Printing a web page

This article discusses printing web pages in Firefox. For a tutorial on how to use Firefox's printing features, read below. For troubleshooting printing problems, see Firefox prints pages in a different layout.

Table Of Contents

• Printing a web page
• Print window settings
• General tab
• Page Setup tab
• Options tab
• Changing the page setup
• Format and Options
• Margins and Header/ Footer
• Print preview

Printing a web page

Linux:

1. At the top of the Firefox window click on the File menu and select Print....
2. In the standard Print window that opens, adjust settings for what you're about to print, if necessary. See Print window settings below for information on what settings can be changed.
3. Click PrintOK to start printing.

Mac OS:

1. On the menu bar, open the File menu and select Print....
2. To adjust settings for what you're about to print (if necessary), click on the arrow beside the Printer selector, and see Print window settings below for information on what settings can be changed.
   
   
   
3. Click Print to start printing.

Print window settings

Windows:

Printer section:

• Click the dropdown menu next to to Name to change which printer prints the web page you're viewing.
• Click on Properties... to change the paper size, print quality, and other settings specific to your printer.

Print range section - Lets you specify which pages of the current web page are printed:

• Select All to print everything.
• Select Pages and enter the range of pages you want to print. For example, selecting "from 1 to 1" prints the first page only.
• Select Selection to print only the part the page you've highlighted.

Copies section - Lets you specify how many duplicates you want to print.

• If you enter more than 1 in the Number of copies field, you can also choose whether to collate them. For example, if you choose to make 2 copies and select Collate, they will print in the order 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Otherwise, they will print in the order 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.

Print Frames section - If you are viewing a web page with frames, you can select how the frames print:

• As laid out on the screen will print the way you see the web page in Firefox.
• The selected frame will print only the content in the frame you've last clicked.
• Each frame separately will print the content from all the frames, but on separate pages.

Mac OS:

• Printer: Change which printer prints the web page you're viewing.
• Presets: Select saved printer settings.
• Copies: Lets you specify how many duplicates you want to print.
  • If you enter more than 1 in the Copies field, you can also choose whether to collate them. For example, if you choose to make 2 copies and select Collate, they will print in the order 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Otherwise, they will print in the order 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
• Pages: Select Pages and enter the range of pages you want to print. For example, selecting "from 1 to 3" prints the first three page of the document only.
• Options:
  • Select Print Selection Only to print only the part the page you've highlighted.
  • Select Shrink To Fit Page Width to scale the web page to be the same width as the paper.
• Appearance:
  • Select Print Background Colors to have Firefox print web pages with color backgrounds as they are shown on the screen. Otherwise, Firefox leaves backgrounds white.
  • Select Print Background Images to have Firefox print web pages with image backgrounds as they are shown on the screen. Otherwise, Firefox makes background a solid color.
• Frames:
  
  
  • As laid out on the screen will print the way you see the web page in Firefox.
  • The selected frame will print only the content in the frame you've last clicked.
  • Each frame separately will print the content from all the frames, but on separate pages.
• Page Headers and Page Footers: Use the dropdown menus to select what appears on the printed page. The top-left dropdown box's value appears at the top-left corner of the page; the top-center dropdown box's value appears at the top-center portion of the page, and so on. You can choose from:
  • --blank--: Nothing will be printed.
  • Title: Print the title of the web page.
  • URL: Print the web address of the web page.
  • Date/ Time: Print the date and time when the web page was printed.
  • Page #: Print the page number.
  • Page # of #: Print the page number and the total number of pages.
  • Custom...: Enter your own header or footer text. This can be used to show a company or organization name at the top or bottom of every printed page.

Linux:

General tab

• Click on a printer in the list to select it.
• Range section:
  • Select "All pages" to print everything.
  • Select "Current page" to print only the page you were viewing when you chose to print.
  • Select "Pages" and enter the range of pages you want to print. For example, entering "1" prints the first page only. Entering "1, 2, 3 - 7" prints pages 1, 2, and 3 through 7.
• Copies section - Lets you specify how many duplicates you want to print.
  • If you enter more than 1 in the Copies field, you can also choose whether to collate them. For example, if you choose to make 2 copies and select Collate, they will print in the order 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Otherwise, they will print in the order 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.
  • Select Reverse to print the pages in reverse order.

