Mastering Firefox Print Preview Formatting Options

This article provides a quick overview of how the unified Print Preview modal in the Firefox Web Browser allows users to customize and clean up web pages before printing. By accessing the hidden controls within the print menu, you can easily convert cluttered articles into a Simplified print format, strip away ink-heavy page backgrounds, and remove browser-generated headers and footers for a cleaner final document.

Accessing the Formatting Controls

To begin customizing your printout, open the webpage you wish to print in Firefox and press Ctrl + P on Windows and Linux, or Cmd + P on macOS. This opens the unified Print Preview modal, which displays a live preview of your document on the left and a settings panel on the right.

At the bottom of the right-hand panel, click on More settings to expand the menu and reveal the formatting and page layout controls.

Using the Simplified Print Format

The Simplified format strips away website clutter such as advertisements, navigation menus, pop-ups, and sidebars, leaving only the main body text and necessary inline elements.

  1. Inside the expanded More settings menu, locate the Format section.
  2. Change the selection from Original to Simplified.
  3. The live preview on the left will immediately update to show a clean, text-focused version of the webpage.

Note: The Simplified option relies on Firefox’s Reader View technology. If a webpage is not compatible with Reader View (such as a complex web application or a homepage), the Simplified radio button will be grayed out or unavailable.

Stripping Page Backgrounds

Webpages often use dark background colors or decorative background images that consume large amounts of printer ink and make printed text difficult to read.

  1. Scroll down to the very bottom of the More settings menu until you see the Options section.
  2. Locate the checkbox labeled Print backgrounds.
  3. Uncheck this box.

Once unchecked, the Print Preview modal will strip all CSS background colors and background images from the document, defaulting the page to a plain white background while keeping the main text and essential content images intact.

Removing Headers and Footers

By default, Firefox adds metadata to the top and bottom margins of every printed page, including the webpage title, the full URL, the date and time, and the page number.

  1. Go to the Options section at the bottom of the More settings menu.
  2. Find the checkbox labeled Print headers and footers.
  3. Uncheck this box.

The live preview will instantly refresh, showing clean top and bottom margins devoid of any browser-generated text. Once you have configured these three settings, your preferences are automatically saved for future print jobs, and you can click Print to output your clean document.