Thunderbird emails look fine on the screen but print out in an unreadably tiny font.
I got a new computer this week with Windows 10 (previous one had Windows 7). My Thunderbird emails look 100% fine on the screen, but they now print out in a font so small you'd need a microscope to read them. I've tried going to Print Preview, Zoom, but none of the available options makes a difference. What's up? (Note: The only thing I can think of is that I may have had Theme Font & Size Changer on my old computer, and not on this one--though if that's the case and I should re-load it, I have no idea what setting it should have. But maybe that's not the problem, and there's some other setting I've done improperly.)
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Hello, have you tried printing another document from another application (for example: Firefox or Office)?
This problem happened to me years ago and I remember that it was related to the printer configuration problem in the operating system.
Please let us know if that helps.
Thanks, Alan. Everything else prints fine, including emails from webmail. The tiny-font problem comes only when I print Thunderbird emails. This hadn't happened before yesterday, so I feel it must have something to do with 1) upgrading to Windows 10; 2 ) not reloading Theme Font & Size Changer on the new computer; and/or 3) getting some setting wrong.
Try looking at File/Print Preview/ and the scale you're set on. Print Preview will show the actual page presentation and you can shift the scale up or down to get what you want. Then, leave it there. I had a problem where my printout was HUGE and this turned out to be the answer. All my other apps (word, etc) printed fine but Mozilla didn't.
Good luck and best regards.
Thank you, John. By "scale," do you mean the percent on Zoom one sees in Print Preview? I had tried that previously, and just tried it again. The default is "Whole," but whether I change it to 100% or 200% or 500%, the font is still unreadable when it's printed. As I mentioned, since this is a new problem that didn't exist on my old computer, I feel it must be related to Windows 10, the lack of Theme Font & Size Changer, or a wrong setting.
two things. 1. check your actually printing to the correct printer. (new printer, old printer settings in Thunderbird?)
2. Check the size of the paper set in the printer settings. Most printing scales the email to fit the page, so if the paper is set to an address label say, then the scaling of the email to fit the page will make it microscopic.
Thanks, Matt. Good ideas! Unfortunately, the printer is correct (and it does print, just too small). And the paper is set on 8.5x11, as it should be. Incidentally, when I print emails from webmail on this new computer, they look fine. Only in Thunderbird am I having this problem.
open the Configuration editor and search for the setting printer.print. right click it and set it to default and restart Thunderbird.
Thank you, Matt. I got as far as the configuration editor. Unfortunately, I didn't see "printer.print" (either by scrolling or by typing that into the search window), though there were many settings that began "print.print."
The correct preference to reset is print_printer.
Thanks. Couldn't find print(underscore)printer in my config list. I looked alphabetically, and also searched "printer."
It seems that many users find there is no print_printer preference in Config. editor. In fact, the computer I'm on at the moment doesn't show that pref. When I opened File/Page Setup and changed any setting, OK, that wrote a number of entries into config. editor beginning with print.printer_<my default printer>. The entries remain if the Page Setup change is undone.
If you perform the same step, does the Print Preview look correct? The only other advice I've found is to delete and re-add the printer.
Thanks so much. I'm afraid your latest advice is beyond my puny level of expertise. I couldn't find File/Page setup in Thunderbird. I can print emails from Xfinity webmail, so perhaps I'll just do that from now on. Thanks for trying to help me.
Page Setup is on the TB menu (3-bars in upper right corner) under Print. Press Alt if the Menu Bar is hidden, then File/Page Setup.
Thank you for your patience. Following your good instructions, I did find Page Setup under Print. When you suggested I change any setting, were you referring to (for instance) the choices under Format & Options, such as Orientation and Print Background? I changed both of those, pressed OK, and then, as you suggested, changed them back to my preferred default. The Print Preview did not change: still unreadably tiny. Was I incorrectly following your instructions here? For instance, should I have gone into the Config editor as well as Page Setup?
You did the right thing, and the result may have been to store new printer prefs. in Config. editor, but there seems to be no change in Print Preview.
If you choose 'Microsoft Print to PDF' as the printer under File/Print..., does the print preview look right? Otherwise, I would suggest the previous advice to delete and re-add the printer (Windows Settings, Devices, Printers and scanners, Remove device, restart computer, add printer if it's not recognized automatically).