Printing Tips - Remove Header and Footer

By default browsers will add the date, page number and URL to any page printed from the Internet. For most (if not all) of the printables on this site, you probably don't want text at the top and bottom of the page. Luckily it's pretty easy to fix, just pick your browser and follow the instructions below.

These are just here as a guide, I give no guarantees that it will work on all Operating Systems or printers, but they are working for me. Oh, and yes, your computer will probably look a bit different (especially in the Windows screenshots), but the main idea is the same.

Internet Explorer 7 and up

By default there's a small image of a printer, click that and go to "Page Setup...". Below is a screenshot showing the button you're looking for.

That will open something similar to this (Pardon the old screenshot, I don't have access to a PC with a printer right now to get new pictures, but the set up is the same.)

Click the "OK" button and you're done.

The default for header is &w&bPage &p of &P and for footer &u&b&d if you need to put it back later. IE's default margins are 0.75 inches.

Firefox

From the menu in the top left corner of your browser, choose "File", then "Page setup..". Go to the second tab called "Margins & Header / Footer", in the drop down lists choose "Blank" for all the items you don't want printed. The screenshot below gives a better view of what I mean.

If you want, you can also adjust the print margins here as well, Firefox's default margins are set at 0.5 inches. Once you have your setting chosen, click "OK", and you're done!

If you'd like a faster way to get to the print preview feature from within Firefox, the Print / Print Preview extensions is very handy. It adds a submenu to your context menu (the menu that pops up when you right click on a webpage) with "Print", "Print Preview" and "Page Setup". Much faster if you change margins, headers etc. often.

Google's Chrome

Chrome has an odd way to do this, it seems the only way to disable the header and footer on the printed page is to disable the print preview. I don't have access right now to a PC with a printer, so maybe I just missed it when I last checked, and maybe by the time you read this there has been an update, but this is how I got them disabled.

1. Paste this into the address bar: chrome://flags
2. Hit enter
3. Look for "Print Preview" (Control F makes this easier), click disable.
4. Restart Chrome.

Opera

Pretty much the same as for Firefox. Go to "File" (top left corner of your browser), then choose "Print Options...". Now uncheck the "Print headers and footers" checkbox, click OK.