556800 - Printed text is not black

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Ben]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100324 Iceweasel/3.5.8 (like Firefox/3.5.8)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100324 Iceweasel/3.5.8 (like Firefox/3.5.8)

When I use firefox to print (through various versions of CUPS, currently 1.4.2), the printed text comes out in a very weak "black".  Most jobs come out with the text nice and black, but firefox's jobs do not.  My personal page or file:/// links come out this way, so it's not a problem with the web page.

Stranger: if I print to a PDF and then print the PDF through acroread (a workaround for the lack of duplex (bug 358393?), I observe the same non-black black.

Speculation: Firefox is printing with a tri-colour black.  My printer is a HP DeskJet 6980, and has a separate black cartridge, but somehow Firefox's output specifies non-black.  If so, this bug can be expensive--printing text in full RGB colour??

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load a web page with black text.
2. Print it.
3. Observe weak black.

OR

1. Load web page
2. Print to PDF, then print the PDF through acroread.
3. Note that while the page looks normal under acroread, it comes out funny when printed.
Actual Results:  
Your black is weak!

Expected Results:  
Print black with black.

FWIW, the paper http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~labrob/people/cherubini/assets/files/Humanoid_learning_RAS09.pdf (and others) has an algorithm at Fig. 5.  Most of the text comes out black-black, but the algorithm (rendered as black by acroread) prints in the same weak-black that Firefox uses for all text.

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Reporter, are you still seeing this issue with Firefox 3.6.13 or later in safe mode? If not, please close. These links can help you in your testing.
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+Mode
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles

You can also try to reproduce in Firefox 4 Beta 8 or later, there are many improvements in the new version, http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Comment 2

[Ben]

Now Firefox 3.6.13:

Upgraded the PPD file; that appears to fix it.  Apparently an interaction between Firefox and CUPS and the PPD file.  Since the PPD upgrade I've only seen this a couple of times when using Acroread to print a PDF--the problem is still occasionally there but Firefox reliably (I think?) no longer triggers it.

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

So you think we can close as WFM?

Comment 4

[Ben]

Yes, I think so.