edgar3500
Strollin' around

I agree! but the most important thing for me is the "Simplify" option in the preview function of the previous version.
I regularly research a lot of things and like to save them to pdf files with "simplify" option (which could also be svg, djvu or some other NON-proprietary format).
Why Firefox releases a feature without allowing an option to use the previous version. And a specific study if the new function would be useful with metrics shared by users.
My first impression was what did they do? Did Firefox catch something from chrome? Has something rubbed off on Microsoft who assumes that what they say is correct? Do not consult users?.
I use Firefox since it was Netscape 1.0! and it was always difficult to contact the developers to take our opinion into account. I tried from time to time to contact and I think this is the first time I managed to get there.
As free software, if they change something, they should leave the option to users to revert them. And with this, why should we make a course to carry a variable in "about:config", wouldn't it be better to have an "advanced" section in Preferences like before to do this?
I had to go into "about:config" and guess what the variables would be called to change the headers and footers from the print preview to pdf! something that in previous versions was very easy.
By the way, I am a user of LinuxMint 19.3 Mate at home and 20.2 Mate at the office as well as on other computers. And due to the above I find myself in the dilemma of disabling automatic updates on my system or using virtual machines with an old Firefox!
I hope my comments are useful. Greetings!

In the old versions of Firefox:

simplifyedsimplifyedwhitout simplifyedwhitout simplifyeddialog to change header, footers and others; this changes is permament.dialog to change header, footers and others; this changes is permament.

In the new versions of Firefox:

You must go down and select simplified.You must go down and select simplified.

The entry in the system window and the footer and others always indicate the same thing, even if one changes them. You must to do the changes EVERY TIME you want to print.The entry in the system window and the footer and others always indicate the same thing, even if one changes them. You must to do the changes EVERY TIME you want to print.

Firefox  

ilikeme
New member

SAME! You guys keep changing your print features and I can no longer build my web apps in your browser. It's insanity. Please stop changing the print features! I need page numbers at the bottom of our print outs.

pouce13
New member

Yes me too I want the old 'print preview' back! A part from the fact that the old preview worked perfectly fine and there was absolutely no reason to change it! The main issue with the 'new print preview' is that it is almost impossible to read the preview! Yes I know that I can change the size from 'Fit to page' to any %, but that also changes the size on the paper (which I do not want to change) and increase the number of pages. I'm not going to go into lengthy explanation as to why I need to be able to read the preview - I just do! and it annoys the crap out of me that someone at Mozilla thought 'we need this Chrome thing'???  Maybe it was the same person that brought us 'Windows 8' ?!?

No happy Jane!!