printable web pages

[aneurysm]

What is the simplest way to create a web page that will print properly onto regualr 8.5 x 11 paper with correct page breaks?

Thanks,
Scott

[tedster]

Hi scott, and welcome to the Webmaster World Forums.

You sure have picked a humdinger of a question! It's one of those is is easy to ask but hard to answer.

The number of quirks between printers, operating systems, browsers etc. make it almost impossible to give a one-size-fits-all anwser, at least if you only want to write an HTML page and have people print that out.

When I want to offer an easy to print page, I usually create a .pdf file and offer a link on the page that says "printer friendly version of this page".

I have picked up a few hints about designing HTML pages to print sanely over a variety of browsers and printers. First, design the text for a width of 640. Then try to place one page's worth in a table, and close that table and start a new one. Most browsers try not to split a table into pieces across a page break.

But I still recommend a .pdf -- it's a no-failure solution, and you completely control the formatting.

[mivox]

A lot of online news services offer links at the bottom of their articles that say "printer friendly version"... Look at their printer friendly pages and see if they all have a few things in common.

[grnidone]

One thing, at least with width is to have your page no wider than 640 pixels wide.

-G