How can I print the list of files that appear in a Finder folder

Launch Terminal.app

Enter the change default command cd, and follow it with a space

cd 

Drag the folder you want to list from Finder to the command line. It’ll look something like the following, with the example ~/Documents shown:

cd ~/Documents

Now press return.

Enter the following directory listing (ls) command (that’s a numeric 1 and not a lowercase L there), with the output written to MyListing.txt (don’t include any spaces in the filename you use) in your home (~) directory:

ls -1 >~/MyListing.txt

Press return.

You can now view your listing by looking in (or by printing) MyListing.txt.

If you have the free BBEdit, you can just drag and drop that Finder folder on it and it will generate a hierarchy of the folders/filenames in that parent folder. Then press ⌘P to print that display. Although BBEdit is a paid application, after the free trial, it becomes a free, but reduced-feature product that is still quite capable.

Tested: BBEdit 15.1 on macOS Sonoma 14.5

<< it actually copies the files content ... >>

The system clipboard may contain as many as 20 different formats of the copied information at the same time. When you choose Paste, the most appropriate format is chosen to Paste the data. If you leave the document in its default form before you Paste, iIt pastes MUCH more than just filenames. However, if all that other stuff is not appropriate for the destination, only the filenames are pasted.

NB >> choose 'Make Plain Text' off the Format menu, BEFORE you Paste

then ONLY the filenames will be Pasted.

Open that finder window in List View, and click column heading {by name, by date} to sort in the order you want to use.

select all.

copy

open TextEdit

choose NEW

NB >> choose 'Make Plain Text' off the Format menu

Paste -- this should past the list of Names (only), in the same order they appeared in your finder window.

you can print that document as is, or select all and choose enlarge [command+] to get larger text. You can add blank Ines as you wish.

This worked PERFECTLY - after a few different attempts with Pages and TextEdit, I think it was the 'Make Plain Text' step that made it absolutely seamless (and instant!) when I did this for 4200+ file names after having to Force Quit the previous programs a few times. THANK YOU GRANT!!