11 ms·

Save web pages as PDF in Firefox for Android

237 points by inxode 4y ago

nashashmi 4y ago
Firefox is the only Browser trying to bring desktop sanity to mobile.
- ugjka 4y ago
  ublock origin and background video fix addons are great
  - petodo 4y ago
    Kiwi Browser has all of these + Chrome engine not causing issues on pages
    - ugjka 4y ago
      Good to know but i need FF sync
    - nsonha 4y ago
      > Chrome engine not causing issues on pages is that a theoretical issue because I've never had any problem with page rendering in Firefox, it's been a major for a long time.
  - inxode 4y ago
    Let me add another, Bypass Paywalls
    - ugjka 4y ago
      Not available on mobile
      - inxode 4y ago
        You can use it through custom collection which are available on Firefox for Android Nightly and Fennec
        commoner 4y ago
        It's also been added to Firefox Beta since version 107 (October). https://www.ghacks.net/2022/10/20/firefox-beta-for-android-now-supports-custom-add-on-collections/ https://www.ghacks.net/2022/10/20/firefox-beta-for-android-n...
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Safari has save as pdf in iOS too, press the share button then options at the top. Chrome on iOS also has save as pdf, have to press share, then print, then the share icon again at the top.
  - ec109685 4y ago
    Wow, didn’t know that. You have to chose from options to save as PDF and then the choices will reflect saving as PDF. I used to use the markup feature as a workaround.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - scarface74 4y ago
    It’s not a Safari thing. Anything you print in iOS can be saved to PDF.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
schmorptron 4y ago
Just tried it, it works pretty well but some elements are rendered in a weird way. It also seems to not save the mobile version of sites you might see on your screen but adjusts the render size to a more paper-like aspect ratio and size. Still, cool feature!
- inxode 4y ago
  I still miss the `print` feature. At least Something is better than nothing.
Kab1r 4y ago
Wait I just used this; didn't realize it was new.
- ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
  It was a feature for years and years. I'm fairly certain I used "print to pdf" fairly often on my very first android phone way back in (2008?)
  - notRobot 4y ago
    Yes. It was removed for a while. Now it's back.
mdek 4y ago
This is great, though with the usual formatting caveats of pdf printing from any browser! Firefox for Android used to have this feature up to version 60's somewhere but it was removed. I've found it useful on my android to keep an old version of firefox for limited use when I need things like pdf generation or various "unapproved" addons. Now that most of my extensions work on Firefox Nightly (with AMO), and with restored pdf functionality, there isn't much reason to keep the old version around. I'm very happy lately with firefox, both on desktop and android. I wish it would recover some market share from chrome.
cloudking 4y ago
Chrome has this too. Share > Printer > Save as PDF
akovaski 4y ago
Awesome! This isn't a feature I have a frequent need to use, but it was always disappointing to try to save a page in Firefox for Android and being unable to do so. Now there's one less reason to open Chrome.
TrianguloY 4y ago
Great! It only took them (checks revisions) 2 years to migrate the feature from the old fennec version. Seriously though, I'm happy they are making progress and restoring the missing functionality, even if it takes them time. I still miss the dedicated "view-source" button (the feature is ready, but you need to remember the url and then write it) and the swipe to see history/bookmarks directly, but the version is now stable and most of the bugs from the early days are now fixed. The home screen and the new tab functionality is still a mess though.
- fbdab103 4y ago
  But can I (again) open said PDF inside Firefox? Last I checked, the ability to open local files had been removed -which was maddening.
  - cpeterso 4y ago
    Reading PDF files (using PDF.js) is being tested in Firefox Nightly for Android. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1754499 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1754499
- saint_yossarian 4y ago
  I still miss the tab queue, and the ability to send an URL to another Firefox device from another app, without having to open it in Firefox Android first.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Aardwolf 4y ago
Can it already support any plugin I want on Android, like it used to be possible before 2020?
- vorticalbox 4y ago
  Not yet no.
- lol768 4y ago
