Thunderbird 68.4.1 + Print Tools

[Peter]

I have been successfuloy using Print Tools for a number of years for
printing certain emails, but with the newly installed version of
Thunderbird, this combination no longer works. Apparently Print Tools is
not being updated as the changes required are considerable.

What are the current recommendations for getting printing of emails from
Thunderbird?

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 29/01/2020 14:49, Peter wrote:

I have been successfuloy using Print Tools for a number of years for printing certain emails, but with the newly installed version of Thunderbird, this combination no longer works. Apparently Print Tools is not being updated as the changes required are considerable.

What are the current recommendations for getting printing of emails from Thunderbird?

Never used any Add-ons in Thunderbird so don't know about Print Tools.  However, to print any eMails, you don't need any tools.  Simply use:

File >> Print

Make sure the eMail is either open or you have selected it in the pane.  You can select multiple eMails and still use File >> Print.

Personally, people should start moving away from relying on Add-Ons and instead get used to using what is already available in the apps you use.   These 3rd party add-ons are the main culprit of corruptions, bugs and hijacking and hacking of personal information. 

Hope this helps.

--

With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

[Peter]

Yes, I understand, but what I get when I do that without the add-on is
very small unreadable text printed, with apparently no way of
controlling the font size. (in desperation I can copy and paste the text
from the Thunderbird display panel into a text program such as TextEdit
and print it from there, but that really ought to be an unnecessary
stratagem).

[EnDeeGee]

What's wrong with "Print Preview" and "Page Setup" don't they work for you?

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 29/01/2020 19:12, Peter wrote:

Yes, I understand, but what I get when I do that without the add-on is very small unreadable text printed, with apparently no way of controlling the font size. (in desperation I can copy and paste the text from the Thunderbird display panel into a text program such as TextEdit and print it from there, but that really ought to be an unnecessary stratagem).

You can scale the font-size to any size you want.  I just created a pdf file (this is akin to printing a document) by scaling it to 150%.  See this link:

<https://1drv.ms/b/s!AMHYCratUsItgyE>

You can also control what to show on the printed page - headers, footers, dates etc.

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

It should work for most people.  I've also posted a link to a pdf file I just created using the scaling factor of 150%.  I created a pdf file so that I can show it here;  A printed document can't be shown on these newsgroups!!

[Peter]

"Page Setup" doesn't do anything useful for this problem.
"Print Preview" I don't have.
"Print" I do have. On this window I see:
"Ignore scaling and shrink to fit page width".
The option is selected. This was ok with Print Tools but seems to be the
cause of the problem without. Currently the output is shrunk to fit the
longest header line onto one line. Hence the very small font size.
If I unselect the option, the print out is of the correct size.

However, next problem is that I dont seem able to make the unselect
stick. it always returns on the next print operation.

There may be sonething to do with keeping option values which is eluding
me. Any suggestions?

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 30/01/2020 18:04, Peter wrote:

However, next problem is that I dont seem able to make the unselect stick. it always returns on the next print operation.

First uninstall or disable the Add-On.  If you can't do this for whatever reasons then start Thunderbird in Safe Mode as per this article:

<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode-thunderbird>

Then try to use the Print option from File >> Page Setup

Make changes such as scaling and what headers to print etc etc.   Keep the dat on the document as you need it to remind you when the eMail was sent.

If you get all the options then you know that the Add-On has messed up the default Thunderbird setup.  You then need to rectify this as you can't keep running anything in Safe mode for ever.

Hope this helps to find the problem that can be resolved.

There may be sonething to do with keeping option values which is eluding me. Any suggestions?

[Peter]

On 29/01/2020 19:12, Peter wrote:

I have a work around: Select Headers "Normal" rather than "All". This
avoids a very long line in one of the headers, and doing so avoids the
re-scaling by ignoring the wayward header. I think I would prefer an
intermediate setting for Headers between those two extremes, but I don't
know what that would be without some investigation.