How to print a news article (without the clutter)
Print a news story cleanly from a computer or phone: reader view, then print, plus fixes for cookie banners, video players, live blogs and stories split across pages.
To print a news article, open the story, switch to your browser's reader view, then press Ctrl+P (Windows) or Command+P (Mac) and print. On an iPhone, tap the page menu in the address bar, tap Show Reader, then tap the page menu again, Share and Print.
News pages are some of the hardest pages on the web to print. A single story can sit inside a cookie banner, a sticky video player, a newsletter sign-up box, a rail of related stories and a comment section, and all of it comes along when you print the page as it is. Reader view keeps the headline, the text and the photos that belong to the story, and drops the rest.
The quick way: reader view, then print
- Safari on a Mac: click the page menu button in the address bar and choose Show Reader, then File > Print. The option only appears when Safari finds an article on the page.
- Firefox: click the Reader View icon in the address bar, then open the menu and click Print. Or skip Reader View: in the print window, open More settings and choose Simplified under Format.
- Microsoft Edge: click the Immersive Reader icon in the address bar (or press F9 on Windows), then press Ctrl+P or Command+P. Microsoft points to Immersive Reader as the way to print without ads and site navigation.
- Chrome: Chrome's reading mode is built for reading, and Google's help does not describe printing from it. Print the page as it is and use the page range to skip what you don't want, or use a print cleanup tool (see Printer friendly version).
- iPhone: in Safari, tap the page menu, Show Reader, then the page menu again, Share, Print.
Check the preview before you print. A story that previews at three or four pages is usually clean; one that previews at twelve has brought the comments and related stories with it.
Fix the problems news pages cause
Cookie and consent banners
Accept or dismiss the banner before you print. A banner that is still on screen can print on top of the first page of the story. In Safari, Hide Distracting Items in the page menu lets you tap a sticky banner and hide it, though Apple notes it does not permanently hide ads or other items that update frequently. Reader view avoids the problem entirely.
Video players and embedded posts
Video can't print. On the full page, a video usually prints as a blank box or a still frame, and a player pinned to the corner of the screen can land on top of the text. Reader view drops most embeds. If a chart or embedded post matters to the story, print the full page for that part, or save it as a PDF and keep both.
Related stories, newsletter boxes and comments
These usually sit after the end of the story. In the print preview, find the page where the article ends and type a range, such as 1-3, in the pages field, so the comments and "more stories" pages never print.
Stories split across several pages
Some sites break a long story into numbered pages. Look for a "view all" or "single page" link near the page numbers before you print. If there isn't one, print or save each page in turn.
Live blogs
A live blog is a stream of short updates, newest first, and reader views often can't recognize it as an article. Scroll to the bottom and press any "load more" button so every update you want is on the page. Then select just the updates you want and print the selection: in Edge, select the text, right-click it and choose Print.
Pages that print blank or only print the first page
Many news pages load photos and later sections as you scroll. Scroll to the end of the story so everything has loaded, then print again. If it still fails, try reader view or Firefox's Simplified format, or save the page as a PDF and print the PDF.
Subscriber-only stories
Reader view only works with what has already loaded in your browser. If you subscribe, sign in first, open the story, then switch to reader view.
Keep the date and address on the page
For most printouts, headers and footers are clutter. For news, they are worth keeping: a printed story changes meaning when you can't tell when it ran. In Safari on a Mac, the print window's Safari options can show the web address and date in headers and footers. In Edge, More settings > Headers and footers adds the date at the top and page numbers at the bottom. Many stories are also updated after they first run, so a printout or PDF records the version you read.
Print a news article on your phone
On an iPhone, Reader then Share, Print works as above, and it needs an AirPrint printer on the same Wi-Fi network. On Android, open the story in Chrome, tap More, Share, then Print, and choose a printer or Save as PDF at the top. Chrome on Android also has Show Reading mode in the same menu for reading the story in a cleaner layout. How to print a webpage from your phone has every step, including what to do without an AirPrint printer.
Save the story as a PDF instead
- Chrome and Edge: in the print window, choose Save as PDF as the destination.
- Firefox: choose Save to PDF.
- Safari on a Mac: click PDF at the bottom of the print window.
- iPhone: tap Share, then Markup, then choose Save File To.
Do it from reader view and the PDF will be as clean as the printout. More options are in How to save a webpage as a PDF.
Common questions
How do I print a news article without the ads?
Use reader view (Safari Reader, Firefox Reader View or Simplified format, Edge Immersive Reader), then print. How to print an article without ads has the full steps for each browser.
Why does the reader view button not appear on a news page?
The browser didn't find an article on the page. That is common on home pages, section fronts, live blogs and video pages. Open the story itself rather than a front page, or print the page and choose a page range.
How do I print several news articles at once?
Browsers print one page at a time, so open each story, switch to reader view and print or save it in turn. Saving each one as a PDF first lets you print them together later.
If you print the news often
If you print long stories to read away from a screen, Offprint does that part for you: text us a link whenever you find something worth reading, and your saves become a printed magazine mailed to you, set in clean type without the banners and players. For a single story today, reader view and print is all you need, and How to print an article covers articles from any kind of site.