firefox can't print in landscape mode

[Akkana Peck]

Binary package hint: firefox

In Firefox:
File->Page Setup
choose landscape, click ok
File->Print or File->Print Preview
Observe that the print is still portrait, not landscape

This is apparently an ubuntu-specific bug. Etch's iceweasel (based on gecko 1.8.1.4, same as feisty's firefox) can print landscape, and someone in upstream mozilla bug 381631 says the current 1.8 branch can print landscape too.

It may be more general since i see a lot of bugs about landscape printing, but none of them mention firefox, which has its own print dialog, so it may be different. Possibly related bugs include bug 47649, bug 58898, bug 24785, bug 34112, and upstream http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=115476

[Akkana Peck (akkzilla)]

I forgot to mention that I'm on feisty and I was seeing this on two machines.

But after reading some more related bugs, I tried some experiments. On one machine, I tried printing from a self-built firefox (1.8 branch). That firefox was able to produce a landscape .ps file -- but after exiting and going back to feisty's firefox, that firefox, too, was able to produce landscapes, where it hadn't been able to for several weeks.

On the other machine, I rebooted into etch, using a shared $HOME, and tried from there. Etch's iceweasel was able to produce a landscape .ps. Then I rebooted back into feisty, and now feisty's firefox could print landscape too. And I could even switch between portrait and landscape and both of them worked.

If I may speculate wildly (after reading bug #34112), could it be that there's some file or dir under $HOME that firefox isn't creating right, but once it's created, firefox behaves itself? This might also explain why not everyone sees it. I don't have a .cups or .lpoptions.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Did you see this on firefox 2.0.0.4 or 2.0.0.5? is it possible that you upgraded firefox to 2.0.0.5 and it fixed after that?
Are you able to reproduce this using something other than firefox or something other than a gecko browser like konqueror or like gnumeric. as descibed in gnomes upstream bug you listed.

[Akkana Peck (akkzilla)]

I was still on firefox 2.0.0.4 when it magically got fixed (still am, on one machine ... need to upgrade but it was useful to be able to test it just now), so it wasn't a 2.0.0.5 upgrade that did it.

I saw the landscape printing problem on gnumeric too. But it still has the problem: Preview from Page Setup looks correct, but if I print to a pdf file, the file comes out in portrait, not landscape.

Konqueror has always been able to print correctly, even when firefox wasn't (I used it as a workaround for a while when I needed to make portrait prints). So gnomeprint might be a likely culprit.

[3vi1 (launchpad-net-eternaldusk)]

I was just now able to recreate this problem in FF3.0b5 under 8.04 final, printing to a cups printer also running 8.04 final. :(

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Sat, May 03, 2008 at 01:08:57PM -0000, 3vi1 wrote:
> I was just now able to recreate this problem in FF3.0b5 under 8.04
> final, printing to a cups printer also running 8.04 final. :(
>

ffox 2 weill only see fixes for critical issues

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status wontfix

thanks for verifying that this issue persists in firefox 3

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0

can someone else reproduce?

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[Bucho (buchohr-deactivatedaccount)]

I have the same problem.

First, I've noticed the problem in Ubuntu 7.10, but somehow I have got it working. (I think I toggled some options back and forward, but the options were like options that Thunderbird has in this version, not this universal print dialog.)

Now I have a clean install (not upgrade) of Ubuntu 8.04, and a HP LaserJet 1100 printer. In similar bugs, people have mentioned that they also have an HP printer, but the same thing happens with PDF writer so I don't see how this matters.

First, in Firefox set the paper to landscape. Then open the print preview. The paper is displayed correctly. But when you print or save to PDF, you get a portrait paper with a cropped landscape picture on the lower half.

When you type in Firefox address bar "about:config" and then filter with the keyword "printer", on the bottom of the list there are some options:

"print.whileInPrinPreview" - when you toggle this with a double click, you get a print, portrait and landscape buttons in print preview.

"print.use_global_printsettings" - when you toggle this command, in print preview you cannot switch portrait to landscape any more.

Maybe there is some bug with Firefox and his use of global printer settings.

[Marc Schiffbauer (mschiff)]

Same here on hardy, ff3.0b5, no printing in landscape... :-(

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

is this a problem in the firefox 3.0 rc1 and xulrunner 1.9 rc1 builds available in mozillateam ppa:

 https://edge.launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

If its still present in our RC1 builds, please forward this bug upstream.

[Bucho (buchohr-deactivatedaccount)]

With the latest update of Firefox (on my system is version 3.0 build 2008060309) everything works fine.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 04:17:32PM -0000, Ante Bucan wrote:
> With the latest update of Firefox (on my system is version 3.0 build
> 2008060309) everything works fine.
>

Thanks for the heads-up

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status fixreleased

 - Alexander