  If you go through the rigmarole of setting up an AMO account, installing a pre-release version and then creating a curated list of add-ons and then changing a browser setting, sure! Didn't you know that users are too dumb to be able to select add-ons to install themselves? This way, users are protected from themselves!
  - Aardwolf 4y ago
    No, I thought Firefox was for users who know what they want. We already have <default browser> for others. Also, having to create an account to use addons is not really acceptable to me.
- cykros 4y ago
  This works in Nightly and has for years; it's a little bit klunky but absolutely necessary for using, say, Bypass-Paywalls or Ublock Origin.
  - darkwater 4y ago
    I use uBlock Origin in my normal Firefox for Android with no issues at all
  - occz 4y ago
    It works on beta as well.
AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
Cool feature, although I note with some irony that once I have the PDF downloaded, I still have to then use Google's Drive PDF reader or some other tool to open it. Maybe work on a full stack PDF renderer like the desktop version has, Mozilla?
- nazgulsenpai 4y ago
  They already have a pdf reader they could add with ease https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js
  - joecool1029 4y ago
    I don't know what their priorities are but this is the extension I use on firefox mobile so that it can do what safari has been able to do since like ios 3 (open pdf's in the browser). You have to add it to a custom addon collection, which I think you can only enable in beta or nightly: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/android-pdf-js/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/android-pdf-j...
    - jraph 4y ago
      > I don't know what their priorities are When I used Android, I was never bothered that PDFs opened in the PDF viewer. I was pretty much fine with it. The PDF viewer (not from Google, an open source app) worked pretty much like iBook with a library function, so it was convenient like this actually. It does not look like something to be fixed with high priority. Looks more like a nice to have to me. Why does it matter that they are shown in the browser?
      - joecool1029 4y ago
        Put simply: PDF content is common enough on the web that it should be viewable as a webpage without having to jump out of the browser app. It breaks the user experience and for searches that may return many pdf results, the minor hassle becomes a major impairment (having to jump between two apps now). It is the case for all desktop browsers for many years now and ios that they open in browser first, so why should it be any different for Android? I see the utility in you having an external app to view your pdf's (especially longform books in pdf would be best opened in a dedicated ebook reader app), but there is no consistent user experience on Android, each vendor has their own bundled apps, and some may not even bundle their own app.
jdfedgon 4y ago
Well, took them ages. Not impressed because the feature is not complete. As of yet, save as PDF cannot save from within the reader view. I know this is whataboutism but I wish they would have delivered on anti-(canvas-)fingerprinting instead of PDF print.
- ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
  Seems like people on this site are obsessed with the term "whataboutism" (a rhetorical device used to win arguments which is not being employed here).
xnx 4y ago
Would love to have the ability to save webpage (complete) in Firefox again. Currently I'm using SingleFile/SingleFileZ add-ons (and all the hoops you have to jump through to enable those), but they're a lot slower than Chrome mobile which now has the ability to save a page as .mhtml
marcjuul 4y ago
Nice feature but what is the use case for saving to PDF? If you want to save a web page for later offline reading then epub would be both much easier to implement and more useful given that it retains ability to reflow to fit different screen sizes. Are there good reasons to prefer a non-reflowable format?
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  I suspect that PDF is simply a more popular format.
- rsaxvc 4y ago
  A workaround for printing on Android(https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217)
- SanchoPanda 4y ago
  PDF will capture what you see, epub will almost certainly not.
leeoniya 4y ago
OT: i really want to use Firefox on Android, except the scrolling performance really sucks and always has, with every device, every FF version, and every Android version. it is so goddamn janky compared to Chrome and Opera (and i assume other Blink-based browsers). i'm on Android 13 and a top-spec Zenfone 9, so it should be a complete non-issue; it's pretty crazy how bad it still is after all this time :( unfortunately it's not a minor UX annoyance that you can get used to or simply ignore; it permeates and taints every interaction. does anyone else have this experience? EDIT: opened about:support and everything looks fine (webrender, hw accel, hw compositor). interestingly, scrolling the long about:support page is largely jank-free. EDIT2: went into settings and disabled address-bar hiding on scroll, which seems to have helped quite a bit for web content.
