Printing Web Pages

John7888 · Post by **John7888** » August 11th, 2006, 1:30 pm

When I try to print a web page in Firefox (1.5.0.6) I get the message "Printing failed when starting the document"

I've been a Firfox user since 1.0 and have never had this problem. Explorer prints web pages O.K.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

bagelred · Post by **bagelred** » August 11th, 2006, 2:46 pm

I have the EXACT same question....man that's strange.....

J-Mac · Post by **J-Mac** » August 12th, 2006, 9:55 am

I don't see that, but I do have a lot of problems printing web pages in Firefox. And I never received an answer as to why.

I usually have to open the page in IE or Opera to print it. This happens on roughly20% of the web pages I try to print. Bafling!

kdryder · Post by **kdryder** » August 15th, 2006, 2:01 pm

Add me to the list of people who are having consistent problems printing web pages with Firefox.

dsbscience · Post by **dsbscience** » August 17th, 2006, 8:15 am

Here is the weird printing problem I am seeing with both Mozilla Suite and Firefox:

Ssytem: Mandrake Linux 10.1

Have used Mozilla Suite for a couple of years with no problem. Somewhere in there, upgraded to 1.7.8. Sometime after the upgrade, web pages print upside down and half missing on the page. Emails no longer print properly, either. Pages print fine in other browsers.

I can "Print to Postscript File" and then print that, and that usually works ok, but sometimes the 'edge' of the page is missing.

I created a new user account for my wife to use, and the printing of web pages works fine with Mozilla for her.

I installed Firefox 1.5.0.6 hoping that would fix the issue, and it remains. Firefox prints fine from my wife's user account.

No other applications give printing problems.

I have compared print setting in about:config for the two user accounts and cannot see anything that would cause this problem, but maybe I am missing something.

kenkorshin · Post by **kenkorshin** » August 17th, 2006, 2:02 pm

I have the same problem. I cannot print from Firefox on my HP 6800. I never had this problem before.
Using 1.8.06 Build 2006072814.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » August 18th, 2006, 7:55 pm

dsbscience wrote:Here is the weird printing problem I am seeing with both Mozilla Suite and Firefox:

web pages print upside down and half missing on the page. Emails no longer print properly, either.

Found the problem - a misconfiguration external to Mozilla, but it was only effecting Mozilla and Firefox. Used X Printing Panel to correct (when compared to the user account that was working properly).

pennstatephil · Post by **pennstatephil** » August 26th, 2006, 3:00 pm

Anonymous wrote:
dsbscience wrote:Here is the weird printing problem I am seeing with both Mozilla Suite and Firefox:

web pages print upside down and half missing on the page. Emails no longer print properly, either.

Found the problem - a misconfiguration external to Mozilla, but it was only effecting Mozilla and Firefox. Used X Printing Panel to correct (when compared to the user account that was working properly).

Any way to fix it just messing around with settings or something? I'm using XP, so I guess XPP is out.

the-edmeister · Post by **the-edmeister** » August 26th, 2006, 11:43 pm

Depending upon which Operating System each of you are using, the solution for your problem may be different from a similar problem in another OS, so please mention your OS and exactly which version of Firefox you are using when posting.
Help > About Mozilla Firefox - UserAgent string has both pieces of info - looks similar to this:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060826 BonEcho/2.0b2
Windows NT 5.0 shows I have Windows 2000 and it show I am using (BonEcho nightly of) Firefox 2.0Beta2

Regardless of the OS, sometimes giving a little 'kick' to the printer settings in Firefox 'fixes' some of these problems:

type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
Preference name = print.print_printer
Right-Click that preference and select Reset, then restart Firefox.
See if Firefox is printing any better.

Edit on 01-14-07, with more information due to this thread remaining current.
If you get this warning dialog:
"Printing failed when starting the document"
and when you do this:
type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
Preference name = print.print_printer = no printer shown:
Either you don't have a printer selected, or Firefox doesn't know it is installed on your system.

If you are having a problem with Firefox not printing to paper at all, and you don't receive a warning dialog:
Do {Ctrl + P} and
1. Make sure that you don't have Print to file selected under Printer > Commment:
2. Make sure that your correct printer is selected at Printer > Name:. (You might be "printing" to a Program such as Adobe PDF or Intuit.)

