Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
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Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#2I've heard of people printing whole articles and reading them in paper format before.
Personally, I would rather have a print.css that hides everything but a message that says "save the trees, don't print an article only to discard it after".
We do have some clients that ask for their website to be printable, but it's mostly clients that are in the legal or medical business. It doesn't come in regular contracts, the client has to ask for it.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#3The premise is questionable. A webpage lives in its own medium, or it is its own medium. It is normally meant to be read with an electronic device, to be interactive and linked, though those devices can be quite different of course.
But by printing a webarticle, you are transforming it into another medium, onto paper. Therefore it is actually a very strong assumption - and one I don't follow - to "expect them to support the habits of people who prefer to read longer articles in print".
And that even before talking about protecting the nature from wasteful habits like this.
But sure, if you enjoy it, build a small print.css, removing everything unnecessary and making it readable in black&white. Just be aware of the medium change, and that a good design in the one medium won't necessary work in the other.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#4The only thing that I usually bother to ensure really works when printed is receipt pages. I haven't even owned a printer in years, but printing receipts to PDF is something I do daily.
I'd suggest OP buy a Kindle, but on the other hand you probably need to go through quite a few reams of paper before you make up the environmental cost of even just the lithium-ion battery...
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#5I've heard of people printing whole articles and reading them in paper format before. Personally, I would rather have a print.css that hides everything but a message that says "save the trees, don't print an article only to discard it after". We do have some clients that ask for their website to be printable, but it's mostly clients that are in the legal or medical business. It doesn't come in regular contracts, the…
Depends what happens to the paper thereafter of course . Somehow, printing out articles from the web seems pretty small beer compared to felling trees in the forests of North Carolina for conversion to wood chips and transporting them 3,000 miles to Drax Power Station in the UK. Not a one-off! There is a purpose-built dock at Chesapeake Port, just across the state line in Virginia.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290444/Madness-How-...
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/feb/21/drax-scraps-...
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#6I've heard of people printing whole articles and reading them in paper format before. Personally, I would rather have a print.css that hides everything but a message that says "save the trees, don't print an article only to discard it after". We do have some clients that ask for their website to be printable, but it's mostly clients that are in the legal or medical business. It doesn't come in regular contracts, the…
Funny you bring up the aspect of saving the trees, because I followed up the post with a suggestion for how Google can reduce the waste by taking more control of the print experience in Chrome: http://www.modrenman.com/2013/05/01/save-the-rainforest-goog....
More than anything else, I just wanted to bring attention to something I think many people don’t know about, because I think it’s mostly a case of people not minding printed web pages rather than them not caring.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#7I don't find this post that useful. It goes through some sites, criticizing what they do wrong (what the hell does "anti-print" mean?), but offers no explicit examples of sites that get it all (or all-1) right. Kottke.org has colored links and sidebar (on a print out? those are useless). I'm not a designer, but I still like to create nice looking things. No points are given on what makes a nice printout, even though some of the examples given look completely fine to me.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#8Based on what I'd assume the user base for this kind of thing is, I'd support IE6 before I worried about printing.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#9I feel like browser print support is like CSS support at the end of the last millennium: fragmented and not guaranteed to be decently supported if at all.
I wanted to make a print style for my CV and it just was a terrible pain to get things like per page header and footers.
Re: Whither print.css? A Rallying Cry for a Web That’s Fit to Print (2013)
#10Unless printing the page is a useful and usable byproduct (which may be the case in certain SaaS scenarios), I wouldn't give a print stylesheet more than 15 minutes of my time.