484342 - Firefox only prints the first page of content on multi-page web pages

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 129941

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Michael Venables]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9.1b3) Gecko/20090305 Firefox/3.1b3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.9.1b3) Gecko/20090305 Firefox/3.1b3

Trying to print or print preview certain web pages results in only the first page being printed.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Goto: http://ronin-group.org/v2/TRG_house_style.html
1a. OR: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/instant-expert-a-brief-history-of-ipod/
2. Do: File --> Print Preview

Actual Results:  
Only the first page of content is rendered.

Expected Results:  
Entire web page should print.

While apparently random, this issue goes back many years and versions of Firefox. Conversational speculation -- e.g. this discussion http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=1&comments_parentId=2549 -- has suggested that badly coded web pages are to blame. Of the two submitted links, the first is my own web site which is valid XHTML 1.1 and suffers from the same "first page only" (FPO) print problem.

The issue seems be the way that Firefox handles the overflow:hidden and/or overflow:auto elements when they are applied to CSS tags that wrap around body content. (Not sure this is the best way of expressing/describing this, so feel free to correct the terminology). If either of those tags are present, the FPO problem instantly appears. If they are changed to something like overflow:visible (which is the default and doesn't need to be explicitly stated), or if they're deleted entirely, the problem goes away and the page prints as it should. (Print Preview is an accurate representation of the printing result.)

I used the JS View and Web Developer extensions to live edit offending pages and confirm the behavior. By the same token, Web Dev can be used to add :hidden or :auto to any wrapping element. This will produce the expected results and breaks the printing.

My testing with Web Dev followed this process:
1) load a page
2) open Web Dev's "Edit CSS" option (appears in a side bar)
3) open Print Preview window

As you live edit the CSS, the Print Preview will dynamically change from broken to fixed (or vice versa), though you may have to switch between portrait and landscape modes just to kick things off.

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to comment #0)
> The issue seems be the way that Firefox handles the overflow:hidden and/or
> overflow:auto elements
[snip]
> If either of those tags are present, the FPO
> problem instantly appears. If they are changed to something like
> overflow:visible (which is the default and doesn't need to be explicitly
> stated), or if they're deleted entirely, the problem goes away

This exactly describes bug 129941.  Marking as duplicate.