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Can't print a Google Doc from Firefox. Firefox thinks it is a pdf and only allows a download.

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  • Last reply by Bri_n

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All of the suggestions on this issue have been marked as 'Archived'. OS = Ubuntu 20.04 Firefox ver. = 84.02 (64 bit)

I can print the page if I use Firefox's Open Menu (three horizontal bars at top right). But if I use Google Doc's print option, all I get is the save pdf dialogue. If I use Chrome (and not Firefox), then Google Doc's print option works correctly.

I have checked that my default printer is correct (in Ubuntu, the command is lpstat -s) I have been to the about:config page in Firefox. Although the help on the web says "older versions of Firefox use print.print_printer" I found that the information regarding the printer is listed with the"print." prefix (and they all show when searching "print.". However, there is no print_printer setting in the list. Manually adding a print.print_printer with string value of my printer does not fix the problem.

Currently, this is a game changer for me. At work we use Google Docs and Google Drive. I have been accessing these things from my Mac computer without issue. But I am now required to use a Linux machine. Does anyone know how to stop the action of downloading pdf's instead of printing them?

All of the suggestions on this issue have been marked as 'Archived'. OS = Ubuntu 20.04 Firefox ver. = 84.02 (64 bit) I can print the page if I use Firefox's Open Menu (three horizontal bars at top right). But if I use Google Doc's print option, all I get is the save pdf dialogue. If I use Chrome (and not Firefox), then Google Doc's print option works correctly. I have checked that my default printer is correct (in Ubuntu, the command is lpstat -s) I have been to the about:config page in Firefox. Although the help on the web says "older versions of Firefox use print.print_printer" I found that the information regarding the printer is listed with the"print." prefix (and they all show when searching "print.". However, there is no print_printer setting in the list. Manually adding a print.print_printer with string value of my printer does not fix the problem. Currently, this is a game changer for me. At work we use Google Docs and Google Drive. I have been accessing these things from my Mac computer without issue. But I am now required to use a Linux machine. Does anyone know how to stop the action of downloading pdf's instead of printing them?

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Bri_n said

I can print the page if I use Firefox's Open Menu (three horizontal bars at top right). But if I use Google Doc's print option, all I get is the save pdf dialogue. If I use Chrome (and not Firefox), then Google Doc's print option works correctly.

Does printing from Firefox's menu give you different results from what Google is serving in the PDF? Are you able to quickly open the PDF from the download dialog or do you have to save first and then open?

This behavior seems to go back a few years based on old threads I'm finding online (in both Firefox and Safari).

I don't know why they do it that way... My guess would be that Google couldn't get the exact results they wanted in Firefox and Safari with a regular print so they generate a PDF instead. For example, Firefox might not give the Google Docs scripts the same degree of control over page sizes/headers/footers/margins as they have in Chrome.

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Chosen Solution

Bri_n said

I can print the page if I use Firefox's Open Menu (three horizontal bars at top right). But if I use Google Doc's print option, all I get is the save pdf dialogue. If I use Chrome (and not Firefox), then Google Doc's print option works correctly.

Does printing from Firefox's menu give you different results from what Google is serving in the PDF? Are you able to quickly open the PDF from the download dialog or do you have to save first and then open?

This behavior seems to go back a few years based on old threads I'm finding online (in both Firefox and Safari).

I don't know why they do it that way... My guess would be that Google couldn't get the exact results they wanted in Firefox and Safari with a regular print so they generate a PDF instead. For example, Firefox might not give the Google Docs scripts the same degree of control over page sizes/headers/footers/margins as they have in Chrome.

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Thanks jscher for your speedy (and helpful) reply. On my Ubuntu box, in Firefox, when I use Google Doc's print command, I can either save the "pdf" to my hard drive (and then print the saved pdf), or I can choose to open the "pdf" in Firefox. Having opened it in Firefox, I can then print the document using the printer icon on the newly created Firefox page. So I guess printing will involve an extra step if I am working on my Ubuntu box. I will live with this as a solution (and mark it as "solved"). It does remind me of the days when web browsers would have websites that were only readable in a their version of browser. I wonder if this is a case of Google trying to encourage users to only use Google Chrome.