Print width query

[KiwiBrian]

I want to make an html page for a friend who wants it to print at a specific
width on her printer.
It does not need to be put online, or print on any other PC setup.
It will use a table to contain the content which is predominantly tabular.
How do I define the width of the table, and limit the content, so that it
will print as she wants within the printer page?
It could also be done in Word, but previous (lack of) experience with such
formatting in Word makes me more confident of success using html and css.
TIA
Brian Tozer

 

[David Dorward]

How do I define the width of the table, and limit the content, so that it
will print as she wants within the printer page?

With the "width" property.

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

I want to make an html page for a friend who wants it to print at a
specific width on her printer.

Create the page so that it adapts to the available width, whatever it
is.

It does not need to be put online, or print on any other PC setup.

It's still simplest to design it as if you were designing it for the
Web. Abandon this idea only when it has been _proven_ impossible or
suboptimal. Don't assume anything you don't need to assume.

It will use a table to contain the content which is predominantly
tabular.

Fine. Write a table without any attempt at controlling the appearance,
check (in Print Preview) how it looks like on printing, and ask your
friend to do the same. _Then_ you may observe something you would like
to affect. You cannot know, at this point, and still less can we.

How do I define the width of the table, and limit the
content, so that it will print as she wants within the printer
page?

You don't.

Of course you want to make the best possible use of the entire
available width. Browsers generally do this better than you, except in
special circumstances. Note that the width depends on the printer _and_
its settings, especially margin settings, which may vary. This is yet
another reason _not_ to set widths.

 

[KiwiBrian]

Create the page so that it adapts to the available width, whatever it
is.


It's still simplest to design it as if you were designing it for the
Web. Abandon this idea only when it has been _proven_ impossible or
suboptimal. Don't assume anything you don't need to assume.


Fine. Write a table without any attempt at controlling the appearance,
check (in Print Preview) how it looks like on printing, and ask your
friend to do the same. _Then_ you may observe something you would like
to affect. You cannot know, at this point, and still less can we.


You don't.

Of course you want to make the best possible use of the entire
available width. Browsers generally do this better than you, except in
special circumstances. Note that the width depends on the printer _and_
its settings, especially margin settings, which may vary. This is yet
another reason _not_ to set widths.

Thanks Jukka.
Subsequent to writing my query I found that there was an option in my
computer's print preview settings to make the page fit the paper, and
thought this might be a universal option in all/most printer driver options,
but my friend says that she does not have such an option.
Hence it seems to me that the only way that I can make it fit the paper in
her printer is to modify/specify the width of the table in the HTML/CSS.
Presumably empirically.
I know how to do this, but can't help feeling that I am missing something
somewhere.
Brian Tozer