How to display URL when printing a .PDF?

December 8, 2005 12:22 PM

How do I display an online .PDF's URL when printing it?

I often print out many .pdf files when doing research. Unlike printing html articles, the URL site where the online PDF can be reached does not print at the bottom of the page. When it's time to go back and cite my sources, I have to search again for the PDFs, and then get the URL---

is there a way to have the URL automatically be added to the bottom of a PDF when printed? a firefox extension?

posted by chefscotticus to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I think you'll find that Firefox isn't doing the printing, Acrobat is -- and as far as Acrobat is concerned, it's looking at a PDF sitting on your hard drive. I don't know of any way around that offhand though.
posted by mendel at 12:47 PM on December 8, 2005

You can just do Document -> Add Headers and Footers and then add the URL as a header. You could also use the Annotate or Add Note (forget what it's called) tool to put URL on the first page.

This may require the full Acrobat product, not just Reader. And you may have to open it in Acrobat, instead of using the browser's plugin. But I recommend you do both of those anyway.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:54 PM on December 8, 2005