A printer-display bug in the Edge browser is so baffling and potentially damaging that frustrated users are considering an unthinkable workaround: using a Xerox copier instead of using the browser's print function.

The advice came in a bug report titled "Edge displays '123456' in PDF but prints '114447.'" The error, however, goes well beyond what's suggested in the title.

Two portable document format files included with the report show that, when printing PDF documents, Edge can completely transform their look, feel, and content. The original PDF appears directly below this paragraph, while the Edge-modified one is immediately under it. Note the numerous changes, including the shifting of cell numbers, the adding of words and symbols, and the substitution of words and characters in many, but not all, of the cells.

Beyond being breathtakingly bizarre, the bug could potentially have serious consequences for architects, engineers, lawyers, and other professionals who rely on Edge to print drawings, blueprints, legal briefs, and similarly sensitive documents. Edge is the default application for viewing PDFs on Windows 10 computers. While the errors demonstrated above happened using the "Microsoft Print to PDF" option, multiple users report similar alterations when using regular printing settings. (And besides, the print-to-PDF option is the default printing method for the Microsoft browser.) The alterations depend on several variables, including the printer selected, the settings used, and computer being used. It's not clear how long this flaw has been active or whether it has already affected legal cases or other sensitive proceedings that use documents printed from the Internet.

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The bug report indicates that members of Microsoft's Edge team have assigned the bug to one or more troubleshooters. In the meantime, the Edge user who submitted the report wrote, "Possible workaround: copy the document after printing using a Xerox copier." It's not clear if the person was aware of similar problems found in some Xerox machines

A less arcane fix is to switch to an alternate PDF reader, ideally the one built into Google's Chrome browser, because it contains a robust security sandbox that prevents untrusted content from accessing sensitive operating-system functions. Until this flaw is fixed, people absolutely shouldn't trust Edge to print their documents.

The headline and text of this post were changed to correct the source of the work-around advice. It came from a user, not a Microsoft employee.