Some pages get printed or saved as files, and by default a browser prints the whole interface. A short print stylesheet removes the navigation and the widgets, fixes the layout, and prints the address of any link, which turns a broken output into a usable document.

Which pages actually get printed

Fewer than all of them, which is why this is a small job rather than a project.

The audience is skewed too. Printing correlates strongly with older visitors, with commercial customers who file things, and with anyone taking information to a job site.

For a trades or professional business, that is not a marginal group.

What happens without one

The browser prints what is on screen, which includes everything designed for a screen.

The navigation appears at the top of the first page. A cookie banner or a chat widget prints wherever it was sitting. Background colours either print as heavy blocks or are dropped, depending on settings, which can leave white text on white paper.

Multi-column layouts break unpredictably. Images run over page boundaries. And links print as underlined text with no indication of where they went, which makes any reference in the content useless on paper.

The result is three pages of output containing one page of content, and the visitor concludes the site is poorly made.

What a print stylesheet does

Removes what is not content

Navigation, footer, sidebars, cookie notices, chat widgets, social buttons, and any promotional block. None of them mean anything on paper.

Fixes the colours

Black text on white, since coloured text prints poorly and background blocks waste ink. This also solves the white-on-white failure.

Prints the address of links

Appending the destination after each link, so a printed page referencing another page is usable. A few lines, and it is the change that most improves a printed reference document.

Controls page breaks

Preventing a heading from printing alone at the bottom of a page, keeping table rows together, and stopping images splitting across pages.

Collapses the layout to one column

Since paper is narrower than most desktop layouts and multi-column output rarely survives.

What to add rather than remove

The part usually forgotten, and where a printed page can be better than the screen version.

Your business name, phone number, and address at the top, which the screen version carries in the header you just removed. A printed quote or price list with no way to contact you is a lost document.

A date, so anybody who finds the printout later knows how current it is. For a price list this matters considerably.

The page address, so somebody can return to it.

Those three take a few lines and turn a printed page into something that works as a standalone document.

The save-as-file case

Worth noting because it is now more common than printing on paper.

Saving a page as a file uses the same print styles, which means the file inherits whatever the print output looks like. A visitor saving your price list to their phone gets the same result as somebody printing it.

That makes this worth doing even for a business whose customers never touch a printer, and it is the more common path for a quote or a confirmation.

Where a print button helps

On pages genuinely intended to be printed, a visible button is worth adding, since a share of visitors will not think to print a web page.

On a price list, a checklist, or a confirmation, it signals that the page is meant to be taken away. Elsewhere it is clutter.

Where the page is a formal document such as a detailed quote, generating a proper file is better than relying on print styles, since it gives full control and produces something that looks intentional.

Testing it

Browsers include a print preview, and the developer tools allow emulating print styles so you can inspect the output without printing anything.

Preview your price list, your contact page, and one service page. Check nothing important is missing, nothing pointless is included, and the contact details appear.

Then print one page on actual paper, since preview does not always match, particularly around backgrounds and page breaks.

The proportionate view

This is half an hour of work in a stylesheet, applied once, affecting a small but real share of visitors.

It sits in the same category as the favicon and the copyright year: individually minor, collectively the difference between a site that feels finished and one that does not, and it is the sort of detail that shows up when somebody takes your document to a meeting alongside a competitor's, which is where the physical impression matters most, as covered in uniforms, cards, and the physical brand.

Frequently asked questions

Which pages actually get printed?

Price lists and menus, quotes, instructions and checklists, contact and location pages, confirmations, and terms. Printing also correlates with older visitors and commercial customers.

What happens without print styles?

The browser prints the navigation, the cookie banner, and the chat widget alongside the content, background colours print as blocks or drop out, and links print with no indication of where they went.

What should a print stylesheet do?

Remove everything that is not content, set black text on white, print the address after each link, control page breaks, and collapse the layout to one column.

What should be added for print?

Your business name, phone number, and address, since the header was removed. Plus a date and the page address, which turn the printout into a standalone document.

Does this matter if nobody prints?

Yes. Saving a page as a file uses the same print styles, and that is now the more common path for a quote, a price list, or a confirmation.

How do I test it?

Use the browser print preview and the developer tools print emulation, then print one page on actual paper, since preview does not always match for backgrounds and page breaks.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Price list that prints as four pages of navigation?

We add the print styles so it comes out as a usable document with your phone number on it.

Start a Conversation