Tips for Printing Web Content

Printing web pages and images is generally quite easy. Below are some tips to help you get started. Remember: before printing materials from our web sites, see the Learning Page's Copyright Statement for information on Fair Use and American Memory.

The easiest way to print web pages is to hit the print button on your web browser's toolbar. Alternatively, you can access print commands from the file menu.

Netscape Navigator allows you to print an image from the web without the rest of the information on the web page, although the process is a little more involved. Put your mouse over the image you would like to print. Click the right mouse button (Mac users: hold down the mouse button). A menu will appear. Select the option to "view image." Your image will now appear alone on a new page. Print this page as you would any other web page.

Web pages with white text on a dark background will not automatically print out as black text on a light background. To print pages with dark backgrounds and white text, you will need to change your preferences on your web browser.

For Netscape Navigator:

On the browser menubar, select Edit - Preferences - Appearance - Colors. Select black as your font color and white as your background color. Then, check the box "always use my colors, overriding document colors." Then, print the page as you would any other web page. When you are finished printing, you may want to return to the colors menu and uncheck the box "always use my colors, overriding document colors."

For Internet Explorer:

On the browser tool bar, choose Tools - Internet Options. At the bottom of the Internet Options - General menu, choose Colors. On the Colors menu, change the background color to white and the text color to black. Then, print the page as you would any other web page.

If you are viewing a web site with frames, make sure you click your mouse on the frame you want to print before hitting the print button.