[SOLVED]PDF prints from Firefox pixelated / blurry

[TriggerDingus]

Firstly, I would like to state this problem isn't specifically with LMDE, Mint, etc. I had this same issue on Pop! and so I believe the issue to be related to Firefox. I've typically just worked around the issue and I switch to a Chromium browser when I need to print a PDF to file.

The issue I've always had, regardless of the distro I'm on, is that when printing PDFs to disk they end up rendered poorly. I was a programmer in the old days, but that was a long time ago and I don't dare speculate on the cause but I've localized the problem to Firefox and it's forks (Librewolf). I don't have this issue with Chromium (Brave) PDF prints.

To eliminate the potential it's a viewer thing, I tried other viewers and it seems GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. The Firefox PDFs are the issue and it doesn't matter the viewer I use to view them since the results are the same.

I've attached three examples of the PDFs generated from:

• Librewolf (Firefox)
  Firefox
  Brave (Chromium)

Any knowledge or solutions would be appreciated.

[axisofevil]

But what are using to generate those PDF's?
I told Firefox to print to a file.
So the following isn't fantastic - but its OK.
Typically a screen might "only" display 96 pixels/inch - sometimes more, but fonts and images aren't going to achieve a printers 600 or 1200 dpi.
BTW - I've got it set to not print backgrounds.

[TriggerDingus]

I'm using the same feature in Firefox and Chromium: File > Print > Save to PDF
I'm not using any additional software other than the browser itself.

Additional info: This is a brand-new installation of LMDE. I'm just finishing a hop from Pop! OS, where I experienced the same behavior (as described in my original post, above).

[MiZoG]

No noticeable quality differences between Firefox's print-to-file and Brave's in my LMDE system.
Firefox simply does not include the whole page, only the main pane without user avatars on the right side

firefox.pdf

(69.83 KiB) Downloaded 39 times

brave.pdf

(169.85 KiB) Downloaded 39 times

[TriggerDingus]

No noticeable quality differences between Firefox's print-to-file and Brave's in my LMDE system.
Firefox simply does not include the whole page, only the main pane without user avatars on the right side

firefox.pdf

brave.pdf

Its so strange others don't seem to experience the same issue as I do with printing in Firefox. I don't recall having this issue with other machines or OSs. I'm beginning to wonder if Firefox checks if I have an old System76 Gazelle..."oh, this guy has an old System 76 Gazelle"... and then prints garbage because it doesn't like my machine.

[lsemmens]

[wry comment] It's more likely your System 76 saying "This bloke is not using an Apple OS so I'm gonna stuff it up to force him to come 'home'" [/wry comment]

[bin]

Have you installed printer-driver-cups-pdf?

So far you have established that one browser technology borks the output and one doesn't. However there is no common ground between the two.

If you use cups-pdf then (in theory) you should be able to get a better comparison.

Having said that I can see no differences on my own machine.

Do you use scaling at all when saving to pdf?

[TriggerDingus]

Have you installed printer-driver-cups-pdf?

So far you have established that one browser technology borks the output and one doesn't. However there is no common ground between the two.

If you use cups-pdf then (in theory) you should be able to get a better comparison.

Having said that I can see no differences on my own machine.

Do you use scaling at all when saving to pdf?

Thanks for the suggestions! I have played with the scaling upon printing and the results don't change. Fit-to-page, 100%, etc..
Even stranger, at your suggestion I installed Printer-driver-cups-pdf and tried again and the output was exactly the same. (see attached)

[axisofevil]

Do your settings look like:-

If not, what do the available settings say?

[TriggerDingus]

Do your settings look like:-
Screenshot from 2024-02-29 15-18-55.png
If not, what do the available settings say?

See captures from both my Firefox browsers: 1) Librewolf 2) Firefox

[axisofevil]

Try changing PDF files to "always ask" - and the default to "Ask whether to open or save files".

Don't know if this will fix it...

[TriggerDingus]

Try changing PDF files to "always ask" - and the default to "Ask whether to open or save files".

Don't know if this will fix it...

It didn't fix it, but it sure was worth a shot!

[bin]

Just out of interest, please could you provide output from

Code: Select all

inxi -SMmCGx

Thanks

[TriggerDingus]

Just out of interest, please could you provide output from

Code: Select all

inxi -SMmCGx

Thanks

Here you go:

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: gazelle Kernel: 6.1.0-18-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 12.2.0 Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.0.4 Distro: LMDE 6 Faye
    base: Debian 12.1 bookworm
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: System76 product: Gazelle v: gaze15 serial: 123456789
  Mobo: System76 model: Gazelle v: gaze15 serial: 123456789 UEFI: coreboot
    v: 2022-11-21_b337ac6 date: 11/14/2022
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.22 GiB used: 3.81 GiB (12.2%)
  Array-1: capacity: 64 GiB slots: 4 EC: None max-module-size: 32 GiB
    note: est.
  Device-1: Channel-1-DIMM-0 type: DDR4 size: 32 GiB speed: 2667 MT/s
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-10750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Comet Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/5000 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 bogomips: 62399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CometLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics] vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU117M vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: nouveau v: kernel
    arch: Turing bus-ID: 01:00.0 temp: 52.0 C
  Device-3: Chicony USB2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:5
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution:
    1: 1920x1080~60Hz 2: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2)
    direct-render: Yes

[bin]

OK, nothing obvious there.

So, what version FF are you using and is it flatpak or deb install?

What I would be tempted to try is:-
1. Close FF then rename. ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozilla.bak
2. Start FF and see if the PDF output is still bad.

If it is then I would download a .tar.bz2 file from https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/a ... op-release

Delete the fresh ~/.mozilla created by 2. and then extract and run the tar file locally.

Again, any difference?

[TriggerDingus]

OK, nothing obvious there.

