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Transform XHTML/CSS pages into printer-friendly pages

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by maryweilage 1 view

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This week's Design and Usability Tactics e-newsletter examines transforming XHTML/CSS pages into printer-friendly pages. Do you think you'll use the methods described in this e-newsletter? How do you create printer-friendly pages for users who use browsers that are older than IE5+ or Netscape 6+?

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7 replies

by john.winsor

In any discussion of a technique, it is customary to provide example code as illustration.

In grade school, this is the "show" part of "show and tell."

by paulwitt

Please give us a link to a real page that employs this technique, and the code in the style sheet files. Show us ! Thanks.

by maryweilage

Thanks to both readers for offering your feedback. Due to reader interest, Mr. Meadhra is going to write a follow-up column that offers examples and provides additional details about creating printer-friendly pages using CSS.

We greatly value your input.

Thanks again,
Mary Weilage, E-newsletter Editor

by webmonkeybuilder

It would be great if the author could provide examples for pages which use only xhtml/css, and perhaps one or two incorporating the leading programming languages for the web, in particular PHP/MySQL and ASP. The process may be the same regardless of the technology used, but it would be great to see functioning examples of both.

Thanks for the very informative article!

by jcalzada

Hey guys,
I have been searching for this kind of material for a while. I am
desperate need to control over page breaks, headers, and
footers. I have not been able to find reliable methods for the
headers and footer in particular. Any suggestions? Thanks in
advance.

by gator4life

As far as what is available in CSS2 for the handling of content in paged media, check out http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/page.html, but the kind of stuff you want to do with headers and footers is currently part of the CSS3 Candidate Recommendation: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/CR-css3-page-20040225/. Therefore, don't expect to see headers and footers in CSS implemented in most of the major user agents for a bit longer. Too bad, too, since the stuff recommended in CSS3 for paged media looks incredible.

by gator4life

PHP and ASP are *server-side* technologies that can be used to create content that the *client-side* user agents (e.g. web browsers) render once that content has been sent to the user agents. These *server-side* technologies have absolutely nothing to do with how *client-side* XHTML/CSS is rendered within the actual user agents. Examples that show how XHTML/CSS function are all that is needed, since the XHTML and the CSS used to style that XHTML are both on the client, having already been delivered by the server. It is up to you how to generate that *client-side* content using the *server-side* technologies, if needed, but I believe that discussion is outside of the scope of the topic being presented here.

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