How can I print background images in FF or IE? - html

Question

Is there any way to set ff and ie to print background images?
I am using stars image to classify some skills and I set it as a background image and positioning to either set one start, two, three, etc. When I try to print the page the images disappear.
So is there any way to make them appear when I print the page or at least have a way of replacing the images with * or something that would be visible?

Answer 1

Have you considered using a print stylesheet? This could allow you to do something like:
<div class="star">*</div>
/* media:screen */
.star {
background: ...;
overflow: hidden;
text-indent: 9999em;
}
/* media:print */
.star {
text-indent: 0;
}
or even easier:
<div class="star"><img src="./images/star.jpg" alt="*" /></div>
/* media:screen */
.star img {
visibility: hidden;
}
/* media:print */
.star img {
visibility: visible;
}
You can specify stylesheets browsers should use by supplying a media tag, either by css or on the link element:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="main.css" media="screen" />
<link rel="print stylesheet" type="text/css" href="print.css" media="print" />

Answer 2

In Firefox, go to File => Page Setup. There is a checkbox for "Print Background (colors & images)". Just check that and you should be all set.

Answer 3

In your print.css file change the background-image to a list item.
So:
.background {
display: list-item;
list-style-image: url(yourbackgroundimage.gif);
list-style-position: inside;
}
This method is described more here: http://www.web-graphics.com/mtarchive/001703.php

Answer 4

Actually I found the answer to be rather simple.
Situation: I had a div tag with a background image. Which would not printout when printing.
Solution:
Create another style sheet called "print.css"
Add the following line of code to your all your web pages right after your orginal css stylesheet link:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="css/print_styles.css" />
Immediately after your for the original non printing header, add the following:
<div id="header"></div> <!-- YOUR NON PRINTING HEADER -->
<div id="printheader"><img src="images/header_image.jpg" width="940" height="100" alt="header" /></div>
In your style.css file, which is the main css style for you site, add the following line:
#printheader {display: none; } /* Makes the print header not visible */
In your print.css file, add the following code:
#footer, #nav, #sidenav, .print, .search, .breadcrumb, .noprint {display: none;} /* Items from your page you DO NOT want to print */
#container, #container2, #contentwide, #contentwide_tpsub, #contentwide_tp, #contentwide_open {width: 100%; margin: 0; float: none;} /* Clear widths to ensure all text is printed */
#printheader {display: block; } /* Turns ON the div when printing */
What you are doing is essentially turning OFF the header on the normal "screen" page and turning the printheader ON when you make a print call.
** Please note: you will need to modify the print.css file to include other elements of your style.css file to format the fonts, colors, etc. Play around with "Print Preview" and add in the elements you need till you get the printout that you've been seeking.

Answer 5

Don't use background-image to display printable images, use the normal <img> tag instead.
background-image is meant for unimportant images which most modern browsers tend to skip during printing (default setting in IE 11, Chrome 35, FF 30).
Why would you not want to use the img tag?
Alignment issues - Use absolute positioning to solve alignment issues.
Spriting - Spriting is possible using simple img and div tags.
Make it more difficult for users to save the image - That is also possible with simple img and div tags.
To "keep my HTML clean" - do any of the workaround solutions really make it cleaner for you? Give it up :)

Answer 6

For IE http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980077
There must be something similar for FF.
p.s. you cannot set this for clients!
p.s.2. you can replace this stars with foreground pictures (absolute if needed) in css (media="print").

Answer 7

I had the same issue with IE not supporting the printing the background.
So I created 2 divs, one div had a higher Z and had the text content. The second div was immediately behind the front div but a lower Z index and had a image (img not background image) for width and height of 100%. So when I showed the 2 divs together it looked like one div because they perfectly overlapped. When I printed in IE Browser it shows with image because the image is not a background image but a normal img tag that fills a lower div.
some code.
<div id="survey" class="surveyResponseWindow" style="display:none;">Please logout and re-login, because your session has expired.</div>
<div id="surveyBackground" class="surveyBackgroundDiv" style="display:none;">
<!-- provides the background image for ie browser so that it does not show the lower level divs. -->
<img src="/rsm/jsp/public/images/contentGrad.gif" width="100%" height="100%" />
</div>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function showSurvey(surveyResponseId) {
var e = document.getElementById("survey");
var bkgd = document.getElementById("surveyBackground");
var focusinput = document.getElementById('focusinput');
var nh = 'data-nohide';
if (e.style.display=='none') {
e.style.display='block';//show div
bkgd.style.display='block';//show div
}
focusinput.focus();//set focus so we know when they click outside
e.onclick = function(e) {
this.style.display='none';//hide div if they click on it
bkgd.style.display='none';//show div
};
//if the user press ESC
focusinput.onkeyup = function(e){
if(e.keyCode === 27){
var survey = document.getElementById("survey");
var bkgd = document.getElementById("surveyBackground");
//hide the div
survey.style.display = 'none';
bkgd.style.display = 'none';
this.removeAttribute(nh);
}else{
//do something else with other keys(ie:down, up, enter)...
focusinput.focus();
}
};
//click somewhere else input onblur
// was taken out because the browser print function would close the survey div page.
//focusinput.onblur = function(){
// if(!e.getAttribute(nh)){
// //hide the div
// e.style.display = 'none';
// }
//};
var params='<%=request.getContextPath()%>/request/dashboard/drilldown/callSurveyDetailAjax.html?surveyResponseId='+surveyResponseId;
YAHOO.plugin.Dispatcher.fetch(e,params, {onLoad:showBackground});
}
var showBackground = function() {
var e = document.getElementById("survey");
var bkgd = document.getElementById("surveyBackground");
bkgd.style.width = e.innerWidth();
bkgd.style.height = e.innerHeight();
bkgd.style.left = e.offsetWidth();
bkgd.style.top = e.offsetHeight();
}
window.onload = function() {
var focusinput = document.getElementById('focusinput');
focusinput.focus();//set focus so we know when they click outside
}
</script>
in CSS put this
.surveyResponseWindow
{
width:500px;
height:600px;
z-index: 2;
position: absolute;
top:100px;
left:150px;
border:1px solid #AAAAAA;
border-bottom-left-radius:10px;
border-bottom-right-radius:10px;
border-top-left-radius:10px;
border-top-right-radius:10px;
box-shadow: -1px 7px 15px -2px #000;
}
.surveyBackgroundDiv
{
z-index: 1;
position: absolute;
top:100px;
left:150px;
width:500px;
height:600px;
border:1px solid #AAAAAA;
border-bottom-left-radius:10px;
border-bottom-right-radius:10px;
border-top-left-radius:10px;
border-top-right-radius:10px;
box-shadow: -1px 7px 15px -2px #000;
}

Answer 8

I believe this is a browser setting, not the backend of the web sites. I could be wrong however.