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PDF files not printing properly from FireFox 30.0 built-in viewer.

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I have a user with the most updated version of FireFox that is unable to successfully print from the built-in viewer. We are running Windows 7 64-bit enterprise.

I have changed the default viewer from the built-in to download and open with the local reader installed, but files are still opening in the FireFox reader.

When she prints (regardless of which printer is chosen), they print with overlapping characters or with code instead of printing the form.

If we download the file and open with reader, she is able to print. How can we fix this so that she does not have to do that?

Thank you!

I have a user with the most updated version of FireFox that is unable to successfully print from the built-in viewer. We are running Windows 7 64-bit enterprise. I have changed the default viewer from the built-in to download and open with the local reader installed, but files are still opening in the FireFox reader. When she prints (regardless of which printer is chosen), they print with overlapping characters or with code instead of printing the form. If we download the file and open with reader, she is able to print. How can we fix this so that she does not have to do that? Thank you!

All Replies (4)

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HI julia_bayes, Thank you for your question. First to make the other reader the default one, please open up the Applications menu in the Firefox Options.

  1. Open "3-bar" menu and click "Options"
  2. Click on Applications
  3. Find the pdf mime type and choose an action

For the printing issue, once you change the default action for the mime type reset the printer with these steps: Fix printing problems in Firefox

Please post back with your results.

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You can change the action for Portable Document Format (PDF) from Preview in Firefox to use another application like the Adobe Reader or set to Always Ask in "Firefox > Options/Preferences > Applications".

You can set the pdfjs.disabled pref to true on the about:config page to disable the build-in PDF viewer.

You can check the value of the plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types pref on the about:config page and remove the application/pdf part if present or reset the pref to the default via the right-click context menu if you want to display PDF documents in Firefox with another application (i.e. not the built-in PDF Viewer).

See also:


The latest stable and latest development versions of the built-in PDF viewer are available as an extension and these version can possibly perform better than the version shipped with the current Firefox release.

Latest development version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension:

Latest stable version of the PDF Viewer (pdfjs) extension:

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I have a similar problem with Firefox 30.0 with a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.8.5 in that I cannot print from the built-in pdf viewer. Not being confident with how to install the PDF Viewer versions above (either stable or development versions) I have not explored this option. I am having success with the 'work-around' of downloading and choosing "open using Adobe Viewer" when the dialogue box appears but this seems a cumbersome way to work.

cor-el's post above may solve my problem but I got lost from the second paragraph on. I'm a manager, not a software expert and if things don't work I'm inclined to throw them out and find something that does.

Any guidance, please, re the extensions?

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Those instructions are to show how to disable the built in pdf viewer, if you would like to change this the preference can be set in this menu: "3 bar"> Options/Preferences > Applications > Filter the content type to pdf and select an action to associate with the file type by default.