Comments on: Theme Designers And Print.CSS

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:37:51 +0000

I really wish more WordPress blogs would use WP-Print, I currently don’t but that is only because my posts are generally not that long, but a lot of blogs that post longer articles need to have printer friendly pages.

By: Ben Eastaugh

Ben Eastaugh — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:25:36 +0000

@Ian: in general I try to dissuade end users from modifying themes. Amongst other problems, it makes updates really hard to apply (and consequently puts them off doing this). Unfortunately the default advice to users when they don’t like something about a theme has always been “hack it”. In my view it’s much better provide an API (which WordPress makes it simple to add), but that often seems beyond both users and theme developers.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:49:31 +0000

I included print.css in my first couple of website templates (before I got into making WP-themes). Some people praised it, others got mad. The overall impression was that the majority of the people who contacted me wanted to use the default browser print style - and after having a number of long discussions about this two years ago I simply decided to leave print.css out of the designs - and later on also the themes. Not because I dislike the idea of including print styles, but because most people still don’t know how to use it in a good way. Besides, printing features in the browsers are getting evolving as well, today making it possible to filter out unwanted content in the same way that a basic print.css does. In my opinion, it would be a nice addition to any theme. I still use print styles a lot in custom designs where prints needs a certain and customized look. But for public themes and templates today, I prefer to not include it any longer.

By: GaMerZ

GaMerZ — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:41:14 +0000

Thanks so much Jeff for the mentioned =D

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:55:54 +0000

What’s a printer?

By: Wordpress Theme Designers And Print.CSS auf maol Jeopardy!

Wordpress Theme Designers And Print.CSS auf maol Jeopardy! — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:08:15 +0000

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By: Monika

Monika — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:24:12 +0000

Hi Justin you have asked:”What’s your take on displaying comments for printing, hide or show?”

By my own domain it is different: at webdesign-in.de I hide comments, texto.de I show them, because there are often necessary answers.
Both have a print.css . But I hide allways navigation,logo and “last read on you domain article”, formulars and something else.

regards
Monika

By: Justin Tadlock

Justin Tadlock — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:44:11 +0000

I think I’ll leave comments displayed in the print stylesheet because anyone that’s printing an article can choose how many pages to print. That’s unless anyone has any arguments for why this should not be done.

@Jeff
I really think the plugin is irrelevant to a theme author when talking about adding print.css to a theme as not all users will be using the plugin. Theme authors will definitely not go the extra mile when adding extra admin functionality for printing. I would for a custom job but not a typical theme.

By: Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:03:29 +0000

My latest theme project has a print stylesheet. I agree that it should sorta just be there. Tough thing about a print stylesheet for a WordPress theme: it’s forgettable. Not that theme authors will forget about it. Nope. It’s the end users I worry about. The ones that modify their themes. It’s easy to destroy a carefully prepared print stylesheet and render it useless by changing the code it’s resetting and restyling for the printer.

By: Mark Thomas Gazels websted » Blog Archive » links for 2008-05-12

Mark Thomas Gazels websted » Blog Archive » links for 2008-05-12 — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:32:45 +0000

[...] Weblog Tools Collection » Blog Archive » Theme Designers And Print.CSS Printvenlige sider bør være indbygget i alle websteder. (tags: CSS Plugin wordpress print) [...]

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:02:23 +0000

Thanks for the link to the plugins. I’ll check them both out.

I would like to see theme authors include a print stylesheet with their themes. Whether it is environmentally correct to print an article or not is not the decision of the theme author or the blogger - it’s the decision of the reader, and we should provide them with that ability.

The option to Create/Print to PDF option would be great to include as well - gives the readers another choice if they want to keep a copy of an article.

By: Rob Mason

Rob Mason — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:18:03 +0000

It’s a quality issue. Like cross-browser support it should just be done, not argument.

By: Myo Kyaw Htun

Myo Kyaw Htun — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:31:59 +0000

All of my free wordpress themes I created are printable. That’s what I want most to see from other wordpress theme developers.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:28:28 +0000

Carson, that’s interesting, I didn’t know that.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:34:02 +0000

The Create/Print to PDF would be an awesome function for a post. Joomla has had this option since inception. But Lester Chan’s WP-Print & WP-Email are priceless if you need print or e-mail functionality in a theme that doesn’t have it.

By: Dhruva Sagar

Dhruva Sagar — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:00:33 +0000

In my opinion the issue is trivial, but that’s all the more reason why theme authors should incorporate them into the themes.
Sometimes we do come across very well written articles or even comments that give us a lot of insight! or perhaps even enlightenment! I would really want to print such articles if I came across them, it would be nice to be able to do that…

By: Carson

Carson — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:14:25 +0000

So Andrew, you’ve bought into the simplistic argument that reducing paper usage will save trees. Actually reducing paper usage is more likely to reduce the amount of trees grown. Most trees used to make paper are grown by private land owners. If the market for those trees goes sour those land owners won’t replant trees after they are harvested. They will divert the land to something more profitable — like growing houses. I know. I’m one of those private tree farmers.

By: Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:58:28 +0000

@Justin Well, the way the plugin works, user’s can select the option to allow people to print comments, links and or images. There is also a text field to allow users to apply a copyright to the text that is displayed once the content is printed. Are these features feasible via CSS? If not, perhaps the versatility of the plugin is the way to go and this entire argument is a moot point.

By: Justin Tadlock

Justin Tadlock — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:33:42 +0000

One question for you Jeff or anyone else that wants to respond. What’s your take on displaying comments for printing, hide or show?

By: Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:37:40 +0000

Heh, cool beans Justin. I wasn’t sure if this was a concerning issue or not but felt as though it was worth brining up. It’s not the end of the world of a theme doesn’t have printing support built in since there is a plugin available, but I would be glad to see more themes having the support built in from the start.