Help:Printing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:04, 4 October 2017

Latest revision as of 15:51, 4 August 2025

(25 intermediate revisions by 16 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{redirect|WP:PRINT|guidance on sources in print|Wikipedia:Offline sources}}

{{Redirect|WP:PRINTABLE|the guidelines on printworthy page titles|Wikipedia:Printability}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}

{{Wikipedia how to}}

{{nutshell|To print a Wikipedia page, select File → Print from your web browser, or click on the browser print icon.}}

In general, printing a Wikipedia [[wp:article|article]] is as simple as selecting ''printablePrintable version'' from the MediaWikitools sidebarmenu on. the sidebar or at the top-right. Your browser probably has its own print preview feature.

The [[MediaWiki]] software that Wikipedia runs on uses [[Cascading Style Sheets]] in order to specify the style and layout ofthat theis printablesuitable to a printed version of athe page. In modern browsers, the print function of the browser should automatically use the rules in the style sheets when you print an article, therefore the ''print'' command of your web browser is also useful.

Certain page elements normally do not print; these include [[wp:self|self references]] like section edit links, navigation boxes, message boxes and metadata.<ref>The rationale for not printing navigation boxes is that these items contain [[wp:wikilinks|wikilinks]] that are of no use to print readers. (See [[User talk:Ruud Koot//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php2010#Do you recall the reason?title=User_talk:Ruud_Koot&oldid=341560230#Do_you_recall_the_reason.3F]]) There are two problems with this rationale: First, other wikilink content does print, ''for example'' [[wp:ALSO|See also]] and [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Succession Box Standardization#Overview|succession boxes]]. Second, navigation boxes do contain useful information regarding the relationship of the article to the subjects of related articles.</ref>

==Printable version==

The default Vector skin has a selection in the lefttools sidebarmenu at the top-right for 'PrintPrintable pageversion'. This printable version is often misunderstood, as it is not exactly a print preview. It does not show page numbers, headers and footers applied by your browser. For a proper print preview, use the one supplied by your browser.

Print page is not needed for any modern browser, as these browsers will parse the <code>media="print"</code> CSS styles included in the markup of Wikipedia pages. The print rules are applied automatically when the page is printed or previewed from the browser.

Printable version does not apply <code>@media print</code> rules from user style sheets—sheets, see below.

Older browsers do not automatically apply print rules when using the browser print feature. These browsers include these versions and older:<ref>{{cite web |title=CSS print media browser conformance |url=http://www.codestyle.org/css/media/print-BrowserSummary.shtml |work=Code Style |accessdate=11 November 2009}}</ref>

* Internet Explorer 3.0 for Windows

* Internet Explorer 4.01 for Mac

* Netscape Navigator 4.73

* Firefox 5 and lower

Printable version does not apply <code>@media print</code> rules from user style sheets— see below.

The print stylesheets are called by link elements on every Wikipedia page such as:

<code><link rel="stylesheet" href="/skins-1.5/common/commonPrint.css?207xx" type="text/css" media="print" /></code>

Older browsers do not support <code><link media= "print"></code>, thus they will ignore this statement and will not automatically apply the printing rules. For these browsers, the printable version is useful. These browsers include these versions and older:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://w3development.de/css/assigning_external_css/link.html |title=Assigning external CSS > link |accessdate=9 April 2009}}</ref>

* Internet Explorer 6

* Netscape Navigator 4

==Plain text==

The Printable version does not contain embedded links or other HTML markup, thus it can be used as a source to cleanly copy and paste into other documents.

==CSS==

MediaWiki provides a print specific styling. This style sheet can be edited only by the developers.

The Wikipedia specific print style sheet is at [[MediaWiki:Print.css]]. This style sheet can supplement and override the base; it can only be edited by admins[[Wikipedia:Interface administrators|interface administrators]].

===Classes===

Line 42 ⟶ 27:

===@media print===

CSS media types define the rules for different types of presentation media. The normal display uses <code>@media screen</code> rules; printing rules can be defined with defined <code>@media print</code>.

==Controlling print==

===Elements===

When creating a new element that should not print, the noprint class can be applied; for example:<syntaxhighlight lang="html">

<pre><span class="noprint">foo</span></pre>

</syntaxhighlight>Here, the content ''foo'' would display, but not print. You can also use {{tl|noprint}}, a template wrapper for the <code>noprint</code> class. Some other templates, such as {{tl|unprintworthy-inline}}, also include the <code>noprint</code> class.

<pre><span class="noprint">foo</span></pre>

Here, the content ''foo'' would display, but not print. You can also use {{tl|noprint}}, a template wrapper for the <code>noprint</code> class. Some other templates, such as {{tl|unprintworthy-inline}}, also include the <code>noprint</code> class.

Conversely, for an element that should print but not show on the display, use the <code>printonly</code> class:

<pre><span class="printonly">foo</span></pre>

This is normally applied to linked citation numbers and document IDs.

===Personal customization===

Line 63 ⟶ 40:

;Print URLs for references in citation templates:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="CSS">/* print URLs for references */

#content cite a.external.text:after {display: inline;}</sourcesyntaxhighlight>

* Note: URLs will always print for references that do not use citation templates

;Do not print references:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="CSS">/* do not print references */

@media print {

ol.references {display: none;}

}</sourcesyntaxhighlight>

;Change the print font size:

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="CSS">/* save ink and paper with very small fonts */

@media print {

#footer,

Line 88 ⟶ 65:

font-weight: normal;

}

}</sourcesyntaxhighlight>

;Remove: space above title, remove "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia", URL, categories, modification text and license text

<sourcesyntaxhighlight lang="CSS">/* Remove non-essential elements */

@media print {

.firstHeading { margin-top: 0; padding-top: 0; }

Line 98 ⟶ 75:

#catlinks, .catlinks { display: none; }

#footer { display: none; }

}</syntaxhighlight>

}</source>

==Problems==

===Blank pages in Internet Explorer===

{{shortcut|WP:IEPRINTFIX}}

<section begin=ieprintfix />When printing with Internet Explorer 7, some pages may be blank except for the header and footer; this can be seen in the browser print preview.

* Issues: The style sheets have rules to adjust the line height for improved readability with superscript and subscript text, including references. IE7 apparently has problems with the <code>line-height</code> CSS property. This issue appears to be resolved in Internet Explorer 8 and above.

* Fix:

<source lang="CSS">@media print {

sup, sub, p, .documentDescription { line-height: normal; }

}</source><section end=ieprintfix />

==Linking==

Line 122 ⟶ 89:

==See also==

* [[Help:Cascading Style Sheets]]

* [[Help:Books]]

* [[User:TheDJ/Print options]]— a script that gives you greater control of how Wikipedia pages are printed.