I stumbled into a problem a few months back where my print style sheets were being ignored by Firefox (shock! horror!).

After a bit of investigation it seemed that print was generally a weak point for Firefox, so I chalked up my problem as one of Firefox’s rare failings.

But now, thanks to a tip off in [css-d], I’ve discovered the real reason behind the problem, namely the title attribute in the <link /> tag. This attribute doesn’t have ’side effects’ when used in other elements, but in <link /> tags for external style sheets it appears too when really it is  just handled differently.

It’s all to do with persistent, preferred and alternate stylesheets. To learn why it’s handled differently, and why the result varies from browser to browser, please read: “Correctly Using Titles With External Stylesheets“