When printing email don’t use your browser’s print button

I see it time and time again. People printing email from their web-based email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo or AOL and getting frustrated that it doesn’t print correctly.

9 times out of 10 it’s because they are using the browser’s print button instead of the built-in print function included with their Gmail, Yahoo or AOL account.

Incidentally the other 1 out of 10 is due to emails that just don’t print well due to their design and layout.

Resist the temptation to use the browser’s print button

I wish I could say it’s intuitive to use the email’s print button but it’s not. I mean, the browser’s print button is sitting right there staring at you all the time. Why wouldn’t you use it? You use it to print everything else on the Internet. Why not use it to print your email as well?

I could go into a technical explanation as to why this is but I’m guessing most of you would do better with a nice illustration. So here goes…

In Gmail, use this to print your email: