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Printing Web Pages: I want what I see

  • Thread starter Nathan Sokalski
  • Start date
N

Nathan Sokalski

Flightless Bird
There are some web sites in which you do want to print background colors and
images. Even when the option in Internet Options "Print background colors
and images" is checked, it does not always print some of these parts the way
they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically tell Internet Explorer
8 to print a page exactly the way it is on the screen (including any CSS
styling, backgrounds, etc.)? I don't care if text wraps because the paper is
not as wide as the screen, but that is different from not printing a
background color or image at all. Thanks.
--
Nathan Sokalski
njsokalski@hotmail.com
http://www.nathansokalski.com/
 
P

PA Bear [MS MVP]

Flightless Bird
cf.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...r/thread/028c8610-f8a9-4908-a2e8-9e5360478038

"Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com...
> There are some web sites in which you do want to print background colors
> and images. Even when the option in Internet Options "Print background
> colors and images" is checked, it does not always print some of these
> parts the way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically tell
> Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it is on the screen
> (including any CSS styling, backgrounds, etc.)? I don't care if text wraps
> because the paper is not as wide as the screen, but that is different from
> not printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.
 
J

Jeff Strickland

Flightless Bird
Why would you want to waste ink or toner on background content?

I understand that you might want to print buttons and stuff like that --
which should include the CSS content -- but I would never want to waste my
ink or toner on the crap that the content was placed on top of. What is the
practical application of printing background material?




"Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com...
> There are some web sites in which you do want to print background colors
> and images. Even when the option in Internet Options "Print background
> colors and images" is checked, it does not always print some of these
> parts the way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically tell
> Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it is on the screen
> (including any CSS styling, backgrounds, etc.)? I don't care if text wraps
> because the paper is not as wide as the screen, but that is different from
> not printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.
> --
> Nathan Sokalski
> njsokalski@hotmail.com
> http://www.nathansokalski.com/
 
T

Twayne

Flightless Bird
In news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com,
Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> typed:
> There are some web sites in which you do want to print
> background colors and images. Even when the option in
> Internet Options "Print background colors and images" is
> checked, it does not always print some of these parts the
> way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically
> tell Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it
> is on the screen (including any CSS styling, backgrounds,
> etc.)? I don't care if text wraps because the paper is not
> as wide as the screen, but that is different from not
> printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.


It will depend on how the web site you're trying to copy is designed and
what it was designed with. For instance, many sites use PHP and unless you
have a local server installed a screen copy is not going to call the PHP to
serve up the background to you; there is nothing to run the code and you
have no access to it to even see what it is. So, unless the background code
is right there on that page, you may not be able to get it. Actually the
code is probably somewhere off in some CSS file someplace but same
difference sometimes.
You might have to add your own backgrounds instead. Or use a graphic
screen grabber if IE8 can't grab it.

HTH,

Twayne`
 
R

Rob

Flightless Bird
Twayne <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote:
> In news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com,
> Nathan Sokalski <njsokalski@hotmail.com> typed:
>> There are some web sites in which you do want to print
>> background colors and images. Even when the option in
>> Internet Options "Print background colors and images" is
>> checked, it does not always print some of these parts the
>> way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically
>> tell Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it
>> is on the screen (including any CSS styling, backgrounds,
>> etc.)? I don't care if text wraps because the paper is not
>> as wide as the screen, but that is different from not
>> printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.

>
> It will depend on how the web site you're trying to copy is designed and
> what it was designed with. For instance, many sites use PHP and unless you
> have a local server installed a screen copy is not going to call the PHP to
> serve up the background to you; there is nothing to run the code and you
> have no access to it to even see what it is. So, unless the background code
> is right there on that page, you may not be able to get it. Actually the
> code is probably somewhere off in some CSS file someplace but same
> difference sometimes.
> You might have to add your own backgrounds instead. Or use a graphic
> screen grabber if IE8 can't grab it.


This is of course total bullshit.
PHP code runs on the server, not on the client.
When a page runs PHP, there is some PHP sourcefile that executes and
ultimately sends HTML and/or CSS and/or JavaScript code to your browser
which uses it to render a screen image.
The browser does not see the PHP *at all*!
When a print request is made, a similar image is rendered for the
printout, and sent to the printer.
When that does not look OK, it is the fault of the browser and only
the fault of the browser. The server serving the page has nothing to
do with it.
 
