Printing graphic

[KiwiBrian]

On my web site I wish to display a line-art graphic for youngsters to print
and colour in.
I am reasonably comfortable with CSS and would like a pointer as to how I
can perhaps give the user a button on the page that will enable them to
print just the image and perhaps a table below it for their name etc.
Naturally I want the printed image to be as big as possible but stay within
the printed page in one pass.
Can someone give me a pointer to a site that covers this or point me to the
correct method.
The button idea is not essential, but printing the graphic within the
confines of the paper is.

TIA
Brian Tozer

 

[brucie]

In alt.html KiwiBrian said:

On my web site I wish to display a line-art graphic for youngsters to print
and colour in.
I am reasonably comfortable with CSS and would like a pointer as to how I
can perhaps give the user a button on the page that will enable them to
print just the image and perhaps a table below it for their name etc.

link to a "printer version" for them to print. all you need is a
different style sheet using @media print and screen to display/hide the
different bits to display what will be printed rather than rewriting the
page.

you could use the @media print on the same page but people get pissed
off when something different to what they see on screen is printed. if
you do at least warn them that the printer version is different.

7 Media types
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/media.html

Naturally I want the printed image to be as big as possible but stay within
the printed page in one pass.

width="100%" or width:100%; without specifying a height. the height will
automatically be proportionally adjusted to match the width of the
image. quality suffers if the 100% is too big.

 

[Inger Helene Falch-Jacobsen]

you could use the @media print on the same page but people get pissed
off when something different to what they see on screen is printed. if
you do at least warn them that the printer version is different.

Is that always true, Brucie? I get p***** off when
I see a "printer-friendly version" link! My
printer version is slightly different from my
screen version, but I don't think that is a
problem, rather a good thing as the fonts are
changed from sans-serifs to serifs and the color
to black only, for instance.

 

[brucie]

In alt.html Inger Helene Falch-Jacobsen said:

Is that always true, Brucie?

no always but the majority and you don't know which visitors are which.

I get p***** off when I see a "printer-friendly version" link! My
printer version is slightly different from my screen version, but I
don't think that is a problem,

no one cares what you think, what do your visitors think? are they happy
seeing one thing but something else is printed.

rather a good thing as the fonts are changed from sans-serifs to
serifs and the color to black only, for instance.

i'm not saying its a bad thing having a "printer version" it is a bad
thing to at least not warn the visitor that something other than what
they see will be printed.

 

[brucie]

In alt.html brucie said:

no always but the majority and you don't know which visitors are which.

^^ not

dumb computer

 

[Lemming]

Is that always true, Brucie? I get p***** off when
I see a "printer-friendly version" link! My
printer version is slightly different from my
screen version, but I don't think that is a
problem, rather a good thing as the fonts are
changed from sans-serifs to serifs and the color
to black only, for instance.

I tend to use a style-sheet with media="print" to use more
printer-friendly colours and get rid of clutter such as navigation
menus. Is this bad practice?

Lemming

 

[brucie]

In alt.html Lemming said:

I tend to use a style-sheet with media="print" to use more
printer-friendly colours and get rid of clutter such as navigation
menus. Is this bad practice?

do you warn your visitors that what they see isn't whats going to be
printed? do you know they want to print it in different colors? do you
know they don't want the menu printed? do you even know why they're
printing it?

 

[Lemming]

In alt.html Lemming said:


do you warn your visitors that what they see isn't whats going to be
printed? do you know they want to print it in different colors? do you
know they don't want the menu printed? do you even know why they're
printing it?

Hmm. The answer to all of the above questions is "No."

Bad Lemming. No biscuit.

I'll mend my ways. Thanks.

Lemming

 

[brucie]

In alt.html Lemming said:

Hmm. The answer to all of the above questions is "No."

i rigged the questions

Bad Lemming. No biscuit.

its ok. you can stay up and watch the rude late night movie.

I'll mend my ways.

