Browser Print Settings for a Clean Game Manual

The browser print settings that matter for a game manual are paper size, scale, margins, headers and footers, one or two sides, and whether to save a PDF. For a clean bomb manual, pick your tray's paper, leave scale at full size, keep default margins, switch headers off and print one-sided.

Where are the browser print settings in each browser?

Browser print settings sit in the print window that opens when you press the print shortcut or choose Print from the menu. Ctrl+P on Windows and Linux, Command+P on a Mac. Firefox and Edge tuck the finer options under a section called More settings. Open it before you print.

On the Bomb Appétit manual page, you do not need the shortcut. The sidebar has a button labelled "Print or save as PDF", which opens the same window your browser would show for any page. The steps for opening the manual and pressing print start from the address bar.

Each vendor documents its own window. Google's Print from Chrome help page says to choose File, then Print, or use the shortcut, then pick a destination and change your print settings in the window that appears. Mozilla's Firefox printing help lists Destination, Copies, Orientation, Pages and Color mode up front, with Paper size, Scale, Pages per sheet, Margins, Two-sided printing, Print headers and footers and Print backgrounds under More settings. Microsoft's Print in Microsoft Edge page puts Paper size, Pages per sheet, Margins, Headers and footers and Background graphics under More settings too.

The table below gathers those places, with the value to pick for the manual. Where a vendor's help page does not name an option, the cell says so rather than guessing at a label. Safari has its own print window; read the labels there and use the same values.

Once the values are set, check them on the first page of the preview before you send the job. The rest of this post explains each pick.

Paper size and scale in browser print settings

Paper size should match the sheets in your printer, and scale should stay at full size. The manual's print layout already starts every section on a new sheet in black on white, so it needs no shrinking. A mismatched paper size is what crops edges or leaves a wide blank band.

Paper size first. Look at the sheets in the tray, then at the setting. Edge's help page lists the sizes it offers, from Letter and A4 to two envelope sizes, so a wrong pick is only a click away. Check it rather than assume it.

Scale next. Edge's page describes three choices: Fit to printable area, which adjusts content to fit the printable part of the sheet; Actual size, which prints without scaling; and Custom, where you type a percentage. Microsoft also suggests checking the preview or a test print before printing a large batch. For the manual, either full-size choice gives readable text. Custom percentages below full size are where trouble starts, as the last section of this post explains.

Pages per sheet is a close cousin of scale. Firefox and Edge both offer it under More settings. Two manual pages on one sheet halve the paper, but every rule shrinks by the same amount, and Experts read these pages at arm's length under a ticking clock. Leave it at one.

A quick test before printing the whole stack: set the page range to the first two or three pages, print those, and hold them at reading distance. If the module lists and tables are easy to read, print the rest.

Margins, headers and footers on a printed manual

Default margins and no headers or footers give the cleanest manual. Default margins keep text clear of the printer's unprintable edge. Headers and footers add small extra lines, such as a date or a page number, at the top and bottom of a page the Experts scan quickly.

Edge's help page describes its margin choices plainly: Default leaves one-inch margins, None removes them, Minimum suits printers with a small margin requirement, and Custom lets you type each side. None is risky on a home printer, because content can land where the printer cannot reach. Default is the safe pick.

For headers and footers, Edge says its option adds the current date to the header and the page number to the footer. Firefox calls its switch Print headers and footers. Some groups like a date to tell print runs apart. The manual already prints its own identity on the opening page: its manual number, with "(standard)" after it for seed 1. Write the seed on the front sheet in pen and switch headers and footers off.

If you need to tell two stacks apart later, a binder with labelled tabs does the job better than a tiny date in a corner. The guide to a game manual binder with tabs and sleeves sets out a tab per section.

Two-sided printing from the browser print dialog

Print the manual one-sided. Every section starts on a new sheet so the pages can be split between Experts, and two-sided printing puts one module on the back of another. When those modules belong to different Experts, one of them ends up without a page they need.

Firefox lists Two-sided printing under More settings, out of sight until you expand that section. Open it and check the setting before every manual print, not just the first. Microsoft's Edge page does not name a two-sided option; if your printer offers one through Edge or the system dialog, the same advice holds.

There is one case where two-sided works: when the whole stack stays together with one Expert, such as a single-Expert game for two players. Even then, a blank back on single-sided pages gives room to jot the edgework or circle a line.

Saving paper is a fair concern. The better saving is to print only the modules the next mission uses. The missions page lists the module pool for each mission. Early missions draw from Wires, Big Button and Glyph Keypad alone, so a group starting out needs only a handful of sheets plus the opening page, the edgework appendix and the glossary.

Save as PDF or print straight away?

Save as PDF when you will print later, print somewhere else, or want a copy to send. Print straight away when the printer is beside you and the bomb's seed is settled. The PDF holds the same layout as the paper, with each section on its own page and the sidebar left out.

In Chrome, Google's help describes Save as PDF as a destination in the print window. In Firefox, Mozilla's page says to pick Save to PDF from the Destination menu to save the preview as a PDF file. Either way, the file keeps the manual's page breaks.

A PDF is handy in a few cases:

• A print shop or office printer. Send the file and print it there.
• A second seed. Save a PDF per seed you play, and name each file with its number.
• Remote Experts. An Expert far away can open the PDF on their device or print it themselves, though opening the live manual page works just as well.

The PDF belongs to one rule seed, the number that generates every rule in the manual. Name the file with that number. Seed 1 is the standard manual and the one to save first; the guide to which rule seed to print explains when to save another.

The browser print settings mistake: shrink to fit on every page

The common browser print settings mistake is dragging the scale down to squeeze more onto each sheet. It saves no paper on this manual, because every section already starts a new page. It only makes the rules smaller, and Experts misread small print when the timer is running.

The habit comes from printing long articles, where a lower scale does cut the sheet count. The bomb manual breaks differently. Its print stylesheet puts a page break before every section, so the opening page, each of the 14 modules, the edgework appendix and the glossary each begin on a fresh sheet whatever the scale. Shrinking a section that already fits leaves a lot of white space and tiny type.

A smaller scale also hurts the color pages. Where a rule names a color, the manual prints the name in bold beside a small round swatch. Shrink the page and that swatch shrinks with it. The guide to printing the manual in black and white explains what to check on those pages.

Before printing the full stack, run through this list once:

1. Paper size matches the tray.
2. Scale is full size, or the browser's fit option, never a small custom percentage.
3. Pages per sheet is one.
4. Margins are default.
5. Headers and footers are off.
6. Two-sided is off.
7. The preview's first page shows the manual number you expect.

Then print, and keep the list for the next seed. For everything else about the printable manual, start from the free printable game manual guide.