7 ms·

It looks like for some time my Firefox PDF rendering is so bad, it looks very different from the real ones, to the point I force an external viewer. Please fix

It looks like for some time my Firefox PDF rendering is so bad, it looks very different from the real ones, to the point I force an external viewer. Please fix that instead of keyboard navigation.

lproven 3y ago
I just wrote the article -- and use Firefox (and Waterfox on Linux). But... Really? I have never seen a single one go awry and for me it works better than Okular, Evince, etc. I routinely use it for completing electronic forms now, to the pleased surprise of the agencies issuing them. A typed form is always more readable than a hand-written one. Do you have some examples or steps to reproduce? Can I help with filing a bug?
- KingOfCoders 3y ago
  Firefox 124/Win, Leanpub generated PDF, the Sumatra PDF looks like printed, https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png
franga2000 3y ago
Strange, I've found pdf.js (the rendering engine Firefox uses) to be one of the most accurate open source viewers, albeit at the cost of loading speed and ability to handle massive documents. Are the documents you have issues with generated by some strange industry-specific software per chance? I've seen issues with output from CAD software and some cursed proprietary measurement equipment for chemical labs, but it's been many years since I found an issue with an "everyday" PDF (excluding those interactive JS forms that just yell at you to use Acrobat).
- KingOfCoders 3y ago
  Firefox 124/Win, Leanpub generated PDF, the Sumatra PDF looks like printed, https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png
  - apetresc 3y ago
    That's very strange, I've never seen the font rendering go so wrong on Windows Firefox. My best guess is that something messed with your font library somewhere, and the browser's engine is picking up a conflicting font with the wrong metrics for glyph width, etc.
    - KingOfCoders 3y ago
      Yes, I wonder though why all other PDF renderers work fine.
  - saurik 3y ago
    Can you try disabling (setting to 0) browser.display.use_document_fonts?
    - KingOfCoders 3y ago
      Looks normal again (with set to 0)
      - saurik 3y ago
        This is me shooting from the hip and is probably not useful: do you maybe have a font called "Helvetica" installed on your Windows system? Assuming that guess was wrong (and it almost certainly was): would you mind giving me/us a copy of the PDF file where you experience this? This sounded related to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767925 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767925 and the workaround people suggest (there and on reddit / launchpad / etc.) while talking about it helped.
        KingOfCoders 3y ago
        I'll take a look at the bug, the PDF is of an unfinished book I'd rather not give away. No no Helvetica (had to check b/c I had Helvetica for decades on my computers) [Edit] Hmm I have a Win machine and the bug seems to be about Linux?

It looks like for some time my Firefox PDF rendering is so bad, it looks very different from the real ones, to the point I force an external viewer. Please fix that instead of keyboard navigation.

lproven 3y ago

I just wrote the article -- and use Firefox (and Waterfox on Linux). But... Really? I have never seen a single one go awry and for me it works better than Okular, Evince, etc. I routinely use it for completing electronic forms now, to the pleased surprise of the agencies issuing them. A typed form is always more readable than a hand-written one. Do you have some examples or steps to reproduce? Can I help with filing a bug?

KingOfCoders 3y ago
Firefox 124/Win, Leanpub generated PDF, the Sumatra PDF looks like printed, https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png

franga2000 3y ago

Strange, I've found pdf.js (the rendering engine Firefox uses) to be one of the most accurate open source viewers, albeit at the cost of loading speed and ability to handle massive documents. Are the documents you have issues with generated by some strange industry-specific software per chance? I've seen issues with output from CAD software and some cursed proprietary measurement equipment for chemical labs, but it's been many years since I found an issue with an "everyday" PDF (excluding those interactive JS forms that just yell at you to use Acrobat).

KingOfCoders 3y ago
Firefox 124/Win, Leanpub generated PDF, the Sumatra PDF looks like printed, https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png https://amazingcto.b-cdn.net/FirefoxPDF.png
- apetresc 3y ago
  That's very strange, I've never seen the font rendering go so wrong on Windows Firefox. My best guess is that something messed with your font library somewhere, and the browser's engine is picking up a conflicting font with the wrong metrics for glyph width, etc.
  - KingOfCoders 3y ago
    Yes, I wonder though why all other PDF renderers work fine.
- saurik 3y ago
  Can you try disabling (setting to 0) browser.display.use_document_fonts?
  - KingOfCoders 3y ago
    Looks normal again (with set to 0)
    - saurik 3y ago
      This is me shooting from the hip and is probably not useful: do you maybe have a font called "Helvetica" installed on your Windows system? Assuming that guess was wrong (and it almost certainly was): would you mind giving me/us a copy of the PDF file where you experience this? This sounded related to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767925 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1767925 and the workaround people suggest (there and on reddit / launchpad / etc.) while talking about it helped.
      - KingOfCoders 3y ago
        I'll take a look at the bug, the PDF is of an unfinished book I'd rather not give away. No no Helvetica (had to check b/c I had Helvetica for decades on my computers) [Edit] Hmm I have a Win machine and the bug seems to be about Linux?