Support for the old print interface has been removed in Firefox 98 and print.tab_modal.enabled is no longer supported as you can see by the trashcan instead of the edit icon at the far right of this pref row (you can click the trashcan to remove the print.tab_modal.enabled pref).

• 1702501 - Remove print.tab_modal.enabled pref and old frontend print preview code

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OK, so how can I use my system print dialog box and not the new one shown by Firefox? Is this possible??

And to make matters worse, the new Firefox print dialog box doesn't work correctly...It says Black and White but prints in color. If I select the System dialog box the one for my Mac comes up and prints correctly.

So, how can I set Firefox not to use the new Firefox print dialog box and always use the one for my OS?

And to make matters worse, the new Firefox print dialog box does not work correctly. Mine says Black and White but prints in color!!?

So how can I set Firefox to not use the new Firefox print dialog box and to always use the OS system print dialog box on my Mac??

At this point, I don't think there is a setting to bypass the combined preview/setup/print overlay.

At the top right of the overlay, you can change the destination to "Save to PDF" to convert the page to PDF instead of using Apple's converter.

For other printers, Firefox sometimes doesn't detect color support properly and assumes it only prints in B&W. However, it sends the print job in color. If there is a specific printer Firefox is not supporting correctly, you could file a bug and see whether it can be fixed: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

Appreciate the feedback. There really needs to be a way to bypass the Firefox print overlay dialog box. For me, its a feature that was added but doesn't solve any problem. The Print dialog box in Mac OS does all the same things PLUS, it not only allows one to not just print to a PDF but to PREVIEW the print output and select the needed pages to print. I won't be the only person complaining about this...in Mac OS or Windows.

The problematic printer is a HP Laserjet M475dw. Printer drivers for this printer are very common and have been available for years so quite surprised on the incorrect printing.

You don't have a preview of the printout on the combined preview/setup/print overlay? What appears on the left side where the preview is supposed to be?

Also, on the right side, you can change the Pages selection from All to Custom and key in the desired pages. I have attached a screenshot of what I see -- this is on Windows, but Firefox is supposed to have a unified experience across different OS'es now.

At this point, I don't think there is a setting to bypass the combined preview/setup/print overlay. At the top right of the overlay, you can change the destination to "Save to PDF" to convert the page to PDF instead of using Apple's converter.

For other printers, Firefox sometimes doesn't detect color support properly and assumes it only prints in B&W. However, it sends the print job in color. If there is a specific printer Firefox is not supporting correctly, you could file a bug and see whether it can be fixed: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

I rely on the Mac print preview to select pages to print. Especially in large documents. setting the print.tab_modal.enabled to False was quick and easy. I had one click print preview. Now I have to jump thru hoops -- file/print/ scroll down/ click use system dialogue/ ---- restore the option to by pass this. It is inconvenient and a huge waste of time. And NO the save PDF option is not an option. That adds even more steps to save a document to the HD that now have to go back in a delete!!!!

I rely on the Mac print preview to select pages to print. Especially in large documents. setting the print.tab_modal.enabled to False was quick and easy. I had one click print preview. Now I have to jump thru hoops -- file/print/ scroll down/ click use system dialogue/ ---- restore the option to by pass this. It is inconvenient and a huge waste of time. And NO the save PDF option is not an option. That adds even more steps to save a document to the HD that now have to go back in a delete!!!!

I rely on the Mac print preview to select pages to print.

What about setting the selection of pages in the "Pages" box on Firefox's print overlay? You do need to change All to Custom in order to show that box.

Sure, all good workarounds but until I can print in Black and White I still have to use the system dialog box that I wanted all along. I also get the full array of printer settings in the system dialog box.

Again, the new Firefox overlay is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist...please give users a choice!

I have this issue too, as I need the system dialog box because I have to pick which tray to print from, we have different paper in each tray. This is not offered in the firefox more settings area. At least Chrome has a keyboard shortcut (Shift+ Ctrl +P), Guess I'll just uninstall Firefox and use Chrome.

I have exactly the same problem/complaint as jschneid002. The first time the old print preview interface got changed on FF81, I found the same the same solution to disable the new print preview interface and it's worked ever since. That is, until FF 97 'updated' on 2/8/22. Now, I'm back to the horrible new print preview interface again and the print.tab_modal.enabled (set to False) doesn't work anymore. I hated it a year ago and there seemed to be so many people who were desperate to get back to the old (10 times simpler and easier) print preview interface, that I thought Mozilla would take the hint and provide users with a way to either disable the new print preview in 'settings' or that someone out there had found another workaround that I could use. All my previous settings to disable the new print preview are still there and are still set to 'False', but it just doesn't work anymore. I can't being to describe how much I HATE this print preview interface. What used to be a simple, elegant way to print has now turned into a multi-selection, scroll up and down nightmare. If anyone ever comes up with a way to disable this (I'm looking at you, Mozilla), it would be fantastic to get the old print preview back.