- nsonha 4y ago
  I've been use Firefox for Android on 12 (and 11 before that) just fine, maybe an Android 13 thing? I can't remember the last time I used Chrome, I used Kiwi & Yandex at some points in the past and didn't notice any significant difference). If you are talking about smoothness, it's possible that I missed it, not caring much, but I've definitely never noticed it being so bad it becomes an usability issue.
  - leeoniya 4y ago
    > If you are talking about smoothness yes. in 2022 on a top-spec phone and latest OS, scrolling of a static google results page or hacker news thread should not stutter. doesn't seem like an unreasonable ask, imo.
    - recursive 4y ago
      I've been using Android Firefox for years. I've rarely seen a scrolling issues. And those were decidedly not on static pages. Mostly the kind choked with ads.
      - cozzyd 4y ago
tmpburning 4y ago
Next thing you'll know is that they will bring back RSS ....
- 0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
  Don’t go crazy now. Why should Firefox cater to the power user with a feature that likely requires zero maintenance. Any day now, I expect them to drop the pretty JSON rendering as well.
  - matheusmoreira 4y ago
    I wish there was a browser made exclusively for power users. Something like the Emacs of browsers. I'm tempted to try to make my own like Andreas Kling did.
cykros 4y ago
For those who couldn't be asked to learn how to "Print to File" I assume? In fairness, save as PDF is more intuitive, but let's not pretend this is anything other than a UI change for functionality that's always been there. A good one, sure, but nothing more.
- wolfi1 4y ago
  how would I print a file on Android?
  - rsaxvc 4y ago
    I don't think you can from Firefox directly: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 So, probably save as PDF, then print PDF.
  - tommek4077 4y ago
    With a network printer for example.
  - hnuser123456 4y ago
    Print TO file, not print a file. Print TO file is to take a screenshot of a page or document to avoid any interpretation issues later. To print A file, Android has a generic printer driver and there are more featureful proprietary drivers. I printed a shipping label from my phone over wifi the other day. Very easy to detect and add a printer. It printed slowly and only printed half the page on the first try, but out of the typical printing experience, that's not too bad.
- yellow_lead 4y ago
  I can't even find a print option on firefox android
  - rchaud 4y ago
    It's in the list of options under thr "Share" button
rsync 4y ago
So odd ... the regression of usability in the 'Preview' app in recent OSX ... (EDIT: nevermind ... was mis-remembering ...)
- ulfw 4y ago
  No idea what you mean. I'm on Ventura (13.1), just opened Preview and under File there's still 'Export as PDF' alive and well.
  - rsync 4y ago
    You're right - I am not sure what I was (mis)remembering ... However, I note that "export to pdf" is grayed out for a file that is already a PDF ... which I don't remember being the case ...
    - jffry 4y ago
      It's also grayed out when looking at a PDF on 12.6.2 Monterey but maybe it was how you remember it earlier on?
    - mynameisvlad 4y ago
      Why would you want to export a PDF as a PDF? What could that possibly achieve? Just… use the existing file.
      - rsync 4y ago
        I export a pdf as a pdf all the time ... You receive a non-editable pdf ... you use the textbox and signature tools in Preview.app to mark it up and sign it ... and then you export it as a pdf to send back. How else would I complete that workflow ? Genuinely interested ...
        mynameisvlad 4y ago
        You… literally press save. Preview lets you save any annotations to PDFs and images it supports. It’s literally as easy as pressing Cmd-s. If you really want to save it as a different file, use Preview’s duplicate feature to save it as a new file. If you want to make the file you’re editing non-editable/flattened, then you can use macOS’s built in print dialog which lets you natively save to PDF. This isn’t a Preview feature per-we, but it is system wide. This seems to have not been possible before and changed in Big Sur: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252703055 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252703055 And Apple’s guide considers Save and Export to PDF to be the same function: https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/annotate-a-pdf-prvw11580/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/annotate-a-pdf-prvw1...
