firefoxprintingselectionpdf.jsprinting-web-page

What does the mozdisallowselectionprint attribute in PDF.js do?

Firefox' built-in PDF viewer, PDF.js, has a mozdisallowselectionprint attribute on the <html> tag. What does this attribute do?

Solution

  • The mozDisallowSelectionPrint attribute was added to Firefox to allow web pages to disable the print selection option in Firefox.

    Normally, when you select text in a document and then open the print dialog (Ctrl + P or Cmd + P), you can choose the option "Selection" under "Print range".

    Because of the way PDF.js works, selecting this option when viewing a PDF document would either result in empty pages being printed or, for large documents, a browser crash.

    In bug 830278 it was therefore decided to allow web pages, including the PDF viewer, to disable the option to print selections by adding this attribute to the HTML tag..

    Print dialog with the option to print a selection disabled.
    (source: broward.edu)

    mozDisallowSelectionPrint is available from Firefox 19 and onwards.