Printing webpages: frequently asked questions

When you print a webpage, Internet Explorer shrinks the content of the webpage to fit the width of your paper. If the webpage is wide, reducing the text size to fit the page can cause the text to be unreadably small. You can work around this by trying one of the following:

• Change print orientation to landscape.

• Select portions of the webpage and print them separately. See the question "How do I print specific parts of a webpage?" that appears later in this topic to learn how to do this.

• Click the arrow next to the Print button , click Print Preview, and then click Custom in the Change Print Size list. Specify how large you would like the webpage to be printed by setting a percentage in the Custom Size text box. This will enlarge the printed size of the entire webpage, but it might result in some of the webpage being cut off in the printed document. For more information about print preview, see Preview the appearance of a printed webpage.

  1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Internet Explorer, and then, in the list of results, click Internet Explorer.

  2. Click the arrow next to the Print button , and then click Print Preview.
  3. In the Change Print Size list , click Custom.

  4. In the Custom Size text box, specify how large you want the webpage to be printed by setting a percentage. This will enlarge the printed size of the entire webpage, but it might result in some of the webpage being cut off in the printed document.

For more information about print preview, see Preview the appearance of a printed webpage

To improve legibility when printing webpages, it might be helpful to stop printing background colors and images. That way, the text will stand out more clearly.

When you click the Print button in Internet Explorer, the webpage is printed directly to your default printer. If you want to choose printing options before the page is sent to the printer, do one of the following:

• Click the arrow next to the Print button , and then click Print.

• Right-click the webpage, and then click Print.

• Click the arrow next to the Print button, click Print Preview, and then print from the preview.

• Click the File menu, and then click Print.

Some webpages specify exactly where text should print on the page. If the webpage you're printing specifies exactly where the text should print, Shrink To Fit will not work. You can work around this problem by setting a custom scale in print preview. For more information about print preview, see Preview the appearance of a printed webpage.

If you want to print only a specific part of a webpage (instead of printing the whole thing), follow the steps below.

No, you can only print one selection at a time.

Printing changes made within Internet Explorer are always temporary. To make changes permanently, you need to change them in Windows. For information about changing Windows print options, see Choosing print options.

Some multimedia content (such as videos, slide shows, or content created with Adobe Flash) does not print when you print a webpage. To print this type of content, right-click the image or control, and then click Print. Be aware that not all websites will let you print this type of content, due to copyright restrictions. If the Print option is not available, the website will not let you print the content.

Internet Explorer uses the same Windows printing capabilities that other programs use. Your printer must be correctly installed and working in Windows to be able to print webpages. If your printer isn't working with Internet Explorer, try it with a different program, such as your word processor or spreadsheet program.