Bring back the old Page Setup, Print and Print Preview

[paul921]

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.

[user1]

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

[silvercan]

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]

Same here!

[rw335i]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Edgar3500]

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:

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

In the new versions of Firefox:

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.

Firefox  

[ilikeme]

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]

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!!

[ASERAS]

I am so sick of Firefox and their "updates." The "updated" print dialogue box is a joke. I don't want Firefox to dictate if I should have a header and a footer nor do I want you to control where the page number/date and time is in my printed documents.

I want to choose if I have a header or footer or both and what information goes in them and where. The old Prevent Preview worked very well and the Page Setup allowed the user full control of their printed document.

Look at Yahoo; the "updates" has killed them. If you remain on the useless "updates" track, you'll go the way of the dodo bird.

I am moving to another browser since you, Firefox, would like to be just like all the rest. Your uniqueness is what I liked about you 15 years ago. Are your developers trying to lose users? I really would like to cuss. GOODBYE! ~ASERAS

"Ignorance is a horrible thing. But arrogance, the belief that knowing a little more than the ignorant makes you wise, is more horrible still." – James Rozoff

[John_3_16]

I just dumped the new download process (changed to "false") & I had been using classic print preview till Mozilla bent me over the table & anally forced it on me again.

Not understanding psychological need of Mozilla to be a "chrome" browser. I am on an active hunt for another browser that is user friendly. Have installed Ungoogled Chromium & using it is getting much easier. It is a fork that removes aspects requiring communication with Google & eliminates spyware/adware components of Google. Might as well go to Chrome since FF is slowly forcing it on us. Using same apps as in FF. Privacy is even stronger than in FF.

No thanks for this crap. Change rape should be illegal.

[AjTeX]

Major issue to print/download a proof of payment or pdf file when using internet banking, as the print window opens within the same window/tab of the IBanking window?? I can't click back to the previous window, as it will log me out of IBanking. This is a horrible new change!!! PLEASE bring back to what it was and don't change things when everything is working fine!!

[Kevinvasu]

The new interface does not work. First it takes a long time to load the page for printing. Then it does not print for a long time. When it finally prints, it prints in super small fonts which is not even readable. Even while saving a document to .PDF, the same thing happens and in the end the file does not get saves until and unless you repeat the procedure more than twice.

[steel835]

I don't know, I actually like this new interface as it allows me to see what will be printed before actually printing. I've tested this with many websites and the preview is generated within a second (there were exceptions where it took like 5 seconds, for pages that use heavy markup and are not adapted for printing). Also, I suppose, it helps with some printing settings (like margin) that can be not supported by printer software

For those who wants to print using "old" system print dialog - you can press the "Print using the system dialog" button at the end of the list any time, even when the preview is still loading, so the option hasn't gone anywhere. It was just moved to another place (not far) to give space for a feature that is useful for (also many) other people (and was implemented in Chrome).