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Ink wasting because pages with dark backgrounds still print despite background print checkbox being unchecked

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I am visually handicapped and have Firefox set up in the colors to force black background white text. My computer is set up like that too by uncheckable the allow web pages to choose colors and checking use system colors. If go to print a page with a dark background or use the color setting mentioned above. My pages print with the dark background despite the Print background box being unchecked. This problem cropped up as of Firefox 4.x.

I am visually handicapped and have Firefox set up in the colors to force black background white text. My computer is set up like that too by uncheckable the allow web pages to choose colors and checking use system colors. If go to print a page with a dark background or use the color setting mentioned above. My pages print with the dark background despite the Print background box being unchecked. This problem cropped up as of Firefox 4.x.

All Replies (7)

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That could be a bug, or it could be by design. I'm not sure.

Studying a workaround and will report back...

---

Okay, here's the workaround. I think it's actually better looking than the built-in solution, but you can be the judge. (On further thought, maybe it's a bit extreme...)

First, you need an add-on named Stylish. Stylish lets you restyle any page. You can install it here (you will have to restart Firefox and enable the add-on if it isn't automatically enabled): Stylish :: Add-ons for Firefox.

Second, you need a "userstyle" named Browser and Page - White On Black. As the name suggests, the text is white and the background is black, but because it is applied as a style, you can turn off the black background in Page Setup. (I tested it today, but I can't vouch for it being the same if it has been updated.)

Check the box under Tools > Options > Content > Colors to let sites set their own styles, then check some pages (and Print Preview) to see how you like it.

Does it work for you?

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Here's a slightly revised userstyle that only affects the web page and better preserves the visibility of some controls, such as buttons. I'm calling it White-on-Black Mostly.

@-moz-document url-prefix("http"){
html,body,div,center,p,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,span,font,big,small, input[type='text'],input[type='radio'],input[type='checkbox'], label,textarea,select,blockquote,pre,code,tt,kbd,li,td,th, caption,dl,dt,dd,address,b,i,strong,em,u,sub,sup,s, header,footer,article,section {
color: ghostwhite !important;
background: none !important;
background-color: black !important }
input[type='submit'], input[type='reset'], input[type='button'], input[type='file'], button {
color: ghostwhite !important;
background-color: #33f !important }
a:link { color: ghostwhite !important }
a:visited { color: ghostwhite !important }
a:hover, a:active { color: ghostwhite !important }
}

Hopefully that doesn't get mangled during posting...

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Thanks I'll give it a try. I think something was not coded correctly in Firefox 4. I think the problem can be replicated on your machines, to see what I'm talking about. (tested in Win7) 1. Right click on on the desktop and select Personalize. 2. Choose High Contrast Black in the Windows theme area. 3. Open/Reopen Firefox and choose File > Print (almost every website will do this) Look at this Print Preview screen grab. The page will print the same way black background and all. Despite the fact I made sure under File>Page Setup that print background is unchecked. I'm thinking there is a bug between Windows High Contrast Mode and Firefox 4. Never had this trouble in Firefox 3.x

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There have always been some issues with High Contrast mode. I don't know what would have changed in that area between Firefox 3 and 4.

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I turned High Contrast Mode off and used Win 7 Basic Theme and set Firefox color setting as such in the image below. It still tried to print the background as black despite the screen grab of might page set up, note print background is off. Some odd though, if I turn on allow web pages to choose there own colors. It would print correctly even my website worked and my site uses a dark background. http://www.greywolfenterprise.com But setting the background to allow pages to pick their own colors would not be beneficial to me.

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I can confirm the problem (with regular display mode, didn't try High Contrast).

Unless someone comes along with a solution, you could:

  • Try the Stylish add-on and the userstyle rule as a workaround; or
  • Switch back to 3.6

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

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Thank you Jscher2000,

Your style sheet code above plus the Add-On Stylish has sufficiently patched the problem. :)