Author Topic: Any 'print as printerfriendly page' automatizer? (Read 16352 times)

Curt · « **on:** February 17, 2007, 03:52 PM »

Some years ago I had no Internet connection, and spend a lot of time at the local library's public PC. Every time I came across something interesting I would hit Print, but very often the printed page would be missing the right margen with some text. A few sites have this 'view printerfriendly page' option, but only a few. I soon began to copy and paste the wanted text into Word, but it was and is a timeconsuming detour.

Now I am thinking that there must be some easier way to do this. They develop programs that can do almost anything, so maybe they also have developped some program that will let you hit 'print' and have ALL the text printed inside the margens.

Do you know of any such quick 'print as printerfriendly page' automatizer?

jgpaiva · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2007, 06:40 PM »

I think that "print" on opera looks good. At least that's what i conclude from seing the print preview (shift + p). It does print all the images, though $:-\$

Curt · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2007, 07:16 PM »

... "print" on opera looks good. ... It does print all the images, though
-jgpaiva (February 17, 2007, 06:40 PM)

I didn't check the print feature when I had Opera, but I is a fine browser, and of course I don't mind the pictures being printed; they are probably part of the story.

However, I'm not thinking about all the pages that are well constructed, but about the pages that seems not to be have written well; pages that don't give nice readable prints, no matter if you are using one or the other browser. I have been sadly surprised many times by the difference in Preview and actual print.

AbteriX · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2007, 08:21 PM »

Hi Curt,

i have no automatizer, but two hints...

1. there are add-ons for FireFox with them you can remove unwanted parts of an side while you watching it...than print.

2. i often select the text i want,... paste it 'as HTML' into PSPad,... put an <HTML> bevor and an </HTML> behind,...
... then save this new *.html,.... open it again - the pictures should be loaded too, .. than print it to an PDF printer.

Or i save the hole side on disc,... open the source code and modify it.
It's nice if they have worked with TABLES,... so i just could add an WIDTH="75%".
If not, i add this TABLE tag myself around.

It's no automatizer, but if you do it often this way, you will be quick too

Curt · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2007, 07:27 AM »

...
It's no automatizer, but if you do it often this way, you will be quick too
-AbteriX (February 17, 2007, 08:21 PM)

Danke schön, die Zeit zu brauchen, mir zu antworten.

No, "it's no automatizer", and my browsers, Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 2, does have both Frontpage- and Word- 2003 integrated, so it is easy to save a page and then print it. It is easy, but not fast. I don't need options, in order to saving. What I do need for the printing feature in the browser, is speed and accuracy. More speed and more accuracy, please!

I have been sadly surprised many times by the difference in Preview and actual print.
-Curt (February 17, 2007, 07:16 PM)

But maybe you all never have to print such a page that won't stay inside the margens in the final print. Maybe I'm the only one?

...some program that will let you hit 'print' and have ALL the text printed inside the margens.

Do you know of any such quick 'print as printerfriendly page' automatizer?
-Curt (February 17, 2007, 03:52 PM)

AbteriX · « **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2007, 01:55 PM »

...But maybe you all never have to print such a page that won't stay inside the margens in the final print. Maybe I'm the only one?
...
-Curt (February 18, 2007, 07:27 AM)

No, iam too have to print such "wide" sides.
The quickeds way (beneath FireFox add-ons to remove unwanted parts) is to change the print layout to landscape.
(for longer sides with a lot of pages.. i print to PDF ...and then i print this PDF to both sides of the papers)

tomos · « **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2007, 02:15 PM »

I didn't check the print feature when I had Opera, but I is a fine browser, and of course I don't mind the pictures being printed; they are probably part of the story.

However, I'm not thinking about all the pages that are well constructed, but about the pages that seems not to be have written well; pages that don't give nice readable prints, no matter if you are using one or the other browser. I have been sadly surprised many times by the difference in Preview and actual print.
-Curt (February 17, 2007, 07:16 PM)

I'm jumping from browser to browser at the moment but I've never had trouble printing stuff with Opera (which I used a couple of years) - but on the other hand I couldn't even tell you if a page is well constructed or not $:-\$

It might be the thing that brings me back to it

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** February 18, 2007, 04:29 PM »

The quickest way is to change the print layout to landscape.
(for longer sides with a lot of pages.. i print to PDF ...and then i print this PDF to both sides of the papers)
-AbteriX (February 18, 2007, 01:55 PM)

Yeah, you may be right. Only, I find this solution disappointingly low-tec'ed.

I couldn't even tell you if a page is well constructed or not
-tomos (February 18, 2007, 02:15 PM)

Nor can I, except maybe for the 'print all inside margens only' part...

katykaty · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2007, 01:07 PM »

Is it anything to do with non-standard paper sizes like 'letter' ?