causality0 4y ago
Neat. Can they un-break everything else now? There's still no way to change the User-Agent.
tmdh 4y ago
I am using Firefox in Android, these are some of the issues i am facing: - Scrolling is slow on multiple sites like raycast.com - The UI doesn't feel home for me, at least it has dark mode on Android 9 (my phone doesnt get updates) - Tapping new tab doesn't actually create a new tab, instead asks for a URL - Searching for World cup matches in google only shows the goal score, I guess it's a google search issue, but in chrome I get detailed scorecards - Tab list view feels janky, why does it automatically switch to another tab, even though I am not closing the current tab? (this happens sometimes) I will keep using Firefox because Chrome bad.
- jamienicol 4y ago
  > Searching for World cup matches in google only shows the goal score, I guess it's a google search issue, but in chrome I get detailed scorecards Go to settings -> add ons and install "Google search fixer"
  - tmdh 4y ago
    Thanks, that fixed it.
shmapf 4y ago
I've looked for a way to print to a printer on Firefox mobile but have never found one and always have to switch to Chrome just to print. Does anyone know if it's possible yet?
- werdnapk 4y ago
  I have a Samsung printer and have installed the "Samsung Print Service Plugin" on my phone. From Firefox, I can then share the page with that plugin and it prints.
- m-p-3 4y ago
  You can "share" to your print provider (I use Mopria on mine) and it will display a preview of the output.
zagrebian 4y ago
I wish there was a good web-based alternative to PDF.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bioemerl 4y ago
  I wish there was a markup language that gave you the full power relatively of PDF, with page sizes and all of that. And a fairly universal converter to turn that markup language into a document. Then we could use our pre-existing template systems that we use for all the HTML for PDFs and get rid of all these crazy systems that enterprises used to build all the PDF reports
  - zagrebian 4y ago
    Why not HTML + CSS?
    - bioemerl 4y ago
      HTML and CSS are built for web pages, which means they don't really have a strong concept of page size. If I want to build a table with headers that repeat on every page of a printed document, it's an absolute pain to do it with HTML and CSS. You need something with constructs that can express pages, repeated tables, headers and footers, stuff like that in a much more native format.
      - zagrebian 4y ago
        Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean “Make it work with HTML and CSS today”. I meant, Why couldn’t HTML and CSS be used as a basis for a PDF-like format? New features are constantly being added to HTML and CSS. In 5 to 10 years, maybe we’ll have a revamped powerful paged layout that will have all the features that you mentioned. So my point is, why create a new format when you can enhance HTML and CSS?
antman 4y ago
My workflow has been share->print->pdf for many years. Then view through eboox reader synced over google drive across devices. I suggest kiwi browser that has kept chrome plugins. Mozilla has managed to slip to irrelevancy with a series of Nokia like decisions. Have no idea why pdf export on Android is any kind of news in 2023 but I hope it is interpreted as a return to some sort of right direction.
- jannes 4y ago
  A few years ago I noticed that a few things would get rasterized when going through the print->pdf process and they would stay vectorized (i.e. higher quality) when using the browser's native PDF export feature.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tmpburning 4y ago
  Yeah, and the "new" Firefox mobile engine (Fenix) that is now probably 2 years old never unblocked extensions officially... unless you go the painful collection route.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
woofyman 4y ago
Android doesn’t have “print to PDF”?
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  It absolutely does. I came in here wondering what the difference was compared to the PDF print function.
- pmontra 4y ago
  It does and some apps can share to it. Unfortunately Firefox does not. I just checked.
Zuiii 4y ago
Is there a similar feature but for taking full page screenshots as well? Using add-ons that do this is unfortunately not allowed on firefox for android.
warabe 4y ago
Thank you so much to those who involved with this update. Great work as usual.
prirai 4y ago
Amazing! Just noticed it two days back in mull browser's share context overlay.

