Detecting browser print event

Question

Is it possible to detect when a user is printing something from their browser?

To complicate matters, if we are presenting a user with a PDF document in a new window is it possible to detect the printing of that document ( assuming the user prints it from the browser window)?

The closest I've been able to find is if we implement custom print functionality (something like this) and track when that is invoked

I'm primarily interested in a solution that works for internet explorer (6 or later)

Answer 1

You can now detect a print request in IE 5+, Firefox 6+, Chrome 9+, and Safari 5+ using the following technique:

(function() {
    var beforePrint = function() {
        console.log('Functionality to run before printing.');
    };
    var afterPrint = function() {
        console.log('Functionality to run after printing');
    };

    if (window.matchMedia) {
        var mediaQueryList = window.matchMedia('print');
        mediaQueryList.addListener(function(mql) {
            if (mql.matches) {
                beforePrint();
            } else {
                afterPrint();
            }
        });
    }

    window.onbeforeprint = beforePrint;
    window.onafterprint = afterPrint;
}());

I go into more detail into what this is doing and what it can be used for at http://tjvantoll.com/2012/06/15/detecting-print-requests-with-javascript/.