398th Web Site Printing Tips

Introduction

Similar to viewing, printing web pages is dependent on many factors in particular the operating system, web browser and version, printer, and paper size. Many but not all pages have been tested for printing. And as with viewing pages, in general the more up-to-date browser the better. Later versions of printers and printer drivers can also help. Testing has taken place using Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and Firefox for PCs and Safari 3.1 and Firefox 2.0 for Macs. The most problems occur with Internet Explorer 6.

Some may find the most difficult pages to print are the Crew or the Aircraft Photo pages. Part of the reason is that the images are rather large (in general 864 pixels wide) and need to be shrunk by your software to fit on the page. The large size was chosen so that detail could be brought out in the photos. With this size, rivets on the aircraft, rings on fingers and details of their faces and clothing can be seen on many photos.

At times, other print problems such as part of the text being pushed off the page to the right can occur. Below are some specific tips in printing from either PCs or Macs.

Printing from PCs

Better results occur with newer browsers but can also depend on having an updated operating system and sometimes a newer printer or updated printer driver for your older printer.

  1. Internet Explorer (version 5): With Internet Explorer 5, the picture will proportionally decrease to fit the size of your printed page, including portrait mode. Unlike Explorer for the Mac (see below), there are no controls under Print Preview to Shrink Pages to Fit or to make the text smaller or smaller. However, there should be a scaling option under your Page Setup option which may help if the text doesn't show under the picture. Try practicing on the Hopkins' Crew Photo. This solution was tested on Windows 2000. Explorer 5 is a fairly old browser and may not render pages appropriately and you should have better results with IE6, IE 7, or IE8.
  2. Internet Explorer (version 6): I have not been able to fully test, but the solution may be the same as Internet Explorer 5.
  3. Internet Explorer (version 7): Perform a Print Preview, then Shrink to Fit. You can also experiment with various scales. Around 70% is about right for the Crew Photos.
  4. Internet Explorer (version 8): Not tested
  5. Downloading the Image: If you are interested in the image and not the text on the same page, you may wish to download the image to your desktop and then use any of a number of photo editors to shrink, crop or perform other photo editing actions. You can download the picture from the web site by right-clicking and saving the picture in a folder such as My Pictures. The picture is in jpeg format and then can be opened in your photo editor, adjusted and then printed. Typical photo editors are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and your built-in Paint program (found under Accessories).
  6. Using Window Paint: Open the downloaded jpeg picture in Windows Paint. Then under Print, click on Print Preview. If the picture looks too big try the orientation landscape. If that doesn't work, select all, go to Image, Stretch/Skew, and change both horizontal and vertical options to the same percentages, then go back and check Print Preview again.

Printing from Macs

Better results occur with newer browsers but can also depend on having an updated operating system and sometimes a newer printer or updated printer driver for your older printer.

  1. Safari Browser (version 3): From Safari choose Print then Preview. This action will open up the Preview application and you will see what fits on the page. If all the text you wish to have on a page does not fit or doesn't look right, then you need to go back to Safari and under the View Menu select Make Text Smaller one or more times until what you need fits. You will need to do a new Print Preview each time. One can also experiment with the various View options in Preview; however, I have found it best to make text size adjustments in Safari as mentioned above. Try it on the Hopkins' Crew Photo for practice.
  2. Downloading the Image: If you are just interested in the image and not the text on the same page, you may wish to download the image to your desktop and then use any of a number of photo editors to shrink, crop or perform other photo editing actions. To do this in Safari, either: 1) drag the image to your desktop, or 2) control click the image and choose Save Image to Download. The picture is in jpeg format and then can be opened in your photo editor, adjusted and then printed. Typical photo editors are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Apple's iPhoto.