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Asked: 2026-05-16T16:04:32+00:00

Strange problem. I have a simple webform where users can fill in text and

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Strange problem. I have a simple webform where users can fill in text and check/uncheck some checkboxes. When this is printed to pdf or paper (or print preview) in IE (7 or 8) the checkboxes are printed unchanged. E.g. user sets a check, this is printed unchecked … or with a pre-checked box with the user unchecked, is printed checked.

Same goes for the radio.

Only when I remove the DocType completely, IE prints it correctly. But I need to use XHTML-strict.

This is a simple example which fails in IE:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="nl" xml:lang="nl-NL"> 
<body>
<input type='checkbox' name='y'/><br/>
<input type='radio' name='x'/><br/>
</body>
</html>

Doesn’t work with any doctype I tested (loose or html4).

Anyone a idea how to solve this?

Many thanks,
Michael

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Turns out to be a IE8 bug:
    http://webbugtrack.blogspot.com/2009/04/bug-444-ie8-printing-issues-in.html

    It’s not having this problem with “Compatibility View” turned ON.

    A solution is to add the following in the header:

    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

    Which kinda breaks validation and gives a problem when IE9 comes up.

    Other “nice” workaround with JavaScript works also:

    <input type='checkbox' name='y' onclick='SetCheck(this)'/>
.....

function SetCheck(el)
{
  if(el)
  {
    if(el.checked)  el.setAttribute('checked','checked');
    else            el.removeAttribute("checked");
  }
}

    But when you cannot rely on javascript being turned on, you’re screwed by Microsoft.

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