Now that all of your devices are mobile from your phone, to your tablet/ Laptop, is there really even a need to print anymore. If you need to take info you found from the web with you then it can be accessed from anywhere from your device of choice. But what if you decide you do want to print out a recipe, a news article or Map with directions to new restaurant you are on your way to. Most website are jam packed with Ads and other information that you do not need yet when you go to print the webpage, luck would have it, that everything on the page will print successfully except the most important information you are after.
There is a way you can trim the fat and just print the content without needing to format the whole webpage in a text document?
Enable ‘Reader Mode’
Many modern web browsers offer a feature called Reader mode that makes it easy to distill a webpage down to only its contents — with none of the extra junk like advertisements and javascript items.
This is a great solution for commuters who want to read a website offline when there’s no internet. Using Reader Mode allows you to download a webpage and read it later when no signal is available.
But for printing purposes, Reader Mode serves as the perfect solution to cleaning up and streamlining the website so it looks great printed on paper. Just text, images, and some minor formatting make it as minimalist as possible, which also helps to conserve printer ink. In the case of printing out a page converted into reader mode, we do recommend printing it in black and white unless it’s important for you to have colour images.
Putting a website in Reader Mode is easy, but requires a slight change in settings on your web browser. Since Chrome is the most popular out there, we’ll go over that first.
To activate Reader Mode in Chrome
Open a new tab and enter the following code in the search bar: chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode. This will take you to a hidden settings menu where Google allows users to test officially unreleased features. Click on the drop-down menu and select Enabled. Chrome will then prompt you to restart the browser.
After Chrome has restarted, click the three-dot icon in the upper right corner of your browser and select Distill page. This will convert whatever page you’re reading into Reader Mode. Keep in mind, the same process can be used on the mobile version of Chrome found on both Android and iOS.
If you use a Mac or an iPhone, we have good news for you: Reader Mode is enabled by default in Safari!
If you look at the upper left corner of your browser window on either the desktop or mobile version of Safari, you’ll see an icon that looks like three and a half lines. Tap this to enter Reader Mode.
As you can see, the banner ad at the top instantly disappears. To make things even easier, Safari’s Reader Mode also lets you increase or decrease text size, which is perfect for those of us who prefer to read larger bolder print.
As for Firefox, Reader Mode (called Firefox Reader here) is also available by default. To access it, click the icon that looks like a sheet of paper, and your webpage will instantly be converted.
Now to Print the Webpage
Once you’ve gotten your page of choice in reader mode, all you’ll need to do is follow the instructions on your computer or phone for printer mode. Usually, this is a right click on your mouse followed by print from the menu that appears. Alternatively, you can type Ctrl + P on Windows or Cmd + P on Mac to start the printing process.