237 points by inxode 4y ago

nashashmi 4y ago

Firefox is the only Browser trying to bring desktop sanity to mobile.

ugjka 4y ago
ublock origin and background video fix addons are great
- petodo 4y ago
  Kiwi Browser has all of these + Chrome engine not causing issues on pages
  - ugjka 4y ago
    Good to know but i need FF sync
  - nsonha 4y ago
    > Chrome engine not causing issues on pages is that a theoretical issue because I've never had any problem with page rendering in Firefox, it's been a major for a long time.
- inxode 4y ago
  Let me add another, Bypass Paywalls
  - ugjka 4y ago
    Not available on mobile
    - inxode 4y ago
      You can use it through custom collection which are available on Firefox for Android Nightly and Fennec
      - commoner 4y ago
        It's also been added to Firefox Beta since version 107 (October). https://www.ghacks.net/2022/10/20/firefox-beta-for-android-now-supports-custom-add-on-collections/ https://www.ghacks.net/2022/10/20/firefox-beta-for-android-n...
lotsofpulp 4y ago
Safari has save as pdf in iOS too, press the share button then options at the top. Chrome on iOS also has save as pdf, have to press share, then print, then the share icon again at the top.
- ec109685 4y ago
  Wow, didn’t know that. You have to chose from options to save as PDF and then the choices will reflect saving as PDF. I used to use the markup feature as a workaround.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- scarface74 4y ago
  It’s not a Safari thing. Anything you print in iOS can be saved to PDF.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

schmorptron 4y ago

Just tried it, it works pretty well but some elements are rendered in a weird way. It also seems to not save the mobile version of sites you might see on your screen but adjusts the render size to a more paper-like aspect ratio and size. Still, cool feature!

inxode 4y ago
I still miss the `print` feature. At least Something is better than nothing.

Kab1r 4y ago

Wait I just used this; didn't realize it was new.

ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
It was a feature for years and years. I'm fairly certain I used "print to pdf" fairly often on my very first android phone way back in (2008?)
- notRobot 4y ago
  Yes. It was removed for a while. Now it's back.

mdek 4y ago

This is great, though with the usual formatting caveats of pdf printing from any browser! Firefox for Android used to have this feature up to version 60's somewhere but it was removed. I've found it useful on my android to keep an old version of firefox for limited use when I need things like pdf generation or various "unapproved" addons. Now that most of my extensions work on Firefox Nightly (with AMO), and with restored pdf functionality, there isn't much reason to keep the old version around. I'm very happy lately with firefox, both on desktop and android. I wish it would recover some market share from chrome.

cloudking 4y ago

Chrome has this too. Share > Printer > Save as PDF

akovaski 4y ago

Awesome! This isn't a feature I have a frequent need to use, but it was always disappointing to try to save a page in Firefox for Android and being unable to do so. Now there's one less reason to open Chrome.

TrianguloY 4y ago

Great! It only took them (checks revisions) 2 years to migrate the feature from the old fennec version. Seriously though, I'm happy they are making progress and restoring the missing functionality, even if it takes them time. I still miss the dedicated "view-source" button (the feature is ready, but you need to remember the url and then write it) and the swipe to see history/bookmarks directly, but the version is now stable and most of the bugs from the early days are now fixed. The home screen and the new tab functionality is still a mess though.

fbdab103 4y ago
But can I (again) open said PDF inside Firefox? Last I checked, the ability to open local files had been removed -which was maddening.
- cpeterso 4y ago
  Reading PDF files (using PDF.js) is being tested in Firefox Nightly for Android. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1754499 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1754499
saint_yossarian 4y ago
I still miss the tab queue, and the ability to send an URL to another Firefox device from another app, without having to open it in Firefox Android first.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Aardwolf 4y ago

Can it already support any plugin I want on Android, like it used to be possible before 2020?

