[RESOLVED] Printing Web Pages - truncation problem

[shiva_42]

I have this problem with IE 6 at the moment, but with ALL browsers really:

Trying to print a web page, but the right side of the page gets truncated and cut off, losing a portion of the data.

Is there no way to tell my browser to automatically "fit" the viewed page onto a normal letter-size piece of paper during the print without having to go through a whole "capture and resize" process to achieve it?

This seems really simple and I feel stupid asking, but this is a constant irritation for me. All I want to do is hit the "print" button in my browser and get the whole page, as viewed, to print correctly.

[DanC]

Firefox has a "shrink-to-fit" printer setup option. You can leave that setting and use it by default.

IE is pretty limited as far as options. If your margins are already set to minimum there's not much you can do. I think you're at the mercy of the individual web page designers.

[shiva_42]

Firefox has a "shrink-to-fit" printer setup option. You can leave that setting and use it by default.

IE is pretty limited as far as options. If your margins are already set to minimum there's not much you can do. I think you're at the mercy of the individual web page designers.

Thanks for the info. I'm just astounded that something so simple has turned out to be so difficult to manage... it just doesn't seem like it ought to be so hard.

[SpywareDr]

FWIW, many printers also have a "Scale to fit" (or similar) setting.

[Welshjim]

shiva_42--
DanC has said

If your margins are already set to minimum there's not much you can do.

That raises the question, are your margins set at minimum? Click File|Page Setup. The minimum left and right margins are 0.125 inches. If not set there, do so. Default often is set at 0.25 in IE.
Also your printer should allow printing in Landscape mode (width more than height) rather than Portrait mode. Check out the printer's Preferences or Options when first start the printing process.

[shiva_42]

shiva_42--
DanC has said
That raises the question, are your margins set at minimum? Click File|Page Setup. The minimum left and right margins are 0.125 inches. If not set there, do so. Default often is set at 0.25 in IE.
Also your printer should allow printing in Landscape mode (width more than height) rather than Portrait mode. Check out the printer's Preferences or Options when first start the printing process.

Yep... this isn't a margin problem, this is a page-layout problem. Many (MANY) web pages aren't scaled to fit a normal letter-sized printout. I know about the abilities of Firefox and some other browsers, but I mostly have this problem with IE6. I've seen some commercial products that claim to solve this problem, I'm just amazed that there's not a more direct way of dealing with it. You'd think that IE would have the "scale to fit" option, but I guess that simple need is just not obvious to M$. Oh well, another victory for Firefox!!!

[SuperSparks]

It's a well known bug in IE6 and earlier. It's been fixed in IE7, if you can get hold of a beta copy.

[shiva_42]

It's a well known bug in IE6 and earlier. It's been fixed in IE7, if you can get hold of a beta copy.

WELL, did not know that! I'll probably wait for a production release (I'm suspicious ENOUGH of production stuff from M$... don't run their beta stuff at all). That's good news! I can just continue to jump over to Firefox in the meantime.

Where did you see info about this fix in the upcoming revision btw?

[DanC]

I saw it in Scott Finnie's newsletter. He does beta's. I read about them.

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/72.htm

IE7's new "shrink to fit" print feature, which reformats Web pages so they print comfortably on a letter-sized sheet of paper, works nicely.