Print is fuzzy/blurry

[BadFriend]

if i print a pdf with FF19 and the new pdf function the print is blurry.

if i print with acrobat the font is clear.

left= acrobat
right = ff pdf

have you an idea?

https://plus.google.com/105533044232180103026/posts/dYL855pBkSM

[gigaherz]

I'd guess it's because the pdf.js output is a canvas (one canvas per page, to be exact), which probably doesn't match 100% the printer resolution.

[musiphil]

This happens to me, too.

• top = Firefox builtin PDF.js
• bottom = Adobe Acrobat

The print quality is simply unacceptable.
In addition, the builtin PDF.js generates a black border on the right and bottom sides, just as if it were from photocopying a smaller size sheet.

[BadFriend]

Any solution? i'm in a hotline and i have 200 users with this problem.

[yurydelendik]

@BadFriend, @musiphil, what operating system you or your users use?

[tombei]

Same issue here on FFox 19 on WinXP to PostScript printer. The fine horizontal lines are dithered, while the vertical lines are fine. Headers and footers are fine as well.

[musiphil]

I'm running Firefox 19.0 on Windows 7, and I printed those documents to a HP Color LaserJet CP4525 printer with PCL6.

[BadFriend]

FF19 + Win7 64bit + OKI561 via PCL6 on WSD Port or Adobe PDF (Adobe Acrobat 9.2.0)

left: Chrome Plugin
middle: Adobe Reader
right: Firefox pdf.js

Download PDF -> http://www.file-upload.net/download-7241349/offers-36.pdf.html

[jviereck]

See also #2771. Quoting @brendandahl:

The low quality is being tracked in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=811002 .

[timvandermeij]

The upstream bug has been fixed. Is this still an issue with the latest versions of Firefox and PDF.js?

[jviereck]

The upstream bug has been fixed. Is this still an issue with the latest versions of Firefox and PDF.js?

I think it was only fixed for Windows. There is a new bug filled for OSX (bug 932313) but I am not convinced it is valid (see my comment at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=932313#c2).

Until the issue is not fixed on Linux, I vote for keeping this bug open.

[jonny64]

Is it fixed?
This demo page prints ok from firefox
http://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/web/viewer.html
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1383480/work/printing/2015-02-16%2011.29.52.jpg

from Chrome and Chromium print result is SO blurry, I can't find words to describe it
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1383480/work/printing/2015-02-16%2011.29.58.jpg
I tried to set dpi for printer and PRINT_SCALE RATIO to 1, 3, 4, 8 - no effect
I tried latest version from github (8614c17) - same
(enviroment: Chrome, Chromium, windows 7)

Am I missing something?
Could you please review this and possibly suggest quick workaround?

[jviereck]

@jonny64 thanks for reporting this! Unfortinate, I guess there is not much that can be done for Chrome/Chromium here. The better print quality in Firefox results by using a special API for printing that is available in Firefox but not in Chrome. Back in the days I proposed the API as a standard but there was not much interest and therefore it is still only available in Firefox.

[jonny64]

:) @jviereck, well, ok, I should live with it
I tried Chrome internal viewer
It prints ok, but it's 'Save' brokes kiosk mode
(we need to print with preview from Chrome in kiosk fullscreen mode)

Fortunatly, I have some backgound with C some time ago
https://pdfium.googlesource.com/pdfium.git
Is it correct source for Chrome internal viewer?
Is it better to hide 'Save' from Chrome settings or when --kiosk command line is set?
Do you have any high level ideas where and how can I implement it?

[dahjelle]

This is still a bug on OS X and the latest Firefox Dev Edition, as far as I can tell, at least in some circumstances.

How to reproduce without a printer:

• Click "Print" in the PDF.js viewer.
• Click the "PDF" button.
• Choose "Save as PostScript…" (not "Save as PDF…")
• Open the saved .ps file in Preview.app.

Text is not selectable and, zooming in, the text is quite pixelated. Text looks great if you chose "Save as PDF…"