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When I print a PDF viewed in Firefox Quantum, fonts are garbled.

  • 5 cavab
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by thebigerns

thebigerns
thebigerns
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When I view online PDFs with Firefox, they appear as expected. When I [rint them from Firefox, some of the fonts are garbled characters. Please see attached.

The only workaround I can seem to find is to NOT use Firefox to view and print the online PDFs. Chrome, Edge, even Safari seem fine for this. Is there a better Firefox solution without having to download the PDF and print it from Acrobat or my OS’s default PDF viewer?

When I view online PDFs with Firefox, they appear as expected. When I [rint them from Firefox, some of the fonts are garbled characters. Please see attached. The only workaround I can seem to find is to NOT use Firefox to view and print the online PDFs. Chrome, Edge, even Safari seem fine for this. Is there a better Firefox solution without having to download the PDF and print it from Acrobat or my OS’s default PDF viewer?

All Replies (5)

drw158
drw158
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I also have this same issue. I tried 3 different Mac computers, all on the latest FF (65). At least one of the Macs is on Mojave 10.14.

I tried to print this pdf (page 2 specifically). This is a good test pdf, but it happens to every pdf I've tried, from many different sources. I don't think it matters, but I'm printing on a Brother laser printer.

It prints garbled text, only on FF. Both Chrome and Preview (downloaded locally) print fine. The only solution I can find is to not use FF to print and open the pdf in another app.

I feel like this can be elevated and reported as a bug? Any mods on here that can help?

Modified by drw158

thebigerns
thebigerns Question owner
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UPDATE, sort of.

From reading other things on the web, it seems the problem is that Firefox is not using Adobe technology to read/preview the PDF. Download the PDF, Acrobat Reader has no issues. It is only viewing the PDF with the Firefox browser that breaks the fonts.

The solution, as recommended by Firefox support docs, is to set the file behavior preferences for PDFs to Open With Acrobat.

WestEnd
WestEnd
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What site are you reading that at? Firefox by itself has the ability to open a pdf unless the user installed another program like Adobe Reader that overrides that function. I have Adobe Acrobat Pro 11 and have no problems with PDF.

Modified by WestEnd

drw158
drw158
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WestEnd, can you try to reproduce our issue by following these steps? It would be helpful to see if you encounter the same issue.

  • MacOS Mojave or above
  • FF 65 or above
  • make sure "preview in Firefox" is selected for PDF under Settings > General > Applications
  1. Go to this pdf
  2. Make sure the pdf is previewing within FF (don't download)
  3. Click the print icon to open the print dialog
  4. Print page number 2 (it has a lot of text)
  5. Notice how the text is garbled

Also, note that the text is not garbled until it is printed out. The preview will look fine.

thebigerns
thebigerns Question owner
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I’m sorry, the issue isn’t viewing a PDF, but PRINTING a PDF that is being viewed with Firefox. The site that I first noticed it with isn’t public, but I get the same problem with offline PDFs and those from other sites. On three different computers.