Thanks for responding.

The URL is totally irrelevant. It won't print a selection on any web page or even a pdf that opens in Firefox. The 'print selection only' is always greyed out. I've noticed many people over the past 15+ years have encountered this problem but I don't see a solution. Would removing and re-installing Firefox work?

Could you try this method:

(1) Make your selection in the page (2) Right-click (one button? Ctrl+click) the selection and choose Print Selection -- this should pre-populate the combined preview/setup overlay, and that should carry over to the system print dialog

Does that work on yours?

Note: this may not be available if you disabled the combined preview/setup overlay launched in Firefox 85.

Dropa, Like I said it won't make any difference but if you need something to try and print use this link;

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Can%27t+print+selection+of+web+page+using+Firefox.+%27Print+Selection+Only%27+option+is+grayed+out.&hps=1&atb=v335-2ja&ia=web

...and select the first result. See attached but also read my response to jscher2000 below also to see what I am trying to do.

=======

jscher2000 

The option to print selection is there but I need to print portions of a PDF and print them to a PDF. I was able to do this using your method except it has the URL at the top of the page and the date and time stamp at the bottom which I don't want. See attached image.

jscher2000

I just tried your method trying to print a selection of a PDF and the print selection option is greyed out.

Here is the link to the PDF and there is an attached image of my selection.

jscher2000

The image I mentioned above wouldn't attach to the message. Here it is.

Yeah, if I load a .PDF file directly in Firefox, while I can select some text in it. right-clicking in the highlighted text does not give a Print Selection option as it is greyed out. Also, If I print using the print dialog and then choose to use the system dialog, the Print Selection is greyed out.

Printing from a normal webpage does not have this issue and Print Selection is available using both methods.

So, the issue just seems to be when viewing PDF files directly in Firefox's PDF viewer. Since I've never really done this before, I can't say if Firefox was ever able to do this.

I am using Firefox 102.0.1 by the way.

Aha, yes, printing from the PDF viewer does not have the same features as printing from web pages.

(Not sure it's relevant, but selections in the PDF viewer are rather unusual. Firefox renders the PDF as a full-page background image (on an HTML canvas) with an overlay of transparent text for find/copy purposes. Depending on the PDF, this text layer can be choppy and have garbage characters.)

I can't think of a simple workaround.

MarkRH & jscher2000,

Thanks for responding. This issue is NOT only trying to print from a PDF (as seen in the browser), but when even trying to print a portion of a web page without the URL and date stamp, as I mentioned in an earlier reply. I was able to this ALL the time, (PDF, web page or whatever) previously with the older v78(?) before upgrading to v91.11. People have had issues with this for over 15 years based on a web search which makes me wonder why the developers at Mozilla haven't fixed this issue.

Not only could I print a selection of a PDF (as seen in the browser) but I could select multiple selections using Command key to add other selections. In other words the selection didn't have to be contiguous.

I hope the developers read these forums because this is a real shame now that I will have to use Chrome to complete this basic function unless Firefox fixes this bug and I prefer to use Firefox.

Headers and Footers

Currently, headers and footers are set at the printer level and not at the page or site level and do not vary between printing a selection and a whole page.

There is a checkbox to turn all headers on/off when the print overlay comes up, but it may be annoying to have to keep toggling that based on what you're printing.

Mozilla recently started up a new "Ideas" site at https://connect.mozilla.org/ where you could propose that selection printing always omit those.

Non-Contiguous Selections

You can still make multiple non-contiguous selections in a web page and use the right-click > Print Selection for those.

Note: I am speaking of Firefox 102. I haven't checked your Firefox 91 ESR release. That one will update to the Extended Support Release of Firefox 102 after September 20th.

Thanks jscher2000.

I still find it odd that Mozilla has taken many steps backward in development. I also notice that the default paper size is always "OrganizerJ." I have no idea what this is.

Also there is no checkbox to uncheck print headers and footers in the print dialog box. See attached image that shows I need to change 4 drop-downs to remove all of these.

Another issue is there is no option to re-open multiple tabs that were closed. Now only one seems to be able to be re-opened.

I'm curious if it is possible to re-install the older version. If so let me know where I can find it as so many features seem to have been lost with the upgrade.

Thx

I also notice that the default paper size is always "OrganizerJ." I have no idea what this is.

You can clear printer data Firefox has stored about your printer when it's wrong. See Fix printing problems in Firefox ("Reset Firefox printer settings" section).

Also there is no checkbox to uncheck print headers and footers in the print dialog box. See attached image that shows I need to change 4 drop-downs to remove all of these.

You are still using the system print dialog instead of Firefox's combined overlay. That might be best for your version, but it means that the features I'm referring to are hidden from you. If you want to see the default UI, in its Firefox 91 state of evolution, you can reset print.tab_modal.enabled back to true in about:config.

Another issue is there is no option to re-open multiple tabs that were closed. Now only one seems to be able to be re-opened.

Your History menu should have two fly-out lists for

• Recently Closed Tabs
• Recently Closed Windows

By default, Firefox should remember up to 25 closed tabs per window, and up to 3 closed windows. If your Firefox isn't remember that many, we can suggest how to check the settings on those.

I'm curious if it is possible to re-install the older version.

It's certainly possible but not supported.

Ok, I'm making progress. I figured out if I use the Firefox print dialog only I can uncheck the headers and footers and I can also print a selection by using right click>print selection only. I can even select multiple non-contiguous selections but the same pages I could fit on a landscape format doesn't work. The left and right margins are too wide. Is there a way to adjust these widths?

"That might be best for your version, but it means that the features I'm referring to are hidden from you. If you want to see the default UI, in its Firefox 91 state of evolution, you can reset print.tab_modal.enabled back to true in about:config."

No idea what this means or how to do what you stated above. It sounds like programming to me. What is the purpose of the above? What features are hidden? What is default UI? Where and how do I do the reset?

I also tried to make a suggestion under ideas and it seems to want me to create another login. Isn't the login to the support the same for all of Mozilla?

Thanks

Disregard the last line above. It was not asking me to login.

To adjust margins, expand the "More settings" section on right side of the panel. Are they backwards when you choose Landscape?

The reason I said using the old method might be best for you is: Firefox's print overlay got a lot of improvements in Firefox 96+ because it became mandatory and people who were avoiding it reported a bunch of bugs. So it works much better now in Firefox 103 than it did in Firefox 91.

Since you see it now, nothing is hidden from you now. Previously it sounds like you were using the pre-Firefox 85 print UI instead of the Firefox 85+ default print UI. No need for any further reset.

You said: "To adjust margins, expand the "More settings" section on right side of the panel. Are they backwards when you choose Landscape?"

Not sure what you mean by 'backwards.' I just tried it again and for some reason it is now printing wider than my first attempt. I am now getting what I used to get in the older version using the system's print dialog box. When I used to print these items before I used the system's print dialog box. The Firefox dialog box never showed in the older version. Is there an option to print using the system's print dialog box instead of the Firefox one?

The Firefox dialog box never showed in the older version. Is there an option to print using the system's print dialog box instead of the Firefox one?

That varies depending on your Firefox version.

I think it was version 78

The current "combined" interface was added in Firefox 84 or 85. Firefox 78 had the old separate menus for Print, Print Preview (not on Mac), and Page Setup.