Printing YouTube Video Transcripts very poor

mark2090 — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:18:37 GMT

This has always been a problem with Firefox.

== Issue ==

There are two issues with this, both regarding the printing feature of Firefox. This is printing as a PDF.
•
Youtube has a feature where we can view the video transcript.
The transcript button is located in the video description: "Show transcript".

Using a desktop browser, when the transcript button is clickled, a panel opens at the top-right corner revealing the text transcript for the video.

The first issue, to print the transcript requires I highlight all the text inside the transcript panel.
(do not use "Select all", does not work, it selects the entire page in and outside the panel).
I have to manually highlight the text with a cursor from beginning to the end of the transcript, even when the transcript is long and I have to scroll to highlight all of the text.

In Firefox, the only way to print that selection of text is with the right-click menu: "Print Selection...".

The print dialogue window opens and Only shows the text from the beginning of text transcript before any scrolling of the panel.

This means, when the transcript is longer than what is first visible in the panel, I have to scroll the panel to see the rest, and the "Print Selection" will Not include any text hidden below the viewport boundaries of panel that requires a scroll, despite it being highlighted (selected).

The second issue is when it shows the selection to print as PDF (as described), it prints as an "Image", it does Not print to PDF as a text.

The only way to print the Transcript text to PDF, as a text document, not as an Image, is to use Chrome.
Then the Transcript text prints properly to PDF, including the highlighted text hidden below the Transcript panel.

In Chrome, using the right-click menu, there is no "Print selection" it is just "Print".

With Chrome, the Transcript text can be many pages long when printed to PDF, it does not matter, it prints all of the highlighted text properly as described.

The only thing that is the same between Firefox and Chrome is I have to manually highlight the text in the Transcript panel to just print that text.

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Printing YouTube Video Transcripts very poor