GENERAL ISSUE DESCRIPTION: ----------------------------- Some websites, when printed to PDF, are printed as images. That results in the related handicaps, such as: - Text of the printed PDF document cannot be selected - The printed PDF document is of very bad quality (due to image compression), with smaller text almost unreadable - The file size of the printed PDF document is larger that one of a text-based PDF file The issue occurs only on some web sites/pages, such as e.g. following: - http://docs.joomla.org/Customising_the_dynamic_page_title - http://hunyadi.info.hu/levente/en/sigplus/documentation I am reporting the issue with the FF release 23.0 I currently use, but the issue actually first occurred one of earlier versions. My guess would be somewhere between versions 20 and 22. I just have not found time to report it. So, this is a regression. I am using the "PDFCreator" PDF printer in its version 1.2.3 - which is already a few years old. But don't think the issue is with the printer, because: - I have used that same version for a few years now, also with earlier FF versions where the issue reported here did not occur. - The issue does not occur when the affected web page is printed to PDF from Internet Explorer 8 on the same machine. - While I am not an expert, it seems that the issue can also be observed when a web site is printed to a file ("print to file") instead to a PDF (i.e. without using the above PDF printer). The resulting file, when opened with a text editor, seems to also contain an image of the page. (And the page text cannot be found in it, while found in the "print to file" output of IE8.) TEST PROCEDURE: ---------------- 1) Open one of the above affected pages 2) Go to the menu File -> Page Preview 3) Click the "Print" button, select the PDF (virtual) printer (or alternatively "print to file", as described above) and print to a PDF document 4) Open the printed PDF document with a PDF reader (I use PDF-XChange Viewer) and try selecting some text within the document EXPECTED RESULTS: ------------------- 4) Text can be selected ACTUAL RESULTS: ------------------- 4) Text cannot be selected. Also, the document quality is very poor (small print hardly readable) while the file size is significantly larger than that of a text-based PDF file. (Compared to the PDF print-out of the same page printed on a FF version before the regression.) FF configuration info (from the Info -> ... menu), German version (not a very space-efficient output compared to earlier FF versions, by the way): ------------------------------------------------------------------ Allgemeine Informationen Name Firefox Version 23.0 User-Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0 Build-Konfiguration about:buildconfig Erweiterungen Name Version Aktiviert ID Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 0.0.0 false {20a82645-c095-46ed-80e3-08825760534b} Wichtige modifizierte Einstellungen Name Wert accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity 1048576 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run false browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value 819200 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion 4 browser.search.update false browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID 20130730113002 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone ignore dom.mozApps.used true dom.w3c_touch_events.expose false extensions.lastAppVersion 23.0 gfx.blacklist.suggested-driver-version 6.14.10.5260 media.navigator.enabled false network.cookie.lifetimePolicy 2 network.cookie.prefsMigrated true places.database.lastMaintenance 1376013995 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages 26585 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types application/pdf plugin.importedState true plugin.state.npdrmv 0 plugin.state.npdsplay 0 plugin.state.npwmsdrm 0 plugin.state.npwpf 0 plugins.hide_infobar_for_missing_plugin true plugins.notifyMissingFlash false privacy.clearOnShutdown.offlineApps true privacy.clearOnShutdown.passwords true privacy.cpd.cookies false privacy.cpd.downloads false privacy.cpd.history false privacy.cpd.offlineApps true privacy.cpd.sessions false privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs true privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown true security.warn_viewing_mixed false storage.vacuum.last.index 0 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite 1376014062 Grafik Direct2D aktiviert Wurde auf Grund Ihrer Grafiktreiberversion blockiert. Versuchen Sie, Ihren Grafiktreiber auf mindestens Version 6.14.10.5260 zu aktualisieren. DirectWrite aktiviert false (0.0.0.0) Geräte-ID 0xa011 GPU #2 aktiv false GPU-beschleunigte Fenster 0/1 Basic Karten-Beschreibung Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 Karten-RAM Unknown Karten-Treiber igxprd32 Treiber-Datum 9-24-2009 Treiber-Version 6.14.10.5134 Vendor-ID 0x8086 WebGL-Renderer Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 3150) AzureCanvasBackend skia AzureContentBackend none AzureFallbackCanvasBackend cairo JavaScript Inkrementelle GC true Barrierefreiheit Aktiviert false Barrierefreiheit verhindern 0 Bibliotheken-Versionen Minimal vorausgesetzte Version Verwendete Version NSPR 4.10 4.10 NSS 3.15 Basic ECC 3.15 Basic ECC NSSSMIME 3.15 Basic ECC 3.15 Basic ECC NSSSSL 3.15 Basic ECC 3.15 Basic ECC NSSUTIL 3.15 3.15

