How to print an article without ads (every major browser)

Printing a web page as it appears on screen usually gets you everything around the article too: banner ads, menus, sign-up boxes, related links and blank spaces where an ad failed to load. The fix is to print a cleaned-up version of the page instead. Every major browser has some way to do that, and the steps differ enough that it is worth going one by one.

The short version: switch the page into your browser's reader view, then print. If your browser has no reader view that prints, use a print-cleanup extension.

Safari on Mac

Safari's Reader shows an article on one page, formatted for reading, without navigation or other distractions.

1. Open the article in Safari.
2. Click the Page menu button in the Smart Search field (the address bar), then choose Show Reader. If the option is missing, Safari did not recognize an article on that page.
3. Optional: adjust the font, size and background color while in Reader.
4. Choose File > Print.
5. To get a PDF instead of paper, click PDF at the bottom of the print dialog.

Safari on iPhone and iPad

1. Open the article in Safari.
2. Tap the Page Menu button in the address bar, then tap Show Reader.
3. Tap the Page Menu button again, tap Share, then choose Print.

If you want every supported site to open in Reader automatically, go to Settings > Apps > Safari > Reader and turn on All Websites.

Safari also has a newer tool called Distraction Control (macOS 15 or later, iOS and iPadOS 18 or later) that hides individual items you tap on. It is handy for a sticky banner that never changes, but Apple notes that it does not permanently hide ads or other items that update frequently, so Reader is the better choice for printing.

Firefox

Firefox gives you two ways to print without the clutter.

Option 1: Reader View, then print.

1. Open the article.
2. Click the Reader View icon in the address bar. It only appears when Firefox can show the page in Reader View.
3. Open the menu and click Print.

Option 2: Simplified format in the print dialog.

1. Open the article and press Ctrl+P (Windows) or Cmd+P (Mac).
2. Under Format, choose Simplified. The preview switches to a stripped-down version of the page without buttons, ads and background images.
3. Print.

The Format setting does not appear if Firefox cannot build a simplified version of the page, or if you already turned on Reader View before printing. In that second case you are already printing the clean version.

Microsoft Edge

Edge's Immersive Reader strips surrounding material such as ads and site navigation, and Microsoft points to it as the way to get a clutter-free printout.

1. Open the article.
2. Select the Immersive Reader icon in the address bar, or press F9 on Windows.
3. Press Ctrl+P (Windows) or Cmd+P (Mac), or choose Settings and more > Print.

Google Chrome

Chrome has a Reading mode (right-click the page and choose Open in reading mode, or go to More > More tools > Reading mode), but Google's help pages describe it as a way to read with fewer distractions, not as a way to print. Chrome's standard print dialog prints the page as it is.

For a clean printout in Chrome, the most reliable route is an extension. PrintFriendly, available for Chrome and Firefox, turns a page into a printer-friendly version, removes ads, and lets you click to delete any remaining section or image before you print or save a PDF.

When reader mode does not work

Reader views guess where the article is. Most of the time they guess right. When they do not, you will see one of these:

• The reader button is missing. The browser did not find an article on the page. This is common on home pages, comment threads and pages that load their text with scripts. Try another browser's reader view, or use a print-cleanup extension and delete the unwanted blocks by hand.
• Part of the article is missing. Some sites split a story across several pages or load the rest only after you scroll. Scroll to the bottom first, look for a "single page" or "view all" link, then try again.
• Images disappeared. Reader views keep the main images but often drop galleries, charts built with scripts and embedded posts. If you need them, print the normal page and accept some clutter, or delete blocks by hand in a print extension.
• Subscriber-only articles. Reader view only works with what has already loaded in your browser. If you subscribe, sign in first, open the article, then switch to reader view.

Tips for a better printout

• Preview before printing. Every print dialog above shows a preview. Check the page count; a 3-page article that previews at 12 pages usually means comments or related stories came along.
• Print only the pages you want. Use the page range field to skip a trailing comments section.
• Save as PDF first if you plan to print later or on another machine. In Safari, click PDF in the print dialog; in Chrome, choose Save as PDF as the destination.

For print settings in every browser and on phones, see How to print a webpage.

If you print articles often

If you find yourself printing articles regularly, reading on paper is clearly working for you, and doing it one page at a time gets old. Offprint is built for exactly that habit: you text it a link whenever you find something worth reading, and your saves become a printed magazine mailed to your door. It typesets the article itself rather than printing the web page, so menus and sign-up boxes are not part of what you get.

For a single article today, though, reader view plus print is all you need. More ways to do it are in How to print an article.