Introduction

With the growth of browser-based applications there is an increasing need for the browser to be able to produce different printed output for different sites. In particular there is the need for the browser's headers and footers to be suppressed on some pages (e.g. on a web-based word processor), whilst still be present on others (e.g. a printout of a "normal" web page).

Proposal

There should be a mechanism whereby a web page can request that the browser's header and footer should be suppressed on printed output. The user would be prompted when the print dialogue is opened so that they could refuse the request (in which case the browser's header and footer are printed as usual).

The "Prompt" could take the form of a checkbox added to the print dialogue, rather than a modal dialogue.

Ideally the user would be able to white- or blacklist sites so that they don't have to repeatedly deal with the prompt for sites that they regularly use.

Alternatively the user should be able to set custom headers and footers for each site, if they wish. This would allow for then to be omitted even on sites which don't explicitly request it.

Use Case

Lorraine uses a web-based CRM application on her intranet. She wishes to print invoices from it, but doesn't want them to have the normal header and footer showing the URL and timestamp.

Conversely when she prints out some instructions from a website she does want headers and footers so that she can later identify when the document was printed, and where it originated.

Other References

See also this blog entry