Blackboard Print¶

Convert Blackboard Ultra quizzes to clean, printer-friendly PDFs.

DISCLAIMER

DOUBLE CHECK TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE QUESTIONS ARE PRESENT IN THE GENERATED OUTPUT! I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY IF A BUG CAUSES YOUR PRINTED DOCUMENT TO EXCLUDE CONTENT. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, UNDERSTANDING THAT THIS EXTENSION WAS CODED IN A LITTLE UNDER A WEEK AND A HALF. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Image-based questions may not extract perfectly
Blackboard's HTML structure is inconsistent and frequently changed, so expect the extension to break from time to time!
If you find any major problems, feel free to open an issue with a detailed explanation of how to reproduce the problem!

Overview¶

Blackboard Print is a Chrome extension that extracts questions from Blackboard quizzes and generates printable documents. It's designed for Syracuse University's Blackboard setup, but may work with other institutions using Blackboard Ultra.

Key Benefits

Clean output with Blackboard's UI removed
Automatic image extraction (diagrams, pictures, etc.)
Fill-in-blank fields converted to underlines
Customizable output options

Installation¶

From Chrome Web Store¶

Visit the Chrome Web Store Listing
Click Add to Chrome
Confirm by clicking Add extension

Pinning the Extension

For quick access, click the puzzle piece icon () in Chrome's toolbar and pin Blackboard Print.

Manual Installation (Developer Mode)¶

For development or testing

Download and extract the archive from the latest release on github.
Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode (toggle in top-right)
Click Load unpacked
Select the folder that was extracted from the archive in (1)

PrintBB-vX.X.X/
├── manifest.json
├── popup.html
├── popup.js
├── content.js
└── icons/
    └── icon_*.png

Usage¶

Basic Workflow¶

graph LR
    A[Open Quiz Page] --> B[Click Extension Icon]
    B --> C[Select Options]
    C --> D[Preview]
    D --> E[Print / Save PDF]

Step-by-Step¶

Navigate to your quiz on Blackboard Ultra
Supported Pages
- Quiz attempts (before submission)
- Not tested on any other page

Click the extension icon in your toolbar

The popup will display:

Status	Meaning
Found X question(s)	Quiz detected successfully
with Y fill-in blanks	FITB questions detected
No quiz content found	Page not recognized. Make sure you're on the right page, or open an issue if you believe it's a bug!

Configure your options (see Options below)
Click Preview First to review the output
Print or Save as PDF
- Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P on Mac)
- Select Save as PDF or your printer
- Click Save / Print

Options¶

Output Settings¶

Option	Description	Default
Include correct answers	Show correct answers if visible on page	On
Include feedback	Include instructor feedback	On
Include point values	Show points per question	On
Compact mode	Reduce spacing for denser output	Off
One question per page	Force page breaks between questions	Off

Options marked with

Not tested!

Preview Controls¶

Once in preview mode, you have additional controls:

Edit ModePrint Button

Enable Edit Mode to make corrections before printing:

Fix typos or formatting issues
Add text
Remove unwanted content

Warning

Edits are not saved—they only affect the current print job.

Click Print / Save as PDF or use the keyboard shortcut:

Windows/Linux: Ctrl+P
macOS: Cmd+P

Supported Question Types¶

Fill-in-the-Blank (FITB)¶

The extension automatically detects inline answer fields and converts them to underlines:

Before & After

Blackboard Ultra:

PDF Output:

Find i1 _______________, i2 _______________, v3 _______________, for the circuit shown in Figure 4.

Editing

You can easily edit the spacing between lines and number of underscores in Editing Mode!

Multiple Choice¶

Answer choices should be listed with letter markers (A, B, C, D...)
Selected answers should be highlighted (if visible)
Correct answers should be marked with (if available)

Short Answer / Essay¶

Text areas should be converted to lined space
Student responses should be included if reviewing a submission

Formats marked with

Not tested! There is a high chance that they get messed up or straight up don't work at all!

Images & Figures¶

Embedded images are automatically extracted:

Diagrams, figures, graphs and charts
Images and screenshots
etc.

Image Sources

Images hosted on bbcswebdav (Blackboard's content server) are included directly. External images may require authentication and their inclusion is not guaranteed!

Troubleshooting¶

Extension Not Detecting Quiz¶

The popup says 'No quiz content found'

Possible causes:

Wrong page type — Make sure you're on an actual quiz attempt page, not the description page
Page not fully loaded — Wait for the page to finish loading, then try again
Different Blackboard version — The extension was only tested for SU's Blackboard Ultra; other versions/institutions may not be parsed correctly

Images Not Appearing¶

Images show as broken or missing

Possible causes:

Authentication required — Some images require an active Blackboard session
External hosting — Images hosted outside Blackboard may not be accessible

Try this:

Make sure you're logged into Blackboard
Open the image in a new tab to verify it loads
Use Preview mode and check if images appear there

PDF Formatting Issues¶

Output looks wrong or has extra content

Try this:

Enable Compact mode if there's too much whitespace
Enable One question per page if questions are splitting awkwardly
Use Edit Mode to remove unwanted elements and/or add spaces/text before printing

Wrong Question Count¶

Extension shows more/fewer questions than expected

This can happen if Blackboard's HTML structure varies. The extension counts questions by looking for specific CSS classes. If questions are nested unusually, the count may be off.

The PDF output should still be correct — the count is just for display purposes.

If you believe you found a bug:

Open an issue on the github with a detailed description of how to reproduce the misbehavior

Privacy & Permissions¶

Permissions Explained¶

Permission	Why It's Needed
`activeTab`	Access the current Blackboard page when you click the extension
`scripting`	Inject the extraction script to read quiz content
`host_permissions`	Run only on Blackboard domains (`*.blackboard.com`)

Data Handling¶

Your Data Stays Local

No data is sent to external servers
No analytics or tracking
No account required
All processing happens locally in your browser

Technical Details¶

Browser Compatibility¶

Browser	Support
Chrome	Full support
Edge (Chromium)	Full support
Firefox	Not supported (Manifest V3)
Safari	Not supported

Changelog¶

v1.0.0 - [FEB 3, 2026]¶

Contributing¶

Found a bug or have a feature request?

Open an Issue

Made with ☕ by PolymorphicAgent

This page was created with the help of Claude AI.