Design Print and Export Layouts
Layout & Responsive · responsive, tables, import/export
Updated 2026-07-28
- Accept that people print. Invoices, reports, tickets, recipes, and checklists all get sent to paper or to a saved file, and the default browser output is usually embarrassing.
- Strip the interface and keep the content. Navigation, sidebars, cookie banners, share buttons, and empty states have no meaning on a printed page.
- Restore what the screen hides. Collapsed sections, truncated cells, and lazily loaded images should be expanded and present in the printed version.
- Make links usable off screen. Either print the destination next to the text or remove the link styling entirely, because underlined blue text with no address is useless on paper.
- Control the page breaks:
- Never split a heading from the content under it.
- Never break a table row in half.
- Repeat table headers on every page.
- Keep a figure and its caption together.
- Use ink-friendly colours. Dark backgrounds waste toner and light grey text disappears, so switch to dark text on white and check that every chart still reads without colour.
- Include the context a page loses when it leaves the screen, such as the title, the date, the filters applied, and the page number.
- Test the actual output, not the print preview alone, and test to a saved file as well as to paper.
A printed page is another breakpoint, and it is the one users are most likely to hand to someone else.
Related guides
UX Handbook