Author Topic: cannot print this page  (Read 824 times)

Offline jchuzi

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cannot print this page
« on: October 14, 2020, 01:28:02 PM »
When I access this site and try to print it, I see nothing but a blank page in the print dialog box. However, if I go to File > Export as PDF and then print the PDF, all is well. This has sometimes happened with other sites as well. Any thoughts?
Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P700, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365

Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: cannot print this page
« Reply #1 on: October 14, 2020, 02:30:56 PM »
Take a look at the raw source*. It is almost entirely javascript. There is very little actual html on the 'page'. It needs a browser (with its built-in javascript interpreter) to display the page. The "Print" command doesn't 'see' anything to print, it is not a javascript interpreter. However, sometimes the display can be converted to PDF. My Safari (14.0)/Print PDF/Preview(10.1) combo however, doesn't create anything printable.

FoxFire does create an printable (even in Preview) PDF of exactly what is in the browser window. Since I don't usually have a browser window open beyond 1200 pixels wide, my PDF image was chopped so that nothing to the right of the last two digits of the phone number is visible.

*Safari Prefs->Advanced: Checkbox at bottom of dialog: "Show Develop menu in menu bar". The "Show Page Source" will show you what the browser has to work with.
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline jchuzi

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Re: cannot print this page
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2020, 04:41:25 PM »
Thanks, Jim. That's over my head. I guess that I'll have to deal with it.  :wallbash:
Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P700, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365

Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: cannot print this page
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2020, 05:11:45 PM »
It sounds like that site has been neutered! :doh:
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline Paddy

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Re: cannot print this page
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2020, 12:18:41 PM »
I hate to tell you, but it's SAFARI not the website. Prints fine on Chrome. And the HTML is all there - it's the first bit after the link to the style sheet under the <body> tag. It's all in <div class="wsb-canvas body"> - expand that and you'll see it. It's just layers deep; courtesy of the GoDaddy website builder used to construct the page 5 years ago (judging by the copyright notice). The javascript declarations are all after that - as they should be - and don't affect whether or not the page will print.

I don't know what is wrong with Safari - there are plenty of complaints about it not printing if you look - though most of those seem to be a complete refusal, rather than a blank page. I've also seen the blank page complaint about Chrome too - so all I can say is - try another browser.

If NO browser will print the page without conversion to PDF, then yeah, it's the page. But if another browser will print it, then it's more likely some peculiarity with the browser itself and how it interacts with that particular page. Lots of variables there, and while all major browsers are pretty good these days, they do have their differences. I use Firefox for web development because I like its dev tools the best, Chrome for development as well (speed testing etc.) and for regular browsing, and Safari sometimes as it is still set as the default from links in any other application on my Macs, and it is likely the most secure. However, it's much more likely to quit on me for unknown reasons and I find it much more quirky - sometimes sits there and refuses to do anything for no reason at all too. I also have Brave and Vivaldi. Vivaldi has the unique ability to pretend it's a phone, allowing one to upload to Instagram from a desktop.
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