"thats kewl i wanna do that" is ok but you need to think of the
consequences and ignore them if you want to or think of ways of working
them to keep hopefully most of your visitors giggly whatever their
preferences are.

 

[Lemming]

In alt.html Lemming said:


"thats kewl i wanna do that" is ok but you need to think of the
consequences and ignore them if you want to or think of ways of working
them to keep hopefully most of your visitors giggly whatever their
preferences are.

As they say: "Every rule has an exception, except this one."

Lemming

 

[Inger Helene Falch-Jacobsen]

In alt.html Inger Helene Falch-Jacobsen said:

I even updated
http://home.no.net/ingernet/links.php#How
yesterday with some more stuff that annoys me,
which includes this...

i'm not saying its a bad thing having a "printer version" it is a bad
thing to at least not warn the visitor that something other than what
they see will be printed.

Ok, I hear you... Now I have added a "warning" to
the index page. But I still can't understand why
that is necessary, what's the point in a making a
stylesheet for print if the majority would rather
press "PrintScreen"?

 

[Spartanicus]

Ok, I hear you... Now I have added a "warning" to
the index page. But I still can't understand why
that is necessary, what's the point in a making a
stylesheet for print if the majority would rather
press "PrintScreen"?

Agreed, using our knowledge and experience we create content and a
screen presentation based on our best guess of what users need/want
without actually knowing. I see no reason not to apply the same
principle to print content and layout.

I'd expect users to be surprised about the print result from my pages
because I rewrite relative urls to absolute, I drop all non essential
content, navigation and formatting, but I don't regard that as a
problem. I'd regard not doing so as a problem, although it's a problem
the user may be familiar with, and they most likely don't even recognize
it as a problem, it's still a problem that we can solve.

And as you rightly remarked, in the unlikely event that the user doesn't
want a printout of the content, but of the screen look there's always
PrtScr.

 

[goodhart]

In alt.html Lemming said:


do you warn your visitors that what they see isn't whats going to be
printed? do you know they want to print it in different colors? do you
know they don't want the menu printed? do you even know why they're
printing it?

In my observations of users at my internet cafe the biggest thing that
annoys
users when printing is when half the content is cut of because of bad design
methods,
but the menus print perfectly. The few pages which remove the navigation
and
actually print so all the info can be read are a nice surprise, I have never
seen a
customer upset because a menu did not print.

you can learn a lot watching people use public computers from complete
novice
users who need help opening a browser to regular users and self styled
guru's.

Cheers
Trusylver - only a short drive away from brucie

 

[Toby Inkster]

I have never seen a customer upset because a menu did not print.

I must agree with you there. No matter how much you press the links with
your finger on a printed navigation system, nothing happens.

 

[brucie]

In alt.html Toby Inkster said:

No matter how much you press the links with your finger on a printed
navigation system, nothing happens.

what kind of crappy paper are you using?

 

[brucie]

In alt.html goodhart said:

In my observations of users at my internet cafe the biggest thing that
annoys users when printing is when half the content is cut of because
of bad design methods, but the menus print perfectly.

you cant claim you're an internet user until you've gotten pissed off
printing only the left side of a site. its a right of passage.

you can learn a lot watching people use public computers from complete
novice users

there was a guy recently at the local library getting walked through
signing up for yahoo mail and it was a huge production. when he finally
got to entering his name he discovered someone was already using it. it
took about 15 minutes for the librarian to calm him down.

"no sir just pick a different name, it doesn't mean someone has stolen
your identity. really, someone else in the world has the same name as
you do.... no we cant check to make sure. no, theres no need to get a
new drivers licence or credit cards. i don't think we should call the
police"

etc etc

i think those of us who were listening in were considering looking for a
nice thick book to konk him over the head with.

i admired the librarian for her patients but i think shes a good
candidate to go crazy with a high powered rifle one day.

Trusylver - only a short drive away from brucie

a short drive is 2hrs or less. gympie is 3hrs, you have to have 2 weewee
stops and you're sober by the time you get there - which is never good
in gympie.