Firefox now has its own pdf'ing capability. And it also has the ability to block plug-ins as well, as an anti-malware initiative.

What i surmise is that your Adobe is not actually printing for you but instead it is FF. And its possible that if Adobe is running in memory at same time that FF is, there is a battle/conflict between them.

What you can do is to override FF's pdf by temporarily disabling its anti-mal-plugin-ware so Adobe can install its plugin. Afterwards, you should re-enable the setting in FF because evidently, there is a war going on and we innocent folks are in the middle of it.

so you will have to temporarily disable the switch, install the pdf driver, and then re-enable the switch if you choose to do so. (imo, its not a bad idea to re-enable it)

(1) Open tab and enter about:config in the address bar. Then Press Enter/Return.

(2) In the search box type xpi and then look for the entry cited in next line below.

(3) Set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference from true to false by double-clicking it

(4) close tab and have fun !

zvit said

When clicking "print" and choosing PDF - so in Chrome for example, a destination window opens, you choose a destination, click "save" and a PDF file is created INSTANTLY. In Firefox (v. 54.0.1) a spinning Adobe icon appears in the taskbar with a tool-tip saying "creating pdf" and this locks FF and can take 15 - 20 seconds for a PDF file to be created. Why does it take SO long to print to PDF in FF?

Are you selecting the "Adobe PDF" printer in the Print dialog, or are you using the Adobe "Create PDF" toolbar button? When you use the Print method, Acrobat intercepts the static printout generated by Firefox and you should immediately get a Save dialog. When you use the Create PDF toolbar, the add-on reads the page out of the browser and does an HTML-to-PDF conversion. On the plus side, you get live links and the appearance is better on some sites that have especially ugly printouts. On the minus side, form fields look absurd and it can be quite slow.

Note: I still use the printer driver and add-on from Acrobat XI so your new version may work differently.

databaseben said

(3) Set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference from true to false by double-clicking it

This preference no longer exists in Firefox 54. Correction: This is listed in about:config but does not actually do anything in Firefox 54.

Also, what extension are you talking about installing? The poster shared the extensions list and "Adobe Acrobat DC - Create PDF" is already enabled. (This appears in the right column under Question Details > More System Details.) That extension is properly signed so even in older versions of Firefox that allowed signature exceptions, there's no need to do so.

databaseben said

so you will have to temporarily disable the switch, install the pdf driver, and then re-enable the switch if you choose to do so. (imo, its not a bad idea to re-enable it) (1) Open tab and enter about:config in the address bar. Then Press Enter/Return. (2) In the search box type xpi and then look for the entry cited in next line below. (3) Set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference from true to false by double-clicking it (4) close tab and have fun !

I do not have any anti-mal-plugin-ware in FF and no "xpinstall.signatures.required'" in config.

jscher2000 said

zvit said

When clicking "print" and choosing PDF - so in Chrome for example, a destination window opens, you choose a destination, click "save" and a PDF file is created INSTANTLY. In Firefox (v. 54.0.1) a spinning Adobe icon appears in the taskbar with a tool-tip saying "creating pdf" and this locks FF and can take 15 - 20 seconds for a PDF file to be created. Why does it take SO long to print to PDF in FF?

Are you selecting the "Adobe PDF" printer in the Print dialog, or are you using the Adobe "Create PDF" toolbar button? Note: I still use the printer driver and add-on from Acrobat XI so your new version may work differently.

I use the "Adobe PDF" printer in the Print dialog. Yes, I get immediately a Save dialog but once I click save, that's when Adobe kicks in and FF takes a long time to create the pdf.

jscher2000 said

databaseben said

(3) Set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference from true to false by double-clicking it

This preference no longer exists in Firefox 54. Correction: This is listed in about:config but does not actually do anything in Firefox 54.

Also, what extension are you talking about installing? The poster shared the extensions list and "Adobe Acrobat DC - Create PDF" is already enabled. (This appears in the right column under Question Details > More System Details.) That extension is properly signed so even in older versions of Firefox that allowed signature exceptions, there's no need to do so.

My question wasn't about the add-on. I don't use it... as you said, it gives ugly results. Also, you can't print a whole gmail thread - only with the regular print - create PDF dialog can you print nicely a gmail thread. I also have set to keep background images so it comes out perfect.

zvit said

I use the "Adobe PDF" printer in the Print dialog. Yes, I get immediately a Save dialog but once I click save, that's when Adobe kicks in and FF takes a long time to create the pdf.

Either Firefox is taking a much longer time to generate the print output, or Adobe is taking a much longer time to convert Firefox's print output. But which is it and is there a solution/workaround? Hmm...

If you find a public page where you notice a big difference, I could compare my Acrobat XI version of the printer driver and see if I notice a reason for it.

I actually prefer a paid program called pdfFactory for printing to PDF. It does background saves so you aren't interrupted with a Save dialog and gathers multiple jobs as long as you keep its display window open. You could try it to compare between Chrome and Firefox as one way to distinguish between a browser issuer and a printer driver issue.

http://fineprint.com/pdf/

The trial version adds an ugly footer, so please don't send those out to anyone.

jscher2000 said

zvit said

I use the "Adobe PDF" printer in the Print dialog. Yes, I get immediately a Save dialog but once I click save, that's when Adobe kicks in and FF takes a long time to create the pdf.

Either Firefox is taking a much longer time to generate the print output, or Adobe is taking a much longer time to convert Firefox's print output. But which is it and is there a solution/workaround? Hmm...

If you find a public page where you notice a big difference, I could compare my Acrobat XI version of the printer driver and see if I notice a reason for it.

I actually prefer a paid program called pdfFactory for printing to PDF. It does background saves so you aren't interrupted with a Save dialog and gathers multiple jobs as long as you keep its display window open. You could try it to compare between Chrome and Firefox as one way to distinguish between a browser issuer and a printer driver issue.

http://fineprint.com/pdf/

The trial version adds an ugly footer, so please don't send those out to anyone.

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't mind an ugly footer as I only print emails from clients that approve work to be sent to print so it's really just for my records.

About your XI version... well, I use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC version 2017.009.20044 if that helps. I have only printed pdf's from gmail but just for testing purposes, I tried to print the home page of my own site. It was stuck for 36 seconds until it finally opened the pdf page. It was mainly stuck on "checking fonts". and of course, the spinning adobe icon. I attached both screenshots.

Please test my site homepage and tell me how long it takes to print pdf from your XI version. The site is: http://www.vinewoodstudios.com

I see what you mean about the spinning A now. The results are inconsistent. Usually after Firefox's progress bar completes, a panel appears above the icon saying the PDF is ready, and it opens instantly (not necessarily in that order). But sometimes the same panel floats there and the PDF doesn't actually open for more than 5 seconds. I'm not sure why that is.

I never saw that first dialog in either Firefox or Chrome when I selected "Adobe PDF" as my printer.

Did you try clearing all the preferences Firefox has stored for the printer in about:config? See: Fix printing problems in Firefox.

jscher2000 said

Did you try clearing all the preferences Firefox has stored for the printer in about:config? See: Fix printing problems in Firefox.

Yes, I've tried that. I guess it has to do with the Adobe version I'm using. Anyway, I installed pdfFactory and it works great. Although it's not the solution for FF, I'll mark it as solved and not spend more time researching this. Thank for the help.