User:TheDJ/Print options

The Print dialog in action.

Print options is a script that gives you greater control over how Wikipedia pages are printed.

Usage

The "Printable version" link in your sidebar will be replaced with a new "Print page" link. When clicked you will be presented with a dialog as shown to the right. The dialog has the following print options:

Hide images

Will remove all images from the printout.

Hide references

Will remove all references and reference indicators from the printout.

Remove backgrounds

Will remove all backgrounds from the printout.

Force all text to black

All text will render as black, including links. Saves ink and might be more legible on paper.

Hide interface elements

This is the default mode and the way pages are normally printed. This mode hides all user interface elements, but also all metadata elements such as the warning templates and navigation boxes (See also Help:Print).

Disabling this option will make all those elements visible again. Disabling this option might NOT work on all browsers. It is currently tested with Safari and Chrome and in the future hopefully will work with Opera and Firefox. Internet Explorer support is currently untested.

The script also makes sure that the "Retrieved from:" link is human readable, instead of being URI encoded.

Examples

The following PDFs show example output as generated by Safari and printed to PDF:

• 
  Printout with no images and black text.
• 
  Printout with no references and no backgrounds.
• 
  Printout with all the interface elements.

Installation

To enable the script, simply:

• go to the Gadgets section of your Special:Preferences.
• under Browsing check "Print options: control how pages are printed (for example, remove images or backgrounds)"
• click the Save button.