If you are having a problem with Firefox printing only on a small portion of the page:
Do {Ctrl + P} and verify the correct Printer is selected, then hit the Properties button and look at the Paper tab and Layout tab (or whatever your particular printer brand calls those prefs):
Paper =>
is the correct size selected? (usually 8.5"x11" or A4)
is the Orientation correct?
is the Printable Area correct?
Layout =>
is Reduce/Enlarge check-marked? = shouldn't be
is Multi-Page check-marked? = shouldn't be unless that is what you want

Added 04-21-07:
Delayed printing or Firefox freezes when trying to print
Check your printer Properties > Advanced section to make sure that print spooling is turned on.

Ed

theqman77 · Post by **theqman77** » September 2nd, 2006, 11:37 am

the-edmeister wrote:Depending upon which Operating System each of you are using, the solution for your problem may be different from a similar problem in another OS, so please mention your OS and exactly which version of Firefox you are using when posting.
Help > About Mozilla Firefox - UserAgent string has both pieces of info - looks similar to this:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060826 BonEcho/2.0b2
Windows NT 5.0 shows I have Windows 2000 and it show I am using (BonEcho nightly of) Firefox 2.0Beta2

Regardless of the OS, sometimes giving a little 'kick' to the printer settings in Firefox 'fixes' some of these problems:

type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
Preference name = print.print_printer
Right-Click that preference and select Reset, then restart Firefox.
See if Firefox is printing any better.

Ed

THANKS ED !!!! that worked, what had happened is that somehow it was using the intuit internal printer, and when I reset it, that dissapeared and its working fine now. THANKS A MILLION
I use it for my business and was going crazy with stupid IE

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » September 6th, 2006, 10:12 am

I have the same problem and tried resetting it according to the directions above. It didn't work.

When I print, it only prints on the top half of the page. And the sides get cut off too. It looks this way when I bring up print preview too, but the scale is set to 100% and it's in portrait setting. VERY frustrating.

the-edmeister · Post by **the-edmeister** » September 6th, 2006, 4:38 pm

Meghan,

{Ctrl + P} to get the 'native print dialog box', then hit Properties and go to both Paper and Format to make sure you don't have either a Custom Paper size (Printable Area) or Reduce/Enlarge selected in Firefox.

Ed

pauledst · Post by **pauledst** » September 10th, 2006, 1:07 pm

the-edmeister wrote:{Ctrl + P} to get the 'native print dialog box', then hit Properties and go to both Paper and Format to make sure you don't have either a Custom Paper size (Printable Area) or Reduce/Enlarge selected in Firefox.

Ed

I've got a similiar problem. Can't print a page on the Amazon.com web site. FireFox crashes and "must close". I've tried all the above on this thread with no luck. Also went through the troubleshooting steps elsewhere on this site including deleting and reinstalling FireFox.
Running:XP Pro
FireFox 1.5.0.6
One printer; HP1200 LaserJet

Everything worked fine until a few days ago. No new programs or hardware added that I know of. I'm behind a router and satelite modem and Win XP firewall. Nortons antivirus is running active. Win update set for automatic download and install. Haven't tried uninstalling latest Win updates.
Anyone have a clue?

orlorob · Post by **orlorob** » September 12th, 2006, 1:47 pm

the-edmeister wrote:Depending upon which Operating System each of you are using, the solution for your problem may be different from a similar problem in another OS, so please mention your OS and exactly which version of Firefox you are using when posting.
Help > About Mozilla Firefox - UserAgent string has both pieces of info - looks similar to this:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1b2) Gecko/20060826 BonEcho/2.0b2
Windows NT 5.0 shows I have Windows 2000 and it show I am using (BonEcho nightly of) Firefox 2.0Beta2

Regardless of the OS, sometimes giving a little 'kick' to the printer settings in Firefox 'fixes' some of these problems:

type about:config in the URL bar and hit Enter
Preference name = print.print_printer
Right-Click that preference and select Reset, then restart Firefox.
See if Firefox is printing any better.

Ed

the edmeister is my saviour.

thx thx thx

Suki-s · Post by **Suki-s** » September 13th, 2006, 6:42 am

I have been trying to get several pages to print from Firefox (version 1.5.0.6): one an airline ticket confirmation from spiritair.com and one a listing on realtor.com. I have tried printing to a Samsung ML-2250 laser and an HP 1215 inkjet as well as to PDF and to PostScript... all on a Mac G5 running OS 10.4.7.... nothing is working. The pages print fine from Safari so I think it is a Firefox issue. When I try to print to PDF and save to desktop I can see a flash of the icon and file name for a second where the saved file would normally appear, but it vanishes and no file is produced. Weird. Any suggestions?

Printing Web Pages

Printing Web Pages

Same

"printing failed when starting the document"

Problems with one user, not another

Print

Re: Problems with one user, not another

Re: Problems with one user, not another

It WORKED

Printing problem - help!