print or save webpage as PDF - looks horrible!

[Oats]

i would like to save a copy of a webpage in a single file, PDF, exactly as it appears on the screen. however, as soon as i print -> save as PDF, the formatting gets all screwed up. i lose background images, fonts and spacing gets all screwed up. it looks great in the webbrowser, i just want to print a copy that looks like that!

a screenshot would be nice, but wont work because:
1) i want to be able to highlight / copy text from the PDF afterwards
2) a screenshot wont catch the whole webpage, only the portion visible on screen.

this app comes very close, but is there an easier way i am missing?

http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/

[Stampyhead]

In the Print dialogue box in Safari there's a little check box that says "print backgrounds." If you click that it will print background colors and images, which are usually left out. Try that and see if that solves your problem.

[Oats]

that checkbox made no difference.

for an example, look at the mess that results when you try to print these pages to PDF:

http://www.cnn.com
http://www.daringfireball.net

[clevin]

if thats important, there are several extensions for firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146 screen grab
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3408 save as image

either of them can save the page into a png image.
(but you lose the option of editing them since it will be an image)

[mhdland]

It's happen to me too, what i save in PDF nowadays is horible. :( even though enable image and background printing is checked, make no difference.

I try to search my archive, and found that when i printed in Panther (back dated in Feb, 2005) everything is wysiwyg, color.

I don't know is there something wrong with Tiger ? cause i think just now i try to print in PDF ever since (10.4 - 10.4.11)

i use PowerBook G4 867 OSX 10.4.11.

[Mal]

The problem is the the CSS coding for the website is either set differently for printing or doesn't specify a print mode and therefore doesn't display any of the special formatting. It's an issue with the site, not with Leopard.

jW