5 ms·

Printing only what you like (Format any web page for printing)

66 points by tortilla 18y ago

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
markbao 18y ago
This is really well done. Finally no more wasted paper with sidebars and footers on them... Also, font changing is excellent. Trebuchet MT isn't easy on the eyes.
pogos 18y ago
May i have "Save" button + unique url for every page i edit please?
kenver 18y ago
Nice service. It was only yesterday that I was copy/pasting into word to print some slides.
DTrejo 18y ago
This is great for those of us who print PG's essays. Now the column can fill the whole page, meaning less whitespace.
ROFISH 18y ago
Not that this isn't awesome or anything, but this is a hack for so people can print over poor designers. A print media CSS file should be included to clear all the garbage so that printing will only show what you want. See: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#media-types http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#media-types
- RobGR 18y ago
  I agree, however consider that most people who are smart enough to make a print media css file, still end up with the print version of the web page being a better design even for web browsing than the browser one. If the print media css file was common, than maybe a browser setting could always show that version whenever it is available.
- jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
  It would be great if every site offered a printer-friendly view. The web would be so much more usable. But I also believe the ultimate authority on how a page looks and prints should be you. What if company policies force designers to include ink-draining advertisements on the printer-friendly version (cough cnn.com cough)? What if you don't like the font a page uses, or only want to print part of the page, or want to merge multiple pages into one print job? A printer-friendly stylesheet won't do that for you, but PrintWhatYouLike will. I totally agree that PrintWhatYouLike will mostly be used to get around poorly designed sites, but print stylesheets are only part of the solution. The other part of the solutions is giving you the ability to take a designers page and customize it to suit your own unique needs.
josefresco 18y ago
Looks like Clipmarks but instead of bookmarking/blogging it's for printing.
snprbob86 18y ago
I wish I had this years ago. But now? The only things I print have an optimized print version (maps, boarding passes, etc). I can't remember the last time I experienced this problem...
- mcargian 18y ago
  I don't know about you, but when learning a new topic, I find it easier to print the content I want to read, and highlight it old-skool style with a highlighter. It helps me for reading comprehension, later referencing, and those off line meetings where you want to show something quickly out of your printed notes.
  - snprbob86 18y ago
    I can see the value in that, but I prefer a quantity over quality approach. When learning a new topic, I read as many materials about it as I possibly can. I don't worry too much about grasping it fully right away. I'll just survey as much land as possible. In the end, I have a much broader appreciation for a topic and have crystalized a far more sophisticated view of it. I also find that when I return to the earlier materials I read, they are much easier to understand. I don't have time to print things...
wave 18y ago
Design suggestion: On the print page the menu on left to Remove Background, Remove Images... and etc, all have different sizes (width). I think this makes your site to look unprofessional. I suggest to use the same width.
- jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
  Thanks! This change will appear in the next release.
keven 18y ago
Similar to Aardvark, a Firefox extension
- bockris 18y ago
  +1 for Aardvark.
- goodness 18y ago
  Also some similarities with the Nuke Anything extension.
- jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
  Both Aardvark and Nuke Anything are super cool tools, and I stole a lot of ideas from them while creating PrintWhatYouLike. But PrintWhatYouLike also adds a whole bunch of new stuff no other service offers. Here are a few of the new features: * pwyl is a webapp so you don't need to customize or install anything and you aren't tied to any particular browser * merge pages together - you can combine multiple pages together into one page, and print them as one document. Your changes from the first page are automatically applied to any additional pages. * pwyl is easy to use - there is a full toolbar, and you can see what you have selected. With Aardvark you have to memorize keyboard commands * extra features like change text size, font, remove images.
DocSavage 18y ago
It's also interesting that printwhatyoulike.com runs on Google's App Engine. (See http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/10/app-engine-community-update.html http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/10/app-engine-commu...)
- chaostheory 18y ago
  yeah, this (currently printwhatyoulike's front page) "This Google App Engine application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later." isn't exactly a great advertisement for the service
  - DocSavage 18y ago
    I'm surprised they didn't lift the quotas for printwhatyoulike, given they advertised it on the App Engine blog. Still, the "preview" status of App Engine is well known. If you don't want to worry about quotas, either wait until they allow payment, get them to significantly up your quota before you go public, or deploy on another system for now.
    - jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
      Aargh. I thought the over quota issues had been fixed :-( GAE is a great service, and it makes deploying and hosting an application dead simple, but how it actually works is a big mystery. GAE doesn't give any indication that your application is at or near the limit of a quota. Even now, while PrintWhatYouLike is giving over quota errors, the GAE dashboard for PrintWhatYouLike says that everything is a-ok. DocSavage, I wish I would have taken your advice a few weeks ago:)
sonink 18y ago
useful stuff - plugins for wordpress, drupal etc. might be useful for distribution
user88372 18y ago
This should be part of Firefox
zandorg 18y ago
I find it hard to figure out some modern web startups, but this works well and it's easy to use. I'll be using it in future.
trezor 18y ago
That might be a more userfriendly way of doing it, but my favourite way of dealing with pages like that is using Platypus with Greasemonkey to edit pages on the fly. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/737 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/737
jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
Thanks everyone for the fantastic suggestions!!! The inspiration for the site actually came from wanting a way to print pg's essays without wasting so much paper. If you find any bugs or can't believe we left out your favorite feature, please post it here or contact me at admin@printwhatyoulike.com.

