Comment 12 for bug 156643

Evince didn't previously display support coloring around the links at all until 7.10 (I don't have proof of this in a changelog, but I've been using evince and submitting pdfs for publication for a while and would not have done so if the PDFs showed up to me with ugly squares painted around my links and references!).

You're right, though, the boxes should definitely not show up when printing. Nor should they show up in the nautilus thumbnail or in presentation mode, IMO.