If specified box-shadow, the page will print as image.

Is this a real regression?

No, it is not a regression. The problem is exists since Firefox3.5(-moz-box-shadow implemented).

Thank you for the quick analysis. I can confirm the issue using the test case you attached. Sorry for the "regression" keyword. I'm removing it. It must be a change of the web sites (e.g. implementing "box-shadow" with a newer Joomla CMS version) that made the issue appear to me, not a Firefox version change. Unfortunately, I can't change the bug status to "NEW" - I don't have the necessary rights.

WFM, Nightly 27.0a1 (2013-10-19) on Linux64, so I'm guessing this is a platform parity bug.

Hmm, I don't think it is a (only) because of box-shadow. When I disable option "Shrink to fit page width" then everything works fine despite the included box-shadow! So there must be something else/more which prevents text creation (for the last page).

The underlying issue is Firefox prints box-shadowed elements as image. In addition, no need to have many pages to make the issue appear, only one page or line is enough.

I don't know if it's platform or Firefox version dependent, but the bug status is as follows in Linux Mint 17.1 (based on Ubuntu 14.04), 64 bit, FF 40.0 (as provided by the distribution): Neither the attached testcase, nor the test pages in the bug description are printed as images (although the hunyadi.info.hu one does seem to come with an additional blank image, for whatever reason). But following is printed as both, text and image: https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/3gklvw/remote_car_hacking_by_charlie_miller_and_chris/ Or seemingly any other comments page on https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/

(In reply to Joe Smith from comment #9) > I don't know if it's platform or Firefox version dependent, but the bug > status is as follows in Linux Mint 17.1 (based on Ubuntu 14.04), 64 bit, FF > 40.0 (as provided by the distribution): > > Neither the attached testcase, nor the test pages in the bug description are > printed as images (although the hunyadi.info.hu one does seem to come with > an additional blank image, for whatever reason). > > But following is printed as both, text and image: > https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/3gklvw/ > remote_car_hacking_by_charlie_miller_and_chris/ > Or seemingly any other comments page on https://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/ P.S.: The test was done by printing to PDF, using (1) the "Print to File" functionality coming with the distribution and (2) using another Cairo and Ghostscript based "PDF printer".

Interestingly the used font seems to play a role. Assume I encounter such a problematic web page. I inspect now the html/CSS code with a plugin like Firebug and replace the used font with a font like "Verdana". Then I print the page again.....and it works now. This workaround is not always but oftentimes a weired solution.

Fix range: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=d45440221297&tochange=d4c4ce7f060c I think it has been fixed by the change about drawing box-shadow: Mason Chang — Bug 1155828 - Draw box-shadows using an approach inspired by border-image. r=mstange

It is NOT fixed! Years ago I bookmarked the following sample page (from german computer magazin) for evaluating if it is fixed: http://www.computerwoche.de/a/print/der-fat-client-feiert-seine-wiederkehr,546826 When I print this page then I can NOT select text in the resulting PDF document. So the state should be "currently unfixed"

(In reply to Thomas Stein from comment #13) > It is NOT fixed! > > Years ago I bookmarked the following sample page (from german computer > magazin) for evaluating if it is fixed: > > http://www.computerwoche.de/a/print/der-fat-client-feiert-seine-wiederkehr, > 546826 > > When I print this page then I can NOT select text in the resulting PDF > document. > > So the state should be "currently unfixed" The issue is different, it's about the use of font, not box-shadow (like the testcase). I'll open a new bug report.

Filed bug 1343882.