A recent debate came up that seems to mirror a continuing debate on the web (at least it seems that way from the time I spent searching today) - how to present a printable version of a web page to users.
My standard was to always have a print CSS stylesheet that did what most of them are supposed to do - change the fonts to be more readable printed, remove extraneous elements, reformat columns, etc. That's the one thing we all agree on. However, there is debate about whether the user should be presented with a 'printable page' view before they print it. We have a "Print this Page" link/icon on our sites, and I feel that most people don't need to see a rendering of the page as long as it prints correctly. So, by clicking the button, they should get a printed version of the page that is styled to be read offline. Others feel that they should be offered a preview of the page first, and then offered the chance to print that page. To me, that seems like: 1) an extra click to accomplish the task 2) an unnecessary step in the process (particularly if the user were printing multiple pages) 3) extra programming work to create 4) Easily accomplished by using "Print Preview" (granted, I know many users WILL NOT do this). Thoughts on this? ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
