Open Bug 135588 Opened 22 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Print background option under print setup does not operate as expected.

Categories

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect, P3)

Product:
Core
Component:
Printing: Output
Platform:
x86
Linux
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Milestone:
Future

People

(Reporter: rellis9, Unassigned)

References

Details

Linux Mozilla 0.9.9, build id 2002031312.

The check box under print setup labeled "Print Background (colors & images)"
does not function as I expect it should function given the name it has in the
setup dialog.

What this name says to me is that if the box is unchecked, then when printing a
web page to the printer, Mozilla will not print any background color and will
not print any background image of any kind to the printer.  In other words, I
will get a sheet of paper where the only black toner dots deposited by the
printer are deposited for text, lines, and embedded images.  Whereever there is
a background color or background image, the printer will not place any toner,
resulting in plain white paper showing through.

As it works now, Mozilla tries to print background colors of pages no matter
what the setting of that options dialog under print setup.  I normally run with
 "use my chosen colors" turned on under options/appearance/colors because I can
not stand the colors most web designers choose for their pages.  The normal
background color I have enabled is about an 80-85% white.  It seems that Mozilla
is trying to reproduce this 80%-85% white background on the printer.  I do not
want my screen background color reproduced on the printer, I want a white
background (well, no toner) when a page is printed to the printer.  This is what
I expect this option to do if I uncheck it in the print setup dialog, force all
backgrounds to zero toner fill for printing purposes.  However, it does not seem
to completely turn everything off.
cc: don
The background that is turned off when we print.. is a color set with CSS or the
body background color.  I am really not sure about this option your talking
about.. but if you have an example of a web page, that has a background color
set and it does not turn off... then this is a bug.  If your trying to turn off
a default browswer background color.. that will not turn off.
The option I'm referring to is under Edit -> Preferences-> Appearance -> Colors
-> "Text and Background" -> Background.  In that box I have selected a light
gray instead of the default maximum bright white.

Then under Edit -> Preferences-> Appearance -> Colors -> "When a web page
provides its own colors and background" I have selected the button labeled "Use
my chosen colors, ignoring the colors and background image specified" in order
to force web pages into the background color I have set instead of being blasted
by the choice of the web page designer.

The fact that I have checkted this box "Use my ... colors" should not also cause
that color to be printed on the printer.  The fact that I want to view pages on
screen with a light gray background instead of insanely bright white does not
mean that I want a gray stipple pattern shipped out to my printer to print
behind all the text on the web page.  I want the printer background to be white
(well, lack of toner placement) no matter what colors I choose for viewing the
pages on screen.

Additionally, the name of the print option is "Print Background (colors &
images)", not "Print Background supplied by web pages".  The name indicates that
it would turn off all backgrounds, not that it only turns off backgrounds set by
the html or css of the pages themselves.
I understand what you said.. but thanks for writing in baby talk so we can all 
understand what your talking about.  What I was trying to ask.. and say all in 
one sentence was....

1.) Is the normal code path broken.. meaning if you set the background to a 
color in HTML.. does that get turned off.  This would be helpful because it
  would be good to know if the normal case was working.
2.) I have never used this option before, so a reciepe would be nice. (now I 
     know)
3.) It may be because the background that we turned off is an HTML/STYLE path 
only.  The color that your setting could be something someone did .. painting 
all windows with a color first.. in that case what we have for turning off 
backgrounds would turn this off.. and we would have to find a way to turn that 
off also.  The backgrounds we control are all Style/html.. not the actual 
software settings for a GDI window.

I think I have the answers for those questions.
I just ran a test of all four combinations of the two options settings.  The
results are below.

The sample page I used was the following html:

<html>
<body bgcolor="red">
Red Background
</body>
</html>


In the following chart, "use my colors" refers to the setting under
Prefs->appearance, and "off" means the setting of "use html colors" and "on"
means the setting of "always use my choosen colors".  The color I selected for
"my color" is a light gray, about 80-85% white.

                      use my colors
                |   off    |     on     |
----------------+----------+------------+
print           | no bkg   | light bkg  |
background  off | on print | on line    |
                |          | with words only    |
----------------+----------+------------+
                | dark bkg | light bkg  |
            on  | on print | on printer |
                | whole sht| whole sheet|
----------------+----------+------------+

The interesting one is the "use my colors" turned on, and "print background"
turned off.  I got the exact same light gray background on the printer as on the
whole sheet with "print background" on and "use my colors" on, except it was
only on the single line occupied by the words "Red Background".  The remainder
of the sheet has no toner placed on it at all.

I did a second run and printed the postscript to disk, and I'm going to attach 
it so you can see the results yourself.
 
Ok, if Bugzilla would let me attach the zip, instead of complaining: 

Error 
You did not specify a file to attach.

when I did specify a file to attach, I would have attached the sample printouts.
Blocks: 125824
can you still reproduce this with a recent Mozilla version like 1.1beta?
It exists with Mozilla 1.0.0.  I have not installed any 1.1beta copies in order
to test with yet.  When I do install a 1.1beta, I'll test it out and see if it
still occurs with a 1.1beta.
I just installed Moz 1.1.0beta from the main mozilla.org site.  The print
problem described in this bug report remains in 1.1.0beta.

In linux version 1.1b the 
File -> Page Setup -> Print Background Colors and Images option does not get
saved and has to be set every time the browser is started.  Please let me know
if this should be filed as a seperate bug.

Also.. why is this bug overall still marked as UNCONFIRMED?
afaik the whole dialog doesn't save - and for that we have a bug - somewhere..
Whiteboard: DUPME
comment #10 is a known bug.
Assignee: rods → dcone
Whiteboard: DUPME
*** Bug 153926 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The gist of this is that Prefs->Appearance->Colors->Use my colors causes the
colors to be used for printing. This is reproduceable:

1) Open Edit->Preferences->Appearance->Colors. Set colors for "Text" and
"Background". Select "Use my chosen colors..." Hit "Ok".

2) Open File->Page Setup and verify that "Print Background" is off.

3) Select File->Print Preview. The text should be in your chosen text color, and
the background around your text (not the whole page) should be in the background
color.

4) File->Page Setup and turn on "Print Background".

5) Select File->Print Preview. The text should be in your chosen text color, and
the entire page background should be your background color.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Priority: -- → P2
Target Milestone: --- → Future
Assignee: dcone → nobody
QA Contact: sujay → printing
Seems a short fix to this is to set the screen/email background HTLM colour to white, It's a bit to bright for my liking and make reading difficut with my poor eyesight. Still a nussance problem that should be fixed
hey!!
Can I take this bug?Is it available to work upon?
Moving to p3 because no activity for at least 1 year(s).
See https://github.com/mozilla/bug-handling/blob/master/policy/triage-bugzilla.md#how-do-you-triage for more information
Priority: P2 → P3
Moving to p3 because no activity for at least 1 year(s).
See https://github.com/mozilla/bug-handling/blob/master/policy/triage-bugzilla.md#how-do-you-triage for more information
Severity: minor → S4
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.