I have exactly the same problem/complaint as jschneid002. The first time the old print preview interface got changed on FF81, I found the same the same solution to disable the new print preview interface and it's worked ever since. That is, until FF 97 'updated' on 2/8/22. Now, I'm back to the horrible new print preview interface again and the print.tab_modal.enabled (set to False) doesn't work anymore. I hated it a year ago and there seemed to be so many people who were desperate to get back to the old (10 times simpler and easier) print preview interface, that I thought Mozilla would take the hint and provide users with a way to either disable the new print preview in 'settings' or that someone out there had found another workaround that I could use. All my previous settings to disable the new print preview are still there and are still set to 'False', but it just doesn't work anymore. I can't being to describe how much I HATE this print preview interface. What used to be a simple, elegant way to print has now turned into a multi-selection, scroll up and down nightmare. If anyone ever comes up with a way to disable this (I'm looking at you, Mozilla), it would be fantastic to get the old print preview back.

Why did the old preview work better for you than the one introduced in Firefox 84? You mentioned multi-selection and scrolling, but could you detail that a bit more for me.

There are some bugs on file to allow directly calling the system print dialog in a future version, but not to bring back the old preview, so if there are problems with this preview, we need to file bug reports to get them fixed.

I believe what folks are saying is that the "old print preview" is the system print dialog box. Please give us a way to BYPASS the Firefox print dialog boxes.

Please give us a way to BYPASS the Firefox print dialog boxes.

There are some bugs on file to provide more options but I don't expect any changes during the next several weeks. Maybe in Firefox 98.

That would be fine…Looking forward to resolving the issue.

I don't know if any of you want to try this, but it suddenly dawned on me that I could go back to a 'restore point' prior to the new Firefox update that overrode the old 'fix'. Since it happened pretty recently (to me at least) on February 8th, I just selected an earlier date. I checked to make sure that it was actually prior to the update that wiped out the old print preview interface, made sure I had a backup of the only stuff that was critical in case I needed to restore entries to things like Quicken. Then I let it rip. It was unsuccessful. So don't make the same mistake as I did. It requires that you temporarily disable all of your virus protection programs. In my case, that meant disabling Malwarebytes for 15 minutes and also Norton 360. Once I did that and went back to try restoring to a date prior to the Firefox update, I was successful in getting back the old (wonderful) print preview interface. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint), it means that I will never update Firefox again - even if it's for security updates. As soon as I finished going back to a restore point, Firefox immediately popped up with a message telling me there was a new update (the one that wiped out the old print preview), so I dismissed it. However, as you probably all know, that pop-up window is going to keep nagging you for eternity. I don't know of any way to turn it off, so I guess I'll just keep dismissing it every friggin' time it shows up. If Mozilla ever decides to actually give users a choice as to which print preview interface they want to use, I'll go back to allowing updates. If they're going to stick with this annoying, (time-consuming, multiple clicks and scrolls) print preview interface, I'll be sticking with my current (not updated) version. I've seen so many users complaining about this new interface, I figured after a year that Mozilla would have gotten the hint, listened to their users, and put the ability to keep the old interface somewhere in the tools/settings. So far, no joy. I hope this helps at least some of you get back to the print preview interface you love.

Hi laura2u, for future reference, are you looking for a way to skip preview and go directly to the system print dialog? There is a bug on file to add that in the future, but it wouldn't be until at least 4 weeks from now. On the other hand, I don't think there's any possibility of the old-style separate Print Preview and Page Setup coming back.

Hi Jefferson,

The print preview interface I wanted to keep was the one that was shown in a screenshot posted by ghacks back in February of 2020 (and then updated in August 2020) along with their workaround. The solution worked great until this last update (which I gather is the one that changed the entire Firefox UI).

https://www.ghacks.net/2020/08/10/new-print-preview-interface-in-firefox-81/

I even tried the whole 'about:config' thing again (using the new UI) and looked for 'print.tab_modal.enabled' hoping it would still work if I set it (back?) to 'false'. I found it, but it was still set to 'false' and it clearly didn't work anymore. All I could access was the new print preview interface.

I looked everywhere for a new workaround, but came up empty. Then I read posts from several users that the old print preview wasn't supported anymore. Grrrrrr....

Finally, I had the 'ah ha' moment to go back to a previous restore point. The only reason I did it is because I genuinely HATE the new print preview interface. I hated it back when it came out in 2020 and I still hate it. Why take something that was so simple and straightforward, and turn it into something that requires scrolling and making the same selections over and over again - or looking for 'more options' just to do a normal print job. I've heard some people talking about the reasoning behind this new interface - for instance, to make it more like Chrome or other print interfaces, but why would you want to imitate anyone when the old one Firefox had was so elegantly simple?

So I'm happy that I have the old print preview back, but I'm also aware that it's not exactly an ideal situation to just continue to dismiss every new update, just to keep the print preview I love. That's why I posed the question about why Mozilla doesn't just give those of us who want to use the old print preview the option to do so - forever if we prefer it.