# How to print a wide web page **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915 "2005-08-20T20:29:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ronifreton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@ronifreton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ronifreton)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/1 "2005-08-20T20:29:33Z")
How do you print a wide web page? (Wider than simply printing in Landscape) Ideally, I would like to just shrink it to fit the paper. But right now I would settle for just getting it all, any way at all - I can never get the right side of these wide screens to print at all. This is often a problem with things like TV listings, and shopping catalog pages. I’ve got XP Home Edition 2002 and the latest IE browser, with Word 2000 as the editor. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/2 "2005-08-20T22:05:23Z")
On _my_ computer I can select **file-\>print preview** and can select the scale from there. I don’t know if it’s the same on all computers, or if it varies according to the printer software. It may or may not work with your printer configuration. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/3 "2005-08-21T00:27:26Z")
Perhaps you can print in landscape mode? I have never done that, but it sounds reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/4 "2005-08-21T11:43:57Z")
Most printer drivers allow you to scale the page down to the paper size. After you choose File -\> Print, click the “Preferences” button and look around for something like “Scale” or “Size” or “Reduce/Enlarge”, etc. If your particular drivers don’t support that, you can also try [Firefox](http://www.getfirefox.com), whose Page Setup function lets you manually scale a website down for printing. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/5 "2005-08-21T11:45:42Z")
Forgot to specify that I meant File -\> Print from within Internet Explorer, not Word 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/6 "2005-08-21T17:31:01Z")
Usually when I encounter such sites, I would select all the content (CTRL + A), copy and paste them in Word. A lot number of elements do get carried away, and you have the opportunty to do some editing (like getting rid of ink-wasting banners/backgrounds). And when you print, it will fit an A4 size paper. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/7 "2005-08-21T18:16:47Z")
I definitely agree with ExtraKun. I think the worst printing option for a webpage is just selecting Print… How many times have we chosen that option for a slightly-than-larger web page and we end up getting 4 pages printed? 95% of the content ends up on page one and the other 3 pages consist of edges and corners. I just copy and paste the text (and images) that I want and print that. Let’s face it, sometimes you just want 1 paragraph of a 6 page article. ---
**Author:** ![ronifreton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@ronifreton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ronifreton)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/8 "2005-08-21T18:44:35Z")
**wolf\_meister** There’s a much simpler way to get just a paragraph than using Word. You highlight it and then chose Print and instead of All, pick Selection. **ExtraKun** - I tried that, but I can’t figure out an easy way to get Word to print the wide page either. And I can’t seem to just shrink it. With Excel, you can go to the print page and pull in the page boundaries and squeeze a wide table to fit a page. But Word doesn’t do that. And something like changing the font size just destroys all the column alignments, so the table is illegible. **Peter Morris** The Print Preview size only applies to the viewing window, not printing itself. **reply** - My printer does have a “advanced option” for Shink to Fit, which I select but then it gets ignored. **robcaro** The problem arises when there’s too much width for Landscape, as mentioned in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/9 "2005-08-21T21:54:48Z")
If your printer doesn’t have a “shrink to fit” or similar option, try printing from the Opera browser. The browser has a “Fit to window width” option, which fits any wide web page to the screen width. You can then print it out the usual way. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-print-a-wide-web-page/317915/10 "2005-08-22T13:34:55Z")
> [@](#): > > **ExtraKun** - I tried that, but I can’t figure out an easy way to get Word to print the wide page either. And I can’t seem to just shrink it. With Excel, you can go to the print page and pull in the page boundaries and squeeze a wide table to fit a page. But Word doesn’t do that. And something like changing the font size just destroys all the column alignments, so the table is illegible. Are you doing in a new HTML document, or a normal, new Word document?