force a bgimage to print????

[flemming]

can someone PLEASE tell me in plain english HOW to force a bgimage to print? Its got to be possible??????? pleasepleaseplease ......

[Dan Morgan]

I think this is more of a client side issue. There is an option in IE for example, Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Print colours and Background Images? This is set off by default in my browser so I guess its the same in other peoples. Try turning yours on and printing. Aside from that, I dont 'believe' there is a way for you to force hte printer to print it.

Dan

[flemming]

thanks Dan, but Hmmmmmmmmmmm ... using the setting in IE isnt an option as i want site visitors to be able to hit the print button and get all the bg images printed without modifying any settings.

Maybe i have to admit defeat darn it ... whose dumb idea was it to make bgimages NOT print by default???? lol

[Ian Alexander]

I wish I could find a way to force this too. It makes a big difference in the appearance of my printed pages. In case anybody's interested, try it both way on my home page www.strictlybmw.com and you'll see.

[redux]

anything that forces different settings onto a user (overriding client-side settings) is a very bad thing(tm) in my opinion.
agreed, it does look better most of the time when it prints with background images...but i for one would be annoyed if i specifically only wanted to print the text on the page and was forced with printing the whole thing as it appears on screen...
just imho, of course

[Ian Alexander]

I suppose some users who maybe have color printers would rather just get the text.

The odds of anybody NEEDING to not print bg images and colors only but still needing the graphics is pretty slim, imo.

I'd think that most people, me included would prefer to have it show on paper as it does on the web. If I was going for all text, I'd just turn images off and then print. I would force it for my audience, if I could. I don't think I'd ever get a complaint or even have anybody notice for that matter.

If I had a different audience, I suppose it could come up as an issue but the people I would offend would probably being surfing with images off anybody.

I suppose that's just something I have to deal with though.

[Wizardx8]

Perhaps use a CSS stylesheet to format the page exactly how you want it for print only, so you can strip all images and still have it print well?

More here:

http://www.alistapart.com/stories/goingtoprint/