printerfriendly

Printerfriendly refers to a version of content that is optimized for printing. It is commonly applied to web pages and documents to produce a clear, readable printout by removing extraneous elements such as navigation menus, sidebars, ads, and interactive widgets. The goal is to reduce ink usage, avoid broken layouts, and provide a consistent appearance across devices and browsers.

The primary purpose is to improve legibility and conserve resources while preserving essential information. Printer-friendly formats are also useful for offline reading, archiving, or sharing a static snapshot of content.

Implementation typically involves a separate print stylesheet activated by a media="print" rule in HTML. A typical approach uses a print.css file linked with rel="stylesheet" media="print". In the print stylesheet, nonessential elements are hidden (for example, with display: none for headers, footers, navigation, and ads), fonts and colors are adjusted for readability and ink efficiency, and page breaks are controlled to avoid awkward splits. Other common practices include setting margins with @page, ensuring tables fit within page widths, and avoiding background colors or images unless necessary.

Some sites offer a JavaScript-based toggle or a dedicated printer-friendly version that temporarily restructures the page to remove dynamic elements. While effective, printer-friendly pages may still face limitations due to browser differences, complex layouts, or content that cannot be easily mapped to print formats.

See also: CSS print stylesheets, media queries for print, paged media, print-friendly web design.