Why are browsers so bad at printing HTML?

Post #331,328 by Another Scott 8/14/10 8:41:54 PM Reply	Why are browsers so bad at printing HTML? I wanted to print the first 4 pages of this - http://curbly.com/se...ide-the-trash-can (yeah, it's got a lot of ads and some errors in the HTML, apparently). I'm on WinXP, trying to print to a networked Lexmark E234 laser printer. In a print-preview, Firefox 3.6.8 shows the first page and a blank 2nd page. IE 8 shows the same. IE 6 shows a mess. Opera 9.64 is similar to FF. Chrome lists 13 pages in the print dialog but won't do a preview. Safari's print preview works, but it chugs along at 50% cpu for a long time when told to print but the printer never spits anything out. Why is HTML printing such an afterthought? I thought this stuff was supposed to be WYSIWYG. <grumble> Cheers, Scott.
Post #331,330 by Andrew Grygus 8/14/10 9:34:44 PM Reply	I think much of the "afterthought" . . . . . is by Web page designers - but "afterthought" is a misnomer - they never gave the slightest thought to printing. Of course bloggers are the worst of the lot.
Post #331,347 by folkert 8/15/10 11:17:24 AM Reply	Holy... Did you LOOK at the HTML? its all done in XML and JSON. The Text before the inline ad is on one line... The Text and the Pictures after the inline ad is in one line AND all images are in their own containers {p}{/p}. Blah...
Post #331,348 by Another Scott 8/15/10 11:28:36 AM Reply	No, but I suspected as much. But still, if the browser can show it, why can't it print it? I can understand things like blocked ads or animations causing issues when trying to print, but the fact remains that it can be rendered on a 2D screen, so there should be some WYSIWYG approximation that shows up on paper. There should be some "correct" way to print HTML that browsers should be able to do. OO.org 3.2 wasn't even able to render it properly on the screen. :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #331,354 by pwhysall 8/15/10 1:24:36 PM Reply	Dumped out to PDF in about 1 sec. Safari 5.0.1, OS X 10.6.4. Looks fine.
Post #331,355 by Another Scott 8/15/10 1:29:08 PM Reply	That's cheating. ;-) But may be a good solution. Thanks.
Post #331,360 by static 8/15/10 4:52:33 PM Reply	File it as a bug? Especially with a URL you can provide. Note the latest Opera is 10.6. I don't think there has been printing improvements in that version, but I don't know. Wade. Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #331,365 by Another Scott 8/15/10 10:46:45 PM Reply	Good idea. Doesn't seem to be a priority though... http://support.mozil...t?s=printing&as=s Firefox prints pages in a different layout Certain kinds of web page layout techniques can cause Firefox to print pages incorrectly. Problems can include a different print layout than the screen layout and only the first page being printed. Copy the page to another program You can copy the web page to another program, like a word processor, and print from there. 1. In the Edit menu, choose Select All. 2. Again in the Edit menu, choose Copy. 3. In the other program, choose Edit, then Paste. 4. Print from the other program. Print the page as text You can save the page as plain text and then print that. You will lose any formatting and images on the page. 1. In the File menu, choose Save Page As.... 2. Save the page as a Text File. 3. Open the file you saved and print it. :-/ Cheers, Scott.
Post #331,377 by crazy 8/16/10 7:39:43 AM Reply	Why? On the fly device specific interpretation. Confusion between screen layout possibilities and printer possibilities. That's what bitmapped screen capture is for. Final print quality may suck, but at least everything is there.
Post #331,407 by scoenye 8/16/10 7:42:27 PM Reply	That's what CSS is for :-) I usually do include printer specific CSS that hides the navigation crud, specifies basic font size in points, etc.
Post #331,423 by folkert 8/16/10 10:24:44 PM Reply	You are the exception... 95% of the current Web-Designer / Web Developers pawning themselves off as that... don't even know what the HELL you are talking about.

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