Output Different in MSIE & FF

This Forum is for the use of End Users requiring help and assistance for Tracker Software's PDF-XChange Printer Drivers only - Please do not post requests for older versions of PDF-XChange or the PDF-Tools/OFFice2PDF applications here

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by JustGeorge »

The print output of much of a web page is almost too faint/light to read when output from FF, but printing the same web page is ok when printing with MSIE. (Currently using Win 8.1, everything current/up-to-date.) I can't find any help in the manual pages for PDF-XChange Lite V6 or the previous V5 (still installed as a printer driver, and yields the same results).

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

--George
User avatar
John - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 5219
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:34 am
Location: United Kingdom
Contact:

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Hi George,

The actual print layout/density etc will is determined by the output viewer rather than PDF-XChange which can only interpret the results sent from the 'print' option in the viewer and generate those so I don't think its a PDF-XChange issue and therefore you will not find any help in the manual/help.
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

Best regards
Tracker Support
http://www.tracker-software.com
User avatar
Radi - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 597
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:46 pm

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by Radi - Tracker Supp »

Hello George, John,

I've tested a few random sites on my machine and the results from my FireFox are quite good, the text is even just a bit darker than what I get from Internet Explorer. I tested with both Lite V6 and Lite 5.5 - the same result.

George, could you please give us one of the web pages with which you experience this behaviour so we can check it at our end?
If you would prefer not to post the page publicly, please e-mail it to support@pdf-xchange.com and we will check it for you.

Regards,
Radi
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by JustGeorge »

Okay. I just experimented with re-starting FF with add-ons disabled, just like a fresh install of FF. I still get the same results. (I don't want to do this again, it re-set everything!)

Here's a sample web site: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product ... nge-editor

No kidding! The page looks fine in print preview, but viewed in PDFXC, most of the type is very faint, washed-out; the logo and a few items are ok, but the main body is affected. In MSIE, the print output is fine.

I can send page 1 of each printed doc, or screen grabs.

--George
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17823
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello George,

I just updated firefox to version 46 (not my daily browser), and tried printing through it - it seems like it will print all text as curves - this looks OK on paper, but is not the best solution when printing to a virtual printer. I could nto find a way to make it not do so. Please do send us the comparison PDF files, so that I can take a look, but I suspect the issue you see at your end is the same.

Regards,
Stefan
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by JustGeorge »

My reply timed out. I decided to check my FF version, and of course it updated from 45-something to 46.0. Have to go back and fix that!

When I went to prepare the two docs (MSIE & FF print output) I noticed a fun fact: the MSIE PDF is 155KB, FF is 5.29MB! I went back and printed just page 1 from FF, it's 1.43MB.

Ready for some more fun? I printed out just page 1 from the MSIE PDF, and it's now 1.43MB (!), and that PDF has the same faint output issues!

I'm ready to totally uninstall PDFXC and re-install. Should I do that, or send the sample pages as attachments to a reply to this forum? Or are there some settings I need to adjust?

Weirdness all around.

--George
User avatar
Tracker Supp-Stefan
Site Admin
Posts: 17823
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:07 am
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi George,

Most likely the issues are caused by settings in the browsers themselves, but sure, please do attach the resulting pdf files here to a reply in this forum. The limit is 5mb per file, so make sure they are small enough.

Regards,
Stefan
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by JustGeorge »

Tracker Supp-Stefan wrote:Hi George,

Most likely the issues are caused by settings in the browsers themselves...
I just peeked at about:config -> printer, and found entries for both the V6 and the 2012 printers:

print.printer_PDF-XChange_Lite_V6.print_bgcolor;false
print.printer_PDF-XChange_Printer_Lite_2012.print_bgcolor;false

[Edit: the 2012 printer has been removed from my printer list, but not uninstalled.]

Of course, there are quite a few entries for both. I browsed thru the entries, and didn't see anything that meant anything to me relative to this issue.

The V6 printer was used in both FF & MSIE.

Attached are 3 sample output, I've added an identifying comment to each.

--George
Attachments
Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor MSIE pg 1.pdf
(1.44 MiB) Downloaded 178 times
Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor MSIE.pdf
(154.88 KiB) Downloaded 181 times
Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor FF46.pdf
(1.68 MiB) Downloaded 177 times
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF - Partial Solution?

Post by JustGeorge »

I think I may have stumbled upon the solution for the faint text:

Edit -> Preferences -> Accessibility Options -> UNCHECK Override Document Colors

I just retested, and it seems to be working. (No idea what made me try this.)

I checked the V3 PDF manual, and found the following:

"1. Windows. Use the color scheme from Windows accessibility options."

That doesn't seem to apply to Win 8.1, must be Personalization options, where I have a customcolor scheme (solid background, no image, very plain). Apparently there's no V6 or V5 pdf manual? And searching the Tracker site didn't yield anything useful (could be my search terms).

Please provide any feedback and/or opinions on this solution. My brain is spinning and I'm not sure this is the right path.

Also: I still haven't figured out why the bloated re-print of the MSIE page (sent earlier today). Maybe there's a simple :~) solution for that?

--George
User avatar
Will - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6815
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:21 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi George,

Thanks for the info. - that makes sense, as that Override.... option can change the appearance of the document, if enabled, depending on your particular settings.

Regarding the printed file sizes - the "Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor MSIE pg 1.pdf [1.44 MiB]" file has no text and is either curves, or image content, which will increase the size as opposed to a text based document.

"Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor MSIE.pdf [154.88 KiB]" Is predominantly text based, so is much smaller.

"Tracker Software Products __ PDF-XChange Editor FF46.pdf [1.68 MiB]" Is also image or curve based and does not contain text, hence the increased size.

Lastly, it's worth noting that all of these were created using a relatively old build of XChange Lite. I'd recommend that you update to Version 6 Build 317.1:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXLite6.zip

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
JustGeorge
User
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:36 am

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by JustGeorge »

Just to close out the faint print problem:
Lastly, it's worth noting that all of these were created using a relatively old build of XChange Lite. I'd recommend that you update to Version 6 Build 317.1
I upgraded to vers. 6 Build 317.1 on the 23rd, installed without un-installing the previous version. I made the V6 printer the default printer, and removed the old 2012 printer from the list of printers. I have no idea why PDFXC would use the 2012 printer instead of the V6 printer.

Attached is a screen cap of the PDFXC programs in the Add-Remove file list. Rather a mess. (The screen cap is 7z'd; missed that requirement on my previous uploads.)

Decided to just bite the bullet and uninstalled everything, and did a fresh install. PDFXC vers. 6 is configured as I want it, and seems to be working well. (Think in the future, I'll do manual updates myself. Old school.)

Regarding the file sizes anomaly: I need to experiment with that with the the new version, but I'll start a new post if there is still a problem. (Remember, all the PDFs were created with the Tracker PDF products, but maybe the multiple installations on my system were causing the problem.)

Thanks for working with me on this,

--George
Attachments
PDFXC_uninstall.7z
(18.38 KiB) Downloaded 151 times
User avatar
John - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 5219
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:34 am
Location: United Kingdom
Contact:

Re: Output Different in MSIE & FF

Post by John - Tracker Supp »

Thanks for the update George and pleased things seem to have been resolved.

Sometimes a clean install is the only way for many issues in Windows generally as things can get a little 'dirty' - our dev team members do a complete Windows re-install every 6 months or so just to avert these sorts of issues and others in Windows generally, not specifically with ours or any products - just generally ...
If posting files to this forum - you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded - thank you.

Best regards
Tracker Support
http://www.tracker-software.com
Post Reply