FAQs/Troubleshooting/Printing/Web Pages

From Userful Support

Copyright © 2007-2010 Userful Corporation. All rights reserved.
(Updated 2010.1.04)

Q: Why do some Web pages print out as gibberish?

Also answered by this FAQ:

• Why do pictures from Web pages print out but text does not?

A: The Web page is poorly designed or there is a font problem.

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Some Web pages are designed to only use specific fonts; fonts that are not available on all computers. Web browsers are smart enough to simply substitute other fonts, but printing software is not so smart. This is why you may see images print out fine, but text comes out as a garbled mess of characters.

There are two different problems involved here, so there are two workarounds. Please try the first one; if it does not work, try the second one.

Solution 1

Change the default font of your Web browser. This is only a temporary workaround, since the default font will switch back once you end the session. So this workaround should only be used in the session having the printing problem. We will make this fix a permanent one soon.

Steps:

1. Start the Web browser and find the Web page that is causing printing problems.
2. Set the default font in the Web browser to a DejaVu font.
   • Firefox:
     1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Content
     2. Default Font should be set to DejaVu Serif.
     3. Click on Advanced... on the right of Default Font.
     4. At the top it should say Fonts for: Western.
     5. Serif should be set to DejaVu Serif.
     6. Sans-serif should be set to DejaVu Sans.
     7. Monospace should be set to DejaVu Sans Mono.
     8. Click OK and then Close.
   • Epiphany:
     1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Fonts & Style > Detailed Font Settings.
     2. At the top it should say For language: Western.
     3. Variable width should be set to DejaVu Serif.
     4. Fixed width should be set to DejaVu Sans Mono.
     5. Click Close in the Preferences dialog windows.
3. Try printing again.

Solution 2

If you are still having the same problem with printing, we have a package that can be installed that circumvents this problem. Please contact Userful Customer Support and inform them of this issue.

This issue is fixed with Userful Desktop.