Web Design Discussion - Printing bgColor or bgImage

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Printing bgColor or bgImage

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Category: General Discussion
Forum Name: Web Design Discussion
Forum Description: Discussion on web design and development subjects.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=7585
Printed Date: 28 March 2026 at 5:52am
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Topic: Printing bgColor or bgImage

Posted By: Gary
Subject: Printing bgColor or bgImage
Date Posted: 25 November 2003 at 3:21am

Is it possible to print the background color ???
Basically, I have a table whose rows have alternating bg colors (White & Grey). When I print the page, the bg colors are all white.

Is this possible? I even tried using a grey.gif as the bg image, but still doesnt work. Also, I dont want to have to rely on the end users (IE5.5+) to change their settings.

Thx

Replies:

Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 25 November 2003 at 7:51am

Posted By: Gary
Date Posted: 25 November 2003 at 8:08am

???

The problem is that whatever color you set the background to, it will not print.

This is a default setting in IE - but I dont want the users to have to change their IE settings. Is there some way to 'cheat' IE into printing the bg color ???

Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 25 November 2003 at 9:19am

Ah right sorry misunderstod your question.

As far as I know, the only way is to use images in layers, bacgkrounds will be ignored, that includes background colour and image

Posted By: Diep-Vriezer
Date Posted: 27 November 2003 at 12:23pm

That's done to save printer ink, so don't use it to much

. It's there for a reason.

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Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 05 December 2003 at 4:12pm

It's a client-side option in IE. - Check Internet Options|Tools|Advanced.

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Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me.

Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 05 December 2003 at 4:54pm

the value's called (surprise!) "print background color?"

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Paul A Morgan

http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/

Posted By: KCWebMonkey
Date Posted: 06 December 2003 at 12:28pm

Gary wrote:

Also, I dont want to have to rely on the end users (IE5.5+) to change their settings.

Guys....read his post. obviously he knew how to do that...

Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 06 December 2003 at 2:07pm

it's a client only option... you could put a picture as the background with a width and height of 100% and then put an invisible layer to put your content in on top of the picture

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Paul A Morgan

http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/

Posted By: Diep-Vriezer
Date Posted: 07 December 2003 at 7:37am

Naah, just make a 1X1 gif file, with only one color in it: your BG color. Then, use that as a background picture. Or won't it print that one to?

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Posted By: Semikolon
Date Posted: 07 December 2003 at 8:29am

i wont print any backgrounds.. it ignores all bg and background tags when printing..

Posted By: Diep-Vriezer
Date Posted: 07 December 2003 at 8:32am

Anyway, that option is 'there' for a reason. Why avoiding it? If the page looks like

, the client will probably print it out again WITH the option disabled (you might want to put some instructions there).

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Posted By: Semikolon
Date Posted: 07 December 2003 at 8:37am

AND if you have a colored background, and the user have only black/white printer then itll look like sh*t!

Posted By: Diep-Vriezer
Date Posted: 07 December 2003 at 8:40am

Yes, it sure would

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Posted By: Gary
Date Posted: 08 December 2003 at 2:47am

Again, as soemone stated earlier, read my original question...

I am trying to split/differentiate between a whole bunch of rows in a table by making the background colour alternate between white and grey (light grey). Even if the user doesn't have a colour printer, this should still look good. (BTW where can I get hold of a black & WHITE printer from???).

Also, as stated in the original question, I am fully aware that users can change their IE settings, but I really want to avoid that if possible - hence the question!!!

Anyway, it looks like this is not possible - I was kinda hoping that someone out there had figured out a way around this.

Posted By: Diep-Vriezer
Date Posted: 08 December 2003 at 7:09am

Mmm, in simple HTML, no you can't. If you use Flash, you might get print problems. But if you'd set the background of the rows to #CCCCCC and #EEEEEE or something like that it should appear on a black and white printer.

Or... you can make some sort of printer version, in CSS. This should be described in the <link> tags, like this:


<!-- Display colors -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/base.css" />
<!-- Look, there's one for printing too =D -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/print.css" media="print" />

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