Print Element Picker

Print Element Picker is a Firefox extension that allows you to interactively select a specific element on a webpage and isolate it for printing or saving as a clean PDF.

Webpages are often cluttered with navigation bars, sidebars, comments sections, and floating UI elements (like text-editor toolbars). This extension strips away the noise, ensuring that only the content you actually want makes it into your final document.

Features

• Interactive Highlighter: Highlights page elements in a blue dashed box as you hover, so you know exactly what is going into the PDF.
• Smart Isolation: Safely hides surrounding content without accidentally revealing hidden webpage UI elements (like dropdowns or floating toolbars) inside your selection.
• One-Click Print: Automatically opens the native Firefox print dialog as soon as you click your target element.
• Auto-Updating: Silently checks this repository for new releases and updates your extension automatically.

Installation

Because this is a self-hosted, custom extension, it is not available on the public Mozilla Add-ons store. However, it is fully cryptographically signed by Mozilla for security, and you can install it directly from this repository in just a few clicks.

1. Navigate to the Releases page of this repository.
2. Under the latest release, look for the Assets section and download the .xpi file (e.g., print-picker-1.0.xpi).
3. Open Firefox.
4. You can install the extension in one of two ways:

• Drag and Drop: Click and drag the downloaded .xpi file directly into your open Firefox window.
• Via Add-ons Manager: Press Ctrl+Shift+A (or Cmd+Shift+A on Mac) to open the Add-ons page, click the gear icon, select Install Add-on From File...*, and choose the .xpi file you downloaded.

5. Firefox will display a security prompt asking if you want to add the extension. Click Add.

Note: You only need to do this once. Future updates published to this repository will be downloaded and applied by Firefox automatically.

How to Use

1. Navigate to the webpage you want to capture.
2. Click the Print Element Picker icon in your Firefox toolbar (it looks like a puzzle piece if you haven't pinned it).
3. Move your mouse around the page. You will see a blue dashed outline highlighting different structural elements of the page (paragraphs, images, entire articles, or tables).
4. Click when the outline surrounds the exact content you want to keep.
5. The page will briefly isolate your selection, and the Firefox Print Dialog will open automatically.
6. Set your printer destination to Save to PDF (or select a physical printer) and click Save.

Once the print dialog is closed, the webpage will automatically return to its normal state.