Windows 10 High Contrast mode printing problem. It tries to print white letters as white letters.
I am using Windows 10 in High Contrast Mode. This turns background into black and letters into white. If I tried to print my email, the paper would be mostly blank or very faint letters if it is a hyperlink. On the printed page, the background remains white and all the words are not there... sort of like printing white letters on white background/page.
This has been going on ever since Windows 10 came out. I was hoping with each new version of Thunderbird or Firefox, it would fix this problem. It has not been resolved. If I turn off my High Contrast mode, then everything would print normally if I restarted the software. I have tried to do a Google search for both Thunderbird or Firefox and it is not easy to find anything close to this matter. Can anyone help?
Modified by Matt
All Replies (7)
Just to clarify, your question is on the Thunderbird forum -- Thunderbird is a stand-alone email program -- but you mentioned Firefox in your question. Is the problem printing email messages from Thunderbird or from Firefox?
The printing problem occurs on both programs... Peinting emails from Thunderbird in Hich Contrast mode set in Windows 10 will yield mostly white papter.
Printing a webpage or PDF from Firefox in High Contrast mode in Windows 10 will also yield mostly white papter. To get around the PDF issue... I have to save it as a file and then open it up with Adobe PDF reader and then print it.
In both applications, if I shuts off Hich Contrast mode, then they both print normally. I need high contrast mode for ease of viewing and using it. I struggles hard in normal mode.
Modified by FrustratedHC
At a basic level, you will probably find that the text you are printing has no colour information associated with it. So black is assumed. Black on black = Nothing visible.
Related discussion here. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1142264
Does your printer driver offer an option to set a base default text colour? I don't think the Mozilla engine has that. Perhaps Jscher2000 knows for sure.
Maybe that's the problem... Thunderbird and Firefox assuming black background when printing... hence black on black = nothing. If Mozilla would set the printing background to white only, then problem would be solved regardless of display background color.
Microsoft Edge and Gooogle Chrome has no problem printing, so why not Mozilla? Something in the software is amissed for printing.
I am using HP laserprinter 4240. In advanced setting, it is selected to black and white printing... no other settings can be changed to make it work... I have tried. Like I said, Microsoft and Google softwares has zero problem printing.
I just started using Windows 10 a few months ago, and use a regular theme. When I switch to High Contrast Black, Firefox 65 does seem more confused about when/where to apply that then I remember from Windows 7.
In my opinion, High Contrast Black should be only for the screen and not for print. However, I am not aware of a setting for that.
I did notice that when I'm in Print Preview, and see white text on a black background, if I click Page Setup and uncheck the button to print background colors and images, then the preview switches to black on white (and a PDF printer driver captures black on white). I don't know whether that will help with the sites you need to print, but give it a try and see what you think.
I just rechecked all the print setup options in Firefox and printed out a webpage to see if anything change. Nope, Still the same problem... mostly white page... hyperlinks are very very faint print.
I think the problem is the internal coding of Mozilla softwares.
Hmm, okay, there must be some difference between our systems, even if we both have Windows 10 and Firefox 65.0.2. Maybe someone else more familiar with High Contrast Black themes will have an idea.