vorticalbox 4y ago
Not yet no.
lol768 4y ago
If you go through the rigmarole of setting up an AMO account, installing a pre-release version and then creating a curated list of add-ons and then changing a browser setting, sure! Didn't you know that users are too dumb to be able to select add-ons to install themselves? This way, users are protected from themselves!
- Aardwolf 4y ago
  No, I thought Firefox was for users who know what they want. We already have <default browser> for others. Also, having to create an account to use addons is not really acceptable to me.
cykros 4y ago
This works in Nightly and has for years; it's a little bit klunky but absolutely necessary for using, say, Bypass-Paywalls or Ublock Origin.
- darkwater 4y ago
  I use uBlock Origin in my normal Firefox for Android with no issues at all
- occz 4y ago
  It works on beta as well.

AdmiralAsshat 4y ago

Cool feature, although I note with some irony that once I have the PDF downloaded, I still have to then use Google's Drive PDF reader or some other tool to open it. Maybe work on a full stack PDF renderer like the desktop version has, Mozilla?

nazgulsenpai 4y ago
They already have a pdf reader they could add with ease https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js
- joecool1029 4y ago
  I don't know what their priorities are but this is the extension I use on firefox mobile so that it can do what safari has been able to do since like ios 3 (open pdf's in the browser). You have to add it to a custom addon collection, which I think you can only enable in beta or nightly: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/android-pdf-js/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/addon/android-pdf-j...
  - jraph 4y ago
    > I don't know what their priorities are When I used Android, I was never bothered that PDFs opened in the PDF viewer. I was pretty much fine with it. The PDF viewer (not from Google, an open source app) worked pretty much like iBook with a library function, so it was convenient like this actually. It does not look like something to be fixed with high priority. Looks more like a nice to have to me. Why does it matter that they are shown in the browser?
    - joecool1029 4y ago
      Put simply: PDF content is common enough on the web that it should be viewable as a webpage without having to jump out of the browser app. It breaks the user experience and for searches that may return many pdf results, the minor hassle becomes a major impairment (having to jump between two apps now). It is the case for all desktop browsers for many years now and ios that they open in browser first, so why should it be any different for Android? I see the utility in you having an external app to view your pdf's (especially longform books in pdf would be best opened in a dedicated ebook reader app), but there is no consistent user experience on Android, each vendor has their own bundled apps, and some may not even bundle their own app.

jdfedgon 4y ago

Well, took them ages. Not impressed because the feature is not complete. As of yet, save as PDF cannot save from within the reader view. I know this is whataboutism but I wish they would have delivered on anti-(canvas-)fingerprinting instead of PDF print.

ArmandTanzarian 4y ago
Seems like people on this site are obsessed with the term "whataboutism" (a rhetorical device used to win arguments which is not being employed here).

xnx 4y ago

Would love to have the ability to save webpage (complete) in Firefox again. Currently I'm using SingleFile/SingleFileZ add-ons (and all the hoops you have to jump through to enable those), but they're a lot slower than Chrome mobile which now has the ability to save a page as .mhtml

marcjuul 4y ago

Nice feature but what is the use case for saving to PDF? If you want to save a web page for later offline reading then epub would be both much easier to implement and more useful given that it retains ability to reflow to fit different screen sizes. Are there good reasons to prefer a non-reflowable format?

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
I suspect that PDF is simply a more popular format.
rsaxvc 4y ago
A workaround for printing on Android(https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217)
SanchoPanda 4y ago
PDF will capture what you see, epub will almost certainly not.

leeoniya 4y ago

OT: i really want to use Firefox on Android, except the scrolling performance really sucks and always has, with every device, every FF version, and every Android version. it is so goddamn janky compared to Chrome and Opera (and i assume other Blink-based browsers). i'm on Android 13 and a top-spec Zenfone 9, so it should be a complete non-issue; it's pretty crazy how bad it still is after all this time :( unfortunately it's not a minor UX annoyance that you can get used to or simply ignore; it permeates and taints every interaction. does anyone else have this experience? EDIT: opened about:support and everything looks fine (webrender, hw accel, hw compositor). interestingly, scrolling the long about:support page is largely jank-free. EDIT2: went into settings and disabled address-bar hiding on scroll, which seems to have helped quite a bit for web content.

