Users upgrading to Firefox 97 may have noticed that Mozilla removed the classic “Print Preview” option. Mozilla introduced a new print preview interface in Firefox 81, released on August 10, 2020, but users can also manually enable the classic version according to their needs. In Firefox 97, Mozilla removed this option, forcing users to use the new print preview interface.
Although the two share most of the features, there are differences between the old and new versions. The new print preview opens as an overlay on the existing page, while the old one opens in a new separate window. As far as options go, some, like the ability to jump to a specific page or scale presets, are missing from the new UI.
Mozilla has continued to improve the new print preview since it went live. The company added several missing features, including printing simplified versions of web pages or improving readability on small screens. The readability of web pages displayed in the new print preview interface is still not ideal, especially on smaller monitors or when the browser window is not maximized.
Also, simplified formatting sometimes doesn’t work well because you might end up with a lot of white space on some pages. The screenshot below highlights the problem.
Mozilla’s main intention is to unify print previews in Firefox for all desktop platforms. The print dialog is now similar to Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, which should be no problem for users using either or migrating from one browser to another.
It’s unclear exactly how many users would prefer to switch to the older version of Print Preview. If you still prefer the old print preview, there is an option to switch to Firefox ESR as it includes the classic print preview preference until it is replaced by the next FirefoxESR release. Firefox91.x ESR will be retired in September 2022.