403784 - Very large print spool sizes when "Print Background (colors and images)" option is selected in the File > Page Setup dialog box.

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Jack Zentner]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071025 Firefox/2.0.0.9

When I try to print certain web pages the print spool grows to about ~100 megs and takes several minutes to print. It doesn't seem to matter what printer I sent the job to.  An example page that causes problems is any record from the Georgia Tech library's catalog search (http://gil.gatech.edu/). 

I think this bug is related to bug 360754. If I unselect the "Print Background (colors and images)" option, the spool file size for a record from the the above url is only about 450k.

I don't recall this printing problem always happening, meaning I think it has just started happening with one of the more recent Firefox upgrades.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make sure that the "Print Background (colors and images)" option is selected in the File > Page Setup dialog box.
2. Go to http://gil.gatech.edu/, type in any search term and click on the first catalog record that comes up.
3. Print the page and watch the spool size grow!

Comment 1

[R. Patel]

I have the exact same user-agent as you and I found that this happens also when you try to print a page with as little as 5 png images (max. 50 KB each) and no background image.

Not only does the spool grow to hundreds of MBs, but overall system RAM (not the Firefox.exe process, in particular) dips a few hundred MBs, also. I think this is a critical bug, because some older machines will hang or even crash in such a case with all the swapping that would have to take place.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was originally reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.6 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.8 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.