nsonha 4y ago
I've been use Firefox for Android on 12 (and 11 before that) just fine, maybe an Android 13 thing? I can't remember the last time I used Chrome, I used Kiwi & Yandex at some points in the past and didn't notice any significant difference). If you are talking about smoothness, it's possible that I missed it, not caring much, but I've definitely never noticed it being so bad it becomes an usability issue.
- leeoniya 4y ago
  > If you are talking about smoothness yes. in 2022 on a top-spec phone and latest OS, scrolling of a static google results page or hacker news thread should not stutter. doesn't seem like an unreasonable ask, imo.
  - recursive 4y ago
    I've been using Android Firefox for years. I've rarely seen a scrolling issues. And those were decidedly not on static pages. Mostly the kind choked with ads.
    - cozzyd 4y ago

tmpburning 4y ago

Next thing you'll know is that they will bring back RSS ....

0cf8612b2e1e 4y ago
Don’t go crazy now. Why should Firefox cater to the power user with a feature that likely requires zero maintenance. Any day now, I expect them to drop the pretty JSON rendering as well.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  I wish there was a browser made exclusively for power users. Something like the Emacs of browsers. I'm tempted to try to make my own like Andreas Kling did.

cykros 4y ago

For those who couldn't be asked to learn how to "Print to File" I assume? In fairness, save as PDF is more intuitive, but let's not pretend this is anything other than a UI change for functionality that's always been there. A good one, sure, but nothing more.

wolfi1 4y ago
how would I print a file on Android?
- rsaxvc 4y ago
  I don't think you can from Firefox directly: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10217 So, probably save as PDF, then print PDF.
- tommek4077 4y ago
  With a network printer for example.
- hnuser123456 4y ago
  Print TO file, not print a file. Print TO file is to take a screenshot of a page or document to avoid any interpretation issues later. To print A file, Android has a generic printer driver and there are more featureful proprietary drivers. I printed a shipping label from my phone over wifi the other day. Very easy to detect and add a printer. It printed slowly and only printed half the page on the first try, but out of the typical printing experience, that's not too bad.
yellow_lead 4y ago
I can't even find a print option on firefox android
- rchaud 4y ago
  It's in the list of options under thr "Share" button

rsync 4y ago

So odd ... the regression of usability in the 'Preview' app in recent OSX ... (EDIT: nevermind ... was mis-remembering ...)

ulfw 4y ago
No idea what you mean. I'm on Ventura (13.1), just opened Preview and under File there's still 'Export as PDF' alive and well.
- rsync 4y ago
  You're right - I am not sure what I was (mis)remembering ... However, I note that "export to pdf" is grayed out for a file that is already a PDF ... which I don't remember being the case ...
  - jffry 4y ago
    It's also grayed out when looking at a PDF on 12.6.2 Monterey but maybe it was how you remember it earlier on?
  - mynameisvlad 4y ago
    Why would you want to export a PDF as a PDF? What could that possibly achieve? Just… use the existing file.
    - rsync 4y ago
      I export a pdf as a pdf all the time ... You receive a non-editable pdf ... you use the textbox and signature tools in Preview.app to mark it up and sign it ... and then you export it as a pdf to send back. How else would I complete that workflow ? Genuinely interested ...
      - mynameisvlad 4y ago
        You… literally press save. Preview lets you save any annotations to PDFs and images it supports. It’s literally as easy as pressing Cmd-s. If you really want to save it as a different file, use Preview’s duplicate feature to save it as a new file. If you want to make the file you’re editing non-editable/flattened, then you can use macOS’s built in print dialog which lets you natively save to PDF. This isn’t a Preview feature per-we, but it is system wide. This seems to have not been possible before and changed in Big Sur: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252703055 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252703055 And Apple’s guide considers Save and Export to PDF to be the same function: https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/annotate-a-pdf-prvw11580/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/preview/annotate-a-pdf-prvw1...

