Print Preview in Opera Shows Image that is Different From the Actual Web Page

Summary

In this example we are going to focus on the Print Preview function in order to verify that the user is able to view a page in a ready to print format and the displayed page is similar enough to the actual page. The Windows version of Opera v7.23 has problems with Print Preview, which sometimes shows incorrect font size, font color, and general organization of web pages. These pages are also printed incorrectly.

Application Description

Opera is a Web browser developed in 1994. Its developers claim that it is the fastest and most standards-compliant browser today. It is available for all popular operating systems. (Source: www.opera.com).

For this example we will focus on the Print Preview and Print functions. Print Preview displays the currently active page exactly the way it would like, if it is printed. Print allows the user to configure printing options and then print the currently active page.

Test Design

This example demonstrates the use of Function Testing.

We will focus on the Print and Print preview functions.

To test them we can navigate to a web page and view it in Print Preview. The expected result would be that the displayed information in Print Preview is the same as (or very similar to) the actual web page.

We would also expect that the Print function prints a page, which is exactly the same as the page displayed in Print Preview.

Performing the Test

    When we are performing tests with browsers we have to keep in mind that problems we encounter might be due to incorrect coding of the page and not the browser itself. Just to avoid this kind of problems as much as possible, let's navigate to Opera's own web page: www.opera.com. Select Print Preview.

Results/Relevance

The results are surprising. It is hard to realize that this is the same page as before.

The Print function works in a sense that it prints a page just like the one that is displayed in Print Preview.

We should see if the bug exists in other browsers also (See related tests) because it is possible that the problem is in the configuration or the printer drivers.

Since the page shown in Print preview looks different from the actual page, users will not be able to print exactly what they want. Combined with the bug copy does not preserve formatting, the result is that the users are facing serious problems extracting and saving the information from the web browser.

Similar Tests/Additional Notes

If we try the same page in Internet Explorer's Print Preview (v 6.0), the content is displayed without any problem.

The same page in Firefox shows similar problems as in Opera (without the blue background).

We can also repeat the test with Opera, while navigating to different web pages. It turns out that the problem exists mostly for pages that contain frames.

Configuration

Testing Opera Software's Opera v7.23 on:

Created 24 May 2004 for the CSTER

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