Page Setup tab

Lets you change settings for your printer, including two-sided printing, multiple pages per sheet, whether to print even or odd pages only, what paper size to use, and more. The available settings will vary based on your printer.

Options tab

• Print Frames section - If you are viewing a web page with frames, you can select how the frames print:
  
  
  • As laid out on the screen will print the way you see the web page in Firefox.
  • The selected frame will print only the content in the frame you've last clicked.
  • Each frame separately will print the content from all the frames, but on separate pages.
• Select Ignore Scaling and Shrink To Fit Page With to automatically adjust the width of the pages you're printing.
• Select Print selection only to print only the part of the web page you've highlighted.
• Select Print Background Colors to have Firefox print web pages with color backgrounds as they are shown on the screen. Otherwise, Firefox leaves backgrounds white.
• Select Print Background Images to have Firefox print web pages with image backgrounds as they are shown on the screen. Otherwise, Firefox makes background a solid color.
• Header and Footer section - Use the dropdown menus to select what appears on the printed page. The top-left dropdown box's value appears at the top-left corner of the page; the top-center dropdown box's value appears at the top-center portion of the page, and so on. You can choose from:
  • --blank--: Nothing will be printed.
  • Title: Print the title of the web page.
  • URL: Print the web address of the web page.
  • Date/ Time: Print the date and time when the web page was printed.
  • Page #: Print the page number.
  • Page # of #: Print the page number and the total number of pages.
  • Custom...: Enter your own header or footer text. This can be used to show a company or organization name at the top or bottom of every printed page.

Linux:

Changing the page setup

Linux:

To change the paper size for printing and the page orientation:

1. Click on the Firefox File menu and select Page Setup.... The Page Setup window will appear.
   
   
   • Paper size: Select the type of paper for printing.
   • Orientation:
     • Select Portrait for most documents and web pages.
     • Select Landscape for very wide pages and images.
2. Click Apply to save the settings and close the Page Setup window.

Windows:

To change the orientation of the page that prints, change whether background colors and images are printed, page margins, and what to include on the printed pages' header and footer, click on the Firefox File menu and select Page Setup.... The Page Setup window will appear.

Format and Options

The Format & Options tab allows you to change:

• Orientation:
  • Select Portrait for most documents and web pages.
  • Select Landscape for very wide pages and images.
• Scale: To try to make the web page fit on fewer sheets of printed paper, you can adjust the scale. Shrink to fit automatically adjusts the scale.
• Options: Select Print Background (colors & images) to have Firefox print backgrounds for web pages. Otherwise, Firefox leaves page backgrounds white.

Margins and Header/ Footer

The Margins & Header/Footer tab allows you to change:

• Margins: You can enter the width of the page margins for the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the page separately.
• Headers & Footers: Use the dropdown menus to select what appears on the printed page. The top-left dropdown box's value appears at the top-left corner of the page; the top-center dropdown box's value appears at the top-center portion of the page, and so on. Choose from:
  • --blank--: Nothing will be printed.
  • Title: Print the title of the page.
  • URL: Print the web address of the page.
  • Date/ Time: Print the date and time when the page was printed.
  • Page #: Print the page number.
  • Page # of #: Print the page number and the total number of pages.
  • Custom...: Enter your own header or footer text. This can be used to show a company or organization name at the top or bottom of every printed page.

Click OK to finish making changes and close the Page Setup window.

Linux:

Print preview

To see how the web page you want to print will look when printed, click on the Firefox File menu and select Print Preview.
The Print Preview window allows you to change some of the options detailed above. Access the Print window by clicking Print..., or the Page Setup window by clicking Page Setup.... You can also adjust the scaling and orientation (see above).




Click on the arrows next to the Page: field to flip through the pages of the document. The double arrows take you to the first or last page, and the single arrows go to the next or previous page.




Click Close to exit Print preview.