causality0 4y ago

Neat. Can they un-break everything else now? There's still no way to change the User-Agent.

tmdh 4y ago

I am using Firefox in Android, these are some of the issues i am facing: - Scrolling is slow on multiple sites like raycast.com - The UI doesn't feel home for me, at least it has dark mode on Android 9 (my phone doesnt get updates) - Tapping new tab doesn't actually create a new tab, instead asks for a URL - Searching for World cup matches in google only shows the goal score, I guess it's a google search issue, but in chrome I get detailed scorecards - Tab list view feels janky, why does it automatically switch to another tab, even though I am not closing the current tab? (this happens sometimes) I will keep using Firefox because Chrome bad.

jamienicol 4y ago
> Searching for World cup matches in google only shows the goal score, I guess it's a google search issue, but in chrome I get detailed scorecards Go to settings -> add ons and install "Google search fixer"
- tmdh 4y ago
  Thanks, that fixed it.

shmapf 4y ago

I've looked for a way to print to a printer on Firefox mobile but have never found one and always have to switch to Chrome just to print. Does anyone know if it's possible yet?

werdnapk 4y ago
I have a Samsung printer and have installed the "Samsung Print Service Plugin" on my phone. From Firefox, I can then share the page with that plugin and it prints.
m-p-3 4y ago
You can "share" to your print provider (I use Mopria on mine) and it will display a preview of the output.

zagrebian 4y ago

I wish there was a good web-based alternative to PDF.

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bioemerl 4y ago
I wish there was a markup language that gave you the full power relatively of PDF, with page sizes and all of that. And a fairly universal converter to turn that markup language into a document. Then we could use our pre-existing template systems that we use for all the HTML for PDFs and get rid of all these crazy systems that enterprises used to build all the PDF reports
- zagrebian 4y ago
  Why not HTML + CSS?
  - bioemerl 4y ago
    HTML and CSS are built for web pages, which means they don't really have a strong concept of page size. If I want to build a table with headers that repeat on every page of a printed document, it's an absolute pain to do it with HTML and CSS. You need something with constructs that can express pages, repeated tables, headers and footers, stuff like that in a much more native format.
    - zagrebian 4y ago
      Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I didn’t mean “Make it work with HTML and CSS today”. I meant, Why couldn’t HTML and CSS be used as a basis for a PDF-like format? New features are constantly being added to HTML and CSS. In 5 to 10 years, maybe we’ll have a revamped powerful paged layout that will have all the features that you mentioned. So my point is, why create a new format when you can enhance HTML and CSS?

antman 4y ago

My workflow has been share->print->pdf for many years. Then view through eboox reader synced over google drive across devices. I suggest kiwi browser that has kept chrome plugins. Mozilla has managed to slip to irrelevancy with a series of Nokia like decisions. Have no idea why pdf export on Android is any kind of news in 2023 but I hope it is interpreted as a return to some sort of right direction.

jannes 4y ago
A few years ago I noticed that a few things would get rasterized when going through the print->pdf process and they would stay vectorized (i.e. higher quality) when using the browser's native PDF export feature.
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tmpburning 4y ago
Yeah, and the "new" Firefox mobile engine (Fenix) that is now probably 2 years old never unblocked extensions officially... unless you go the painful collection route.
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woofyman 4y ago

Android doesn’t have “print to PDF”?

matheusmoreira 4y ago
It absolutely does. I came in here wondering what the difference was compared to the PDF print function.
pmontra 4y ago
It does and some apps can share to it. Unfortunately Firefox does not. I just checked.

Zuiii 4y ago

Is there a similar feature but for taking full page screenshots as well? Using add-ons that do this is unfortunately not allowed on firefox for android.

warabe 4y ago

Thank you so much to those who involved with this update. Great work as usual.

prirai 4y ago

Amazing! Just noticed it two days back in mull browser's share context overlay.