66 points by tortilla 18y ago

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

This is really well done. Finally no more wasted paper with sidebars and footers on them... Also, font changing is excellent. Trebuchet MT isn't easy on the eyes.

pogos 18y ago

May i have "Save" button + unique url for every page i edit please?

kenver 18y ago

Nice service. It was only yesterday that I was copy/pasting into word to print some slides.

DTrejo 18y ago

This is great for those of us who print PG's essays. Now the column can fill the whole page, meaning less whitespace.

ROFISH 18y ago

Not that this isn't awesome or anything, but this is a hack for so people can print over poor designers. A print media CSS file should be included to clear all the garbage so that printing will only show what you want. See: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#media-types http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#media-types

RobGR 18y ago
I agree, however consider that most people who are smart enough to make a print media css file, still end up with the print version of the web page being a better design even for web browsing than the browser one. If the print media css file was common, than maybe a browser setting could always show that version whenever it is available.
jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
It would be great if every site offered a printer-friendly view. The web would be so much more usable. But I also believe the ultimate authority on how a page looks and prints should be you. What if company policies force designers to include ink-draining advertisements on the printer-friendly version (cough cnn.com cough)? What if you don't like the font a page uses, or only want to print part of the page, or want to merge multiple pages into one print job? A printer-friendly stylesheet won't do that for you, but PrintWhatYouLike will. I totally agree that PrintWhatYouLike will mostly be used to get around poorly designed sites, but print stylesheets are only part of the solution. The other part of the solutions is giving you the ability to take a designers page and customize it to suit your own unique needs.

josefresco 18y ago

Looks like Clipmarks but instead of bookmarking/blogging it's for printing.

snprbob86 18y ago

I wish I had this years ago. But now? The only things I print have an optimized print version (maps, boarding passes, etc). I can't remember the last time I experienced this problem...

mcargian 18y ago
I don't know about you, but when learning a new topic, I find it easier to print the content I want to read, and highlight it old-skool style with a highlighter. It helps me for reading comprehension, later referencing, and those off line meetings where you want to show something quickly out of your printed notes.
- snprbob86 18y ago
  I can see the value in that, but I prefer a quantity over quality approach. When learning a new topic, I read as many materials about it as I possibly can. I don't worry too much about grasping it fully right away. I'll just survey as much land as possible. In the end, I have a much broader appreciation for a topic and have crystalized a far more sophisticated view of it. I also find that when I return to the earlier materials I read, they are much easier to understand. I don't have time to print things...

wave 18y ago

Design suggestion: On the print page the menu on left to Remove Background, Remove Images... and etc, all have different sizes (width). I think this makes your site to look unprofessional. I suggest to use the same width.

jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
Thanks! This change will appear in the next release.

keven 18y ago

Similar to Aardvark, a Firefox extension

bockris 18y ago
+1 for Aardvark.
goodness 18y ago
Also some similarities with the Nuke Anything extension.
jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
Both Aardvark and Nuke Anything are super cool tools, and I stole a lot of ideas from them while creating PrintWhatYouLike. But PrintWhatYouLike also adds a whole bunch of new stuff no other service offers. Here are a few of the new features: * pwyl is a webapp so you don't need to customize or install anything and you aren't tied to any particular browser * merge pages together - you can combine multiple pages together into one page, and print them as one document. Your changes from the first page are automatically applied to any additional pages. * pwyl is easy to use - there is a full toolbar, and you can see what you have selected. With Aardvark you have to memorize keyboard commands * extra features like change text size, font, remove images.

DocSavage 18y ago

It's also interesting that printwhatyoulike.com runs on Google's App Engine. (See http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/10/app-engine-community-update.html http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/10/app-engine-commu...)

chaostheory 18y ago
yeah, this (currently printwhatyoulike's front page) "This Google App Engine application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again later." isn't exactly a great advertisement for the service
- DocSavage 18y ago
  I'm surprised they didn't lift the quotas for printwhatyoulike, given they advertised it on the App Engine blog. Still, the "preview" status of App Engine is well known. If you don't want to worry about quotas, either wait until they allow payment, get them to significantly up your quota before you go public, or deploy on another system for now.
  - jonathan_pwyl 18y ago
    Aargh. I thought the over quota issues had been fixed :-( GAE is a great service, and it makes deploying and hosting an application dead simple, but how it actually works is a big mystery. GAE doesn't give any indication that your application is at or near the limit of a quota. Even now, while PrintWhatYouLike is giving over quota errors, the GAE dashboard for PrintWhatYouLike says that everything is a-ok. DocSavage, I wish I would have taken your advice a few weeks ago:)

sonink 18y ago

useful stuff - plugins for wordpress, drupal etc. might be useful for distribution

user88372 18y ago

This should be part of Firefox

zandorg 18y ago

I find it hard to figure out some modern web startups, but this works well and it's easy to use. I'll be using it in future.

trezor 18y ago

That might be a more userfriendly way of doing it, but my favourite way of dealing with pages like that is using Platypus with Greasemonkey to edit pages on the fly. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/737 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/737

jonathan_pwyl 18y ago

Thanks everyone for the fantastic suggestions!!! The inspiration for the site actually came from wanting a way to print pg's essays without wasting so much paper. If you find any bugs or can't believe we left out your favorite feature, please post it here or contact me at admin@printwhatyoulike.com.