Curt · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2007, 01:36 PM »

Hey katykaty. No, I did check the standard size as well. To the best of my guessing it has to do with people not keeping standards when writing the pages, but I don't know.

tinjaw · « **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2007, 02:00 PM »

In Firefox you can use Print Preview to easily switch between portrait and landscape mode, as well as choose a scaling factor for the printed page. Often switching to 80% or 90% will get large images to fit on the printed page.

Redhat · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2007, 04:45 PM »

I know this is a pointless post.. but it really is the responsibility of website designers to create printer-friendly pages. Just a reminder to those who make-their-own

mwb1100 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2007, 08:44 PM »

Do you know of any such quick 'print as printerfriendly page' automatizer?
-Curt (February 17, 2007, 03:52 PM)

I don't have experience with either of the tools I'm about to mention, but they might be helpful to you:

1) IE 7 is supposed to be vastly improved over IE 6 in avoiding cutting off the text on the right margin.

2) An IE add-in called 'Printer Friendly' is supposed to do exactly what you want: http://www.antair.co.../content/view/16/44/

Printer Friendly does not support FireFox, but the author stated (on his blog, I think) that he had a FireFox add-in once, but got too much flak for it not being free. Apparently he has since provided it on an unsupported basis to at least one customer.

brownstudy · « **Reply #13 on:** February 25, 2007, 05:21 PM »

My personal solution is to 1) disable all CSS for a page and 2) linearize the page elements so they line up one after the next.

Two ways to do this:

1) In Mozilla, install the Web Developer Tools extension. Press Ctrol+Shift+S and all stylesheets are disabled, leaving you with just the text and graphics. At that point, I may select the text I want to read and in the Print dialog click on "Selection" so only the highlighted text is printed. This tool also has the Linearize option, but that sometimes removes the graphics so I don't always use it.

2) Some bookmarklets site had the Zap CSS and Linearize options as bookmarklets. A little Googling should find them. Put them in your toolbar and that's about as automatic as it'll get for you.

HTH -- mike

tsaint · « **Reply #14 on:** February 25, 2007, 08:46 PM »

I was at the supermarket on the weekend, wife doing the shopping, me checking the computer mags. Anyway, I saw reference to 2 utilities supposedly making it easy to print web pages properly.
Of course I forgot the names before I reached home - one was something like "webEasy" - but I remember they were both freeware, one from epson, 1 from canon.
There was a claim that at least one of them worked with ALL brands of printers.
Anyway, shouldn't be hard to track them down if you're interested.
tony

Curt · « **Reply #15 on:** February 26, 2007, 07:53 PM »

1) IE 7 is supposed to be vastly improved over IE 6 in avoiding cutting off the text on the right margin.

2) An IE add-in called 'Printer Friendly' is supposed to do exactly what you want: http://www.antair.co.../content/view/16/44/
-mwb1100 (February 19, 2007, 08:44 PM)

I upgraded (from IE 6) to IE 7 just a couple of hours before I read your post....

.. the current version of Printer Friendly 1.4 is optimized to work best with Internet Explorer 6. Upcoming releases of Printer Friendly will be optimized for Internet Explorer 7.

But I do find it expensive. $15 may sound cheap, but it will only grant you upgrades for a year.

... all customers of Printer Friendly 1.4 receive free upgrades for one year.

lanux128 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 26, 2007, 09:34 PM »

sometimes the printer manufacturers themselves provide tools that simplify those right-margin printing.. like Lexmark Toolbar or Canon's Easy-WebPrint

Curt · « **Reply #17 on:** February 27, 2007, 03:25 AM »

.. printer manufacturers themselves provide tools that simplify those right-margin printing.. like Lexmark Toolbar or Canon's Easy-WebPrint
-lanux128 (February 26, 2007, 09:34 PM)

Thanks a lot, to tsaint and lanux128

patteo · « **Reply #18 on:** February 28, 2007, 03:10 AM »

I came across this sometime ago. Never used it though. You may wish to check it out.

GoGoTools - It's FREE!
"Print web pages exactly as you see them online!

• Eliminate cut-offs
• Print pages without losing valuable information
• Easy to use and installs in seconds"
http://www.gogotools.com/gogoprint.html

Also I think there's no version of Easywebprint for Internet Explorer 7 since IE7 apparently solves the cut off problem. Can't tell as I seldom print from a webpage.

Curt · « **Reply #19 on:** February 28, 2007, 09:11 AM »

GoGoTools - http://www.gogotools.com/gogoprint.html
-patteo (February 28, 2007, 03:10 AM)

Nice! I like the set up; a small toolbar at the menubar:

However; I am a little un-easy with the procedure. It seems to me that I have to up- and down- load the page, I wanna print, before printing. Maybe it is not so, but it seems that this is the way.. ?? Well, maybe I am seing spooks and ghosts

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** January 01, 2008, 07:44 AM »

I found this free one for Firefox + PDF only: Select-Arrange

http://select-arrange.com/welcome
http://www.all4you.d...ctArrange-43300.html