So, what version FF are you using and is it flatpak or deb install?

What I would be tempted to try is:-
1. Close FF then rename. ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozilla.bak
2. Start FF and see if the PDF output is still bad.

If it is then I would download a .tar.bz2 file from https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/a ... op-release

Delete the fresh ~/.mozilla created by 2. and then extract and run the tar file locally.

Again, any difference?

I'll give your recommendations a try this weekend and let you know.

The Librewolf I run is a Flatpak 122.0.1-2.
The version of Firefox is the default installation provided by the LMDE ISO that I just installed about a week ago:

Screenshot from 2024-03-02 11-45-19.png (29.18 KiB) Viewed 479 times

PS - It says in that Firefox window that updates are disabled by administrator. I'm not sure what that means since updates aren't disabled on my machine and they occur almost daily. I don't sweat it since I rarely (if ever) use straight FF - Librewolf is my default browser.

[TriggerDingus]

OK, nothing obvious there.

So, what version FF are you using and is it flatpak or deb install?

What I would be tempted to try is:-
1. Close FF then rename. ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozilla.bak
2. Start FF and see if the PDF output is still bad.

If it is then I would download a .tar.bz2 file from https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/a ... op-release

Delete the fresh ~/.mozilla created by 2. and then extract and run the tar file locally.

Again, any difference?

I sat down with a gin and tonic with the intent to walk through your suggestions. Honestly, I know you had no idea what would happen and I had lost hope...but damned if it didn't work! I was shocked that it worked after the first try - only 2 minutes in!

What I did:
I renamed the profile directory, restarted and tried a PDF print. It worked!
Then, I restored my bookmarks and tried a PDF again...worked!
Then, I walked through all my FF settings changes (since I tend to neuter all telemetry and history settings) and tried again....worked!
So, Firefox appears to work just fine.

Moving on to Librewolf with renewed hope..
It's a Flatpak but since I got Firefox working with the system package, I did a search to find the DEB install since it isn't in the repos. They have one that you can get from their project site and so I did that and went through the same steps as with FF and it's working too!

NICE!! Thanks much for your engagement! I have no idea why only my FF browsers had this issue but I'm not looking back since it's solved and I can move on now.

[bin]

I sat down with a gin and tonic with the intent to walk through your suggestions. Honestly, I know you had no idea what would happen and I had lost hope...but damned if it didn't work! I was shocked that it worked after the first try - only 2 minutes in!

What I did:
I renamed the profile directory, restarted and tried a PDF print. It worked!
Then, I restored my bookmarks and tried a PDF again...worked!
Then, I walked through all my FF settings changes (since I tend to neuter all telemetry and history settings) and tried again....worked!
So, Firefox appears to work just fine.

Moving on to Librewolf with renewed hope..
It's a Flatpak but since I got Firefox working with the system package, I did a search to find the DEB install since it isn't in the repos. They have one that you can get from their project site and so I did that and went through the same steps as with FF and it's working too!

NICE!! Thanks much for your engagement! I have no idea why only my FF browsers had this issue but I'm not looking back since it's solved and I can move on now.

You're welcome. I was 80% sure it would work ...... I use LMDE6 but have used Firefox-ESR for years as I do not like the nasty surprises that the current releases can invariably bring. Once a problem is demonstrably down to FF then a fresh profile is always a good idea to clear the decks, it's just all the faff afterwards as you said.

As to why - well, the screenshots showed what looked like a low re thumbnail of the screen output. It looks like whatever is supposed to take the screen state and convert it to pdf got a bit borked. There's a bit of javascript that kicks it off but it's after that things go a bit wrong.

The bit about updates in the About box is fine - it just means it's a Mintified version rather than basic out of the box FF.

Please would you be so kind as to use the Solved checkbox to show this is now sorted?

[TriggerDingus]

I sat down with a gin and tonic with the intent to walk through your suggestions. Honestly, I know you had no idea what would happen and I had lost hope...but damned if it didn't work! I was shocked that it worked after the first try - only 2 minutes in!

What I did:
I renamed the profile directory, restarted and tried a PDF print. It worked!
Then, I restored my bookmarks and tried a PDF again...worked!
Then, I walked through all my FF settings changes (since I tend to neuter all telemetry and history settings) and tried again....worked!
So, Firefox appears to work just fine.

Moving on to Librewolf with renewed hope..
It's a Flatpak but since I got Firefox working with the system package, I did a search to find the DEB install since it isn't in the repos. They have one that you can get from their project site and so I did that and went through the same steps as with FF and it's working too!

NICE!! Thanks much for your engagement! I have no idea why only my FF browsers had this issue but I'm not looking back since it's solved and I can move on now.

You're welcome. I was 80% sure it would work ...... I use LMDE6 but have used Firefox-ESR for years as I do not like the nasty surprises that the current releases can invariably bring. Once a problem is demonstrably down to FF then a fresh profile is always a good idea to clear the decks, it's just all the faff afterwards as you said.

As to why - well, the screenshots showed what looked like a low re thumbnail of the screen output. It looks like whatever is supposed to take the screen state and convert it to pdf got a bit borked. There's a bit of javascript that kicks it off but it's after that things go a bit wrong.

The bit about updates in the About box is fine - it just means it's a Mintified version rather than basic out of the box FF.

Please would you be so kind as to use the Solved checkbox to show this is now sorted?

When I was writing up my last post, I was looking for a way to mark the topic as resolved but I can't see a checkbox or option to do that. I'm not sure if my account is missing options because I'm a newbie here? I'm used to Github where there's a box right out there in the open to do just that - but I don't see one on my side. Or, maybe I'm not looking in the right spot?

[TriggerDingus]

I found that I'm supposed to type SOLVED in the title so apparently there is no checkbox.