N

Nathan Sokalski

Flightless Bird
When I say background, I don't necessarily mean background in the sense of
being the stuff that everything else is on top of, I mean in the sense of
stuff specified using CSS properties such as background-color,
background-image, etc. Why would I want to "waste" ink on printing this
stuff? Well, in most cases, I wouldn't, but there are sometimes pages where
these properties are used in ways that have a more significant effect on the
content of the page, and depending on the design of the page, it might even
be necessary in order for the page content to be useful (why print something
if the printed version won't be useful ?)
--
Nathan Sokalski
njsokalski@hotmail.com
http://www.nathansokalski.com/

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hrk5fn$6kp$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> Why would you want to waste ink or toner on background content?
>
> I understand that you might want to print buttons and stuff like that --
> which should include the CSS content -- but I would never want to waste my
> ink or toner on the crap that the content was placed on top of. What is
> the practical application of printing background material?
>
>
>
>
> "Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com...
>> There are some web sites in which you do want to print background colors
>> and images. Even when the option in Internet Options "Print background
>> colors and images" is checked, it does not always print some of these
>> parts the way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically tell
>> Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it is on the screen
>> (including any CSS styling, backgrounds, etc.)? I don't care if text
>> wraps because the paper is not as wide as the screen, but that is
>> different from not printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.
>> --
>> Nathan Sokalski
>> njsokalski@hotmail.com
>> http://www.nathansokalski.com/

>
>
 
J

Jeff Strickland

Flightless Bird
"Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e4axnCk6KHA.1888@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> When I say background, I don't necessarily mean background in the sense of
> being the stuff that everything else is on top of, I mean in the sense of
> stuff specified using CSS properties such as background-color,
> background-image, etc. Why would I want to "waste" ink on printing this
> stuff? Well, in most cases, I wouldn't, but there are sometimes pages
> where these properties are used in ways that have a more significant
> effect on the content of the page, and depending on the design of the
> page, it might even be necessary in order for the page content to be
> useful (why print something if the printed version won't be useful ?)
> --


I agree with the sentiment of, why print something if it won't be useful,
but that's my point entirely. The background material is almost always
clutter, and clutter is, by definition, not useful.

It is a poorly designed Webpage that relies on the background material to
make its printed pages useful. If the background material is useful, then it
ought not be in the background.
 
N

Nathan Sokalski

Flightless Bird
I agree with your statement, but unfortunately, not every webpage we look at
and want to print is one that we designed. Sometimes we come across webpages
that were just not well designed, but we still want to print them. Whether
the site was well designed or not, we should not be prevented from printing
it.
--
Nathan Sokalski
njsokalski@hotmail.com
http://www.nathansokalski.com/

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hrl3po$4kj$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> "Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e4axnCk6KHA.1888@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> When I say background, I don't necessarily mean background in the sense
>> of being the stuff that everything else is on top of, I mean in the sense
>> of stuff specified using CSS properties such as background-color,
>> background-image, etc. Why would I want to "waste" ink on printing this
>> stuff? Well, in most cases, I wouldn't, but there are sometimes pages
>> where these properties are used in ways that have a more significant
>> effect on the content of the page, and depending on the design of the
>> page, it might even be necessary in order for the page content to be
>> useful (why print something if the printed version won't be useful ?)
>> --

>
> I agree with the sentiment of, why print something if it won't be useful,
> but that's my point entirely. The background material is almost always
> clutter, and clutter is, by definition, not useful.
>
> It is a poorly designed Webpage that relies on the background material to
> make its printed pages useful. If the background material is useful, then
> it ought not be in the background.
>
>
>
>
>
>
 
D

Dan

Flightless Bird
"Nathan Sokalski" <njsokalski@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:15F33E87-C741-4988-96FB-491E089278BB@microsoft.com...
> There are some web sites in which you do want to print background colors
> and images. Even when the option in Internet Options "Print background
> colors and images" is checked, it does not always print some of these
> parts the way they look on the screen. Is there a way to basically tell
> Internet Explorer 8 to print a page exactly the way it is on the screen
> (including any CSS styling, backgrounds, etc.)? I don't care if text wraps
> because the paper is not as wide as the screen, but that is different from
> not printing a background color or image at all. Thanks.


Have you got an example?

Also, check the source code - there may be a specified CSS for printing that
adjusts the layout so it is intentionally different than on the screen.

--
Dan
 
M

Marty Thomas

Flightless Bird
I had the same issue when I upgraded to IE8. I needed to print out
online reports that had alternating row colors to make it more
aesthetically pleasing to look at.

There are two things you need to do:

1. In the Advanced Options of IE, check PRINT BACKGROUND COLORS AND
IMAGES (which you already knew).

2. When viewing the webpage, choose FILE > PAGE SETUP.... Then check
the PRINT BACKGROUND COLORS AND IMAGES.

I suspect you may have to perform step 2 for each browser session you
create. Kind of annoying, but at least it works!


--
Marty Thomas
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
 
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