Arguments against my whole post
You shouldn't be printing anything anyway, it's bad for the environment!
Yes. Fine. Noted.
That's what PDFs are for!
No, it's really not, and if you have a site somewhere with a button labelled "print" which exports something as a PDF then we probably have bigger problems.
Nobody prints web pages, what are you worried about?
Uh-huh.
People print web pages. Some people will print off a copy of your CV, a receipt for a product, the confirmation page for a booking, some quick troubleshooting tips for their washing machine, a recipe...
My partner has reduced vision and uses larger-than-usual text sizes on screen, and often prints articles out to read them at her leisure in a more comfortable way. Paper is still easier for a lot of people to read than a backlit screen. It's the big reason kindles are so popular.
Let's have a nice clear button that says "print"
No, let's not. Browsers have that built in. You wouldn't reinvent the wheel, would you? You wouldn't recreate the browser's "back" button on ever... wait, you did that, didn't you?
What about "reader mode"?
Reader mode is good. It's where the browser tries to remove as much of the formatting and unnecessary cruft it can and gives you a single column of clear text, in good contrasting colours.
It's better than good, in fact: it's great. But it solves a different problem than printing does. You'll lose the layout for an invoice, for example.
So... what should we keep, then?
Navigation
Odds are, you don't need to show the menu structure when printing something out. Ditch it.
Advertising
You don't need to display ads in a print-out. It's not like anyone can click them, and it's not like anyone wanted to see them when they were on the screen in the first place. Ditch them from the print stylesheet.
That big honkin' footer/sidebar/whatever
No.
The newsletter signup nag/subscription begging modal/plea for social media "likes"
You didn't expect this to show up, did you? Because it's hidden by javascript until the user is least expecting it? And you're surprised it's mangled its way into a paper copy?
Pay attention now: no.
Cover photo from Printer Leaf by zion at Morguefile.com
Top comments (0)