759334 - Print to file creates a file with unknown format

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Mihaela Velimiroviciu (:mihaelav)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:15.0) Gecko/15.0 Firefox/15.0a1 (2012-05-29)
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0

Steps:
1. Open a webpage
2. Go to File>Print
3. Check the "Print to file" box and press "OK"
4. Provide a file name and press "OK"
5. Go to the file location (Firefox instalation directory - default C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox) and try to open the file saved at step 4

Expecte result: File should have a known format, should open without issues and properly display the content.

Actual result: File has unknown format, no extension and is not supported by PDF reader nor Firefox

Note; Issue is reproducible since Firefox 3.6

Comment 1

[u279076]

The Print-to-File dialog does not provide a very thorough UI; it only allows you to type a filename in a text box. It does not allow you to select file type or folder. Assuming you provide a known path and file type I would expect this to work.

What was the path\filename you provided to the dialog?

Comment 2

[Mihaela Velimiroviciu (:mihaelav)]

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, Mozilla QA (irc: ashughes) from comment #1)
> The Print-to-File dialog does not provide a very thorough UI; it only allows
> you to type a filename in a text box. It does not allow you to select file
> type or folder. Assuming you provide a known path and file type I would
> expect this to work.
> 
> What was the path\filename you provided to the dialog?

I tried with names like "test" and "test.pdf" (no path, just the filename) but it didn't work.

Comment 3

[u279076]

Might be interesting to compare behaviour of other browsers. I suspect you will see similar results. I'm not even sure that's a Firefox dialog.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

What printer are you using?  On Windows, the print to file functionality writes out data in the printer's native format, so it can later be sent to the printer directly.  If you want to produce PDF, you use a PDF printer....

Comment 5

[Mihaela Velimiroviciu (:mihaelav)]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky (:bz) (On vacation until July 5) from comment #4)
> What printer are you using?  On Windows, the print to file functionality
> writes out data in the printer's native format, so it can later be sent to
> the printer directly.  If you want to produce PDF, you use a PDF printer....

Currently, I have no printer installed, so the default Printer name is "Microsoft XPS Document Writer", but the created file is not a XPS file (it just says "Type of file: File"). When I try to open it, the Windows "Open with" dialog is presented.

(In reply to Anthony Hughes, Mozilla QA (irc: ashughes) from comment #3)
> Might be interesting to compare behaviour of other browsers. I suspect you
> will see similar results. I'm not even sure that's a Firefox dialog.

When I try to print with Google Chrome, the destination is "Microsoft XPS Document  Writer", as well. But unlike Firefox, it does create a XPS file which opens successfully.

Comment 6

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:26.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/26.0

This works on Windows 8 if using the instructions from Comment 4: you can use a program (PrnPrint in my case)that sends the file to the printer and the contents is printed correctly.

Comment 7

[Dana Lucaci, Desktop QA]

This issue is not reproducible anymore using the latest Firefox 123.0 build on Win 10, the file is opened without issues and its content is properly displayed. I'm closing it as WFM.