172607 - RFE: Should warn user when printing if a specific print stylesheet will be used

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: Printing: Output, enhancement, P4)

Description

[s.marshall]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.2b) Gecko/20021002
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.2b) Gecko/20021002

Print stylesheets are a useful way to change the appearance of a printed version
page, for example hiding unnecessary navigation elements from the printout.
However, this can confuse users, resulting in unnecessary technical support
calls etc. Users expect to see a printout that matches the screen display.

('When I print your page it doesn't look quite like the page on-screen, is it a
bug?' 'No, it's supposed to be like that, it's to make it look better on the
printed page.' 'Oh, right, okay then.' *hangs up*)

So the usability of print stylesheets would be improved slightly by warning
users that pages will look different on printout. This could take the form of a
line of text on the Print dialogue or Print Preview, something like

(i) This page will be formatted differently for improved results when printing

with the (i) being an information icon.

(This may be related to bug 51848 about alternate print stylesheets, as any user
interface might be shared between the two; but it's a more basic UI improvement.)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Go to any URL (like the one listed) with print-specific stylesheet and click Print
Actual Results:  
Standard Print dialog appears

Expected Results:  
Standard Print dialog should appear, containing some UI warning the user that
the page might look different on printout

Comment 1

[Tim Powell]

Print preview shows what will be printed and in many cases this will
sufficiently different that it will need no warning. Since many people won't
look at the print preview, it'd be nice to add a warning on the print dialog or
even better, add a choice on the print dialog like:

Print Format:
 O  As shown on screen
(*) Optimized for printer

This could be extended by bug 51848 to have an additional choice of "print using
style sheet: [style sheet picker]".
 

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I have grave doubts that anyone would actually notice said warning text or said
option in the print dialog...