Printer friendly version: how to get one for any webpage

A printer friendly version is a copy of a webpage laid out for paper: the text and the images that belong to it, without the menus, ads, sidebars, buttons and video players. Some sites offer one through a print button or icon near the headline. When a site doesn't, you can usually make your own: open the page in reader view and print that, or in Firefox choose Simplified in the print settings. Reader view only appears on pages the browser recognizes as an article, so for other pages turn off backgrounds, headers and footers in the print settings, or use a print cleanup tool (both below).

Make a printer friendly version in your browser

Safari on a Mac

1. Click the page menu button in the address bar (the Smart Search field) and choose Show Reader. The option only appears when Safari finds an article on the page.
2. Choose File > Print.
3. To make a PDF instead of a printout, click PDF at the bottom of the print window.

Safari on iPhone and iPad

1. Tap the page menu button in the address bar, then Show Reader.
2. Tap the page menu button again, tap Share, then Print.

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

Firefox

Firefox has the closest thing to a built-in printer friendly button.

1. Press Ctrl+P (Windows) or Command+P (Mac), or choose Print from the menu.
2. Open More settings and, under Format, choose Simplified. The preview switches to a version without buttons, ads and background images.
3. Click Print.

If Format is missing, Firefox could not build a simplified version of that page, or Reader View is already on (in which case you are already printing the clean version).

Microsoft Edge

1. Click the Immersive Reader icon in the address bar, or press F9 on Windows.
2. Press Ctrl+P or Command+P and print.

Microsoft says it is working on a clutter-free option inside the print window itself; until then, it points to Immersive Reader as the way to print without ads and site navigation.

Chrome

Chrome has a reading mode (right-click the page and choose Open in reading mode), but Google's help describes it as a way to read with fewer distractions, not as a way to print. Older guides mention a "Simplify page" checkbox in Chrome's print preview; Google's current print help doesn't list it, so don't count on finding it. In Chrome, the dependable route is a print cleanup extension (see below), or printing a page range.

Print settings that make any page friendlier

Even without reader view, the print window can do a lot. These are the settings worth knowing:

• Background graphics. Leave it off to skip background colors and images and save ink. Turn it on if the preview looks wrong without them. In Edge it is under More settings; in Safari on a Mac it is in the Safari section of the print options.
• Headers and footers. These add the date, page numbers and, in Safari, the web address. Turn them off for a cleaner page, or keep them if you want to know later where the printout came from.
• Pages. Type a range, such as 1-3, to stop before the comments and "read next" boxes. Edge can also print odd or even pages only.
• Scale and margins. If text is cut off on the right, choose a smaller scale or Fit to printable area. Narrower margins fit more on each sheet.
• Selection only. Select the part of the page you want, then print just that. In Edge, select the text, right-click it and choose Print.

How to print a webpage walks through these settings browser by browser.

Use a print cleanup extension or web tool

When reader view isn't offered or cuts too much, a cleanup tool lets you choose what stays. PrintFriendly, for example, describes itself as removing ads, navigation and other clutter before you print or save a PDF, letting you preview and edit the page first. It works as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, and on its website you can paste a page's address instead of installing anything.

Save the printer friendly version as a PDF

Once the page looks right in the preview, choose Save as PDF (Chrome, Edge), Save to PDF (Firefox) or the PDF button (Safari on a Mac) instead of a printer. The PDF keeps exactly what the preview showed, so you can print it later or on another machine. How to save a webpage as a PDF covers phones too.

When reader view fails

Reader views guess where the main text is. On home pages, comment threads, galleries and pages built from many small pieces, they often guess wrong or don't appear at all. Try a different browser's reader view, which may read the page differently. In Safari, Hide Distracting Items in the page menu lets you tap a banner or sidebar and hide it before printing. For news sites, which add their own problems such as live blogs and stories split across pages, see How to print a news article.

Common questions

What does printer friendly mean?

A printer friendly page is formatted for paper rather than a screen: one column of text, the images that matter, readable type, and none of the navigation, ads or interactive parts that make no sense on paper.

How do I get a printer friendly version without an extension?

Use the reader view built into your browser (Safari Reader, Firefox Reader View or the Simplified format, Edge Immersive Reader) and print from there. All of them are free and already installed.

Why is there no reader view button on some pages?

The browser didn't recognize an article on the page. Safari shows the Reader option only when a page has an article it can show, Firefox shows the Reader View icon only when the page can be displayed that way, and Google says Chrome's reading mode isn't available on all websites.

Is a printer friendly version the same as a PDF?

No. The printer friendly version is the cleaned-up layout; a PDF is a file. You can save a printer friendly version as a PDF, and you can also save the cluttered original as one.

If you'd rather skip the printer

If you make printer friendly copies of articles because you like reading them on paper, Offprint does it in one step: text us a link whenever you find something worth reading, and your saves become a printed magazine mailed to you. For a single page today, reader view and print is all you need; for articles in particular, see How to print an article without ads.