Go to content

Test Printing

A useful free utility to help with testing your printouts without wasting paper is PDF Creator. Once installed it acts as a printer driver - you print to PDF Creator instead of your normal printer and it will create a PDF file of the output instead. Suitable readers for PDF files are Adobe Reader and Foxit.

Extra help with printing exam papers

The following web browsers have been tested with this facility and produce usable output:
  • Firefox
  • Internet Explorer 6 (IE6)
  • Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) - but see below for the small font problem
  • Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) - in IE7 compatibility mode
  • Internet Explorer 9 beta
  • Safari
  • Chrome
We will be updating this information as problems are resolved or as web browsers improve. We are aware that sometimes the pagination is not correct on printouts. We are working to improve this.

Opera

The Opera web browser does not produce legible printouts of the jsMath created text even though the initial display looks fine.

IE7 Small Font problem

There are two solutions to this. The first needs to be done before every print. The second is a permanent fix:
  1. When the Print dialog box appears, click Cancel and then right-click on the Print Exam Paper page. Select the Print Preview option and change the option that says Shrink to Fit to the 100% option. Now click the Print button (the one on the far left at the top) and the print should now be a more reasonable size.
  2. Use the "fix" suggested at wizardev.ca/web-words/fix-for-ie7s-shrink-to-fit-printing-option. Note that this will permanently change the default setting to "100%". Please be warned that this fix will change your computer's registry - altering the registry without knowing what you are doing can damage your Windows installation and may require a complete reinstallation of Windows. MathsNet A-Level Plus cannot be held responsible for any damage you do to your own computer!

jsMath Fonts

Many of the questions use the jsMath applet. This requires special fonts to be installed for successful printing. In some cases you may find that questions and answers are not printed at all until you install these fonts.
The fonts can be downloaded from www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/ Use the Download the TeX fonts option.
Full instructions for their installation can be found at pubpages.unh.edu/~jsh3/jsMath/

Page Size/Pagination problems

If you find that the pagination is not correct on your prints then check the following have been set correctly:
  • You have selected the correct paper size for your printer on the Exam Page - there are currently two options: A4 (the default) and Letter.
  • That the printer your web browser is using is set for the correct paper size. To change this use the Print option from the File menu (on Windows) and choose the properties and/or the advanced button.
  • We recommend that you remove any default Headers and Footers that your web browser may add to the page and, if necessary, adjust the height of any margins. These are usually set in Page Setup option (which is usually in the File menu).