Re: Printer-Friendly and actual printer handling

[wayne <wdh@swbell.net>]

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> dorayme wrote:
>
>
> > > From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@schestowitz.com>
> > >
> > > crjunk@earthlink.net wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > First, let me say that I know that doing something like preventing the
> > > > user from changing the font size is never a good thing from a usability
> > > > standpoint.
> > > >
> > > > Let me explain why I'm trying to do this.  I'm trying to recreate an
> > > > online payment invoice that looks very similar to the hard copy invoice
> > > > we mail out to our customers.  The user will be able to print out this
> > > > invoice from their web browser and mail it in along with their payment.
> > > > The web browser printout needs to be similar in size to the invoice we
> > > > mail out.  I would prefer to create the invoice as a PDF for the user,
> > > > but because of deadline time constraints, I do not have this luxury.
> > > >
> > > > I have found examples on how to limit the size of text in IE, but this
> > > > solution does not work in FireFox.  Is there a way to "lock" the size
> > > > of text in Fireox?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > CR Junk
> > >
> > > I don't think you can do that and I think you must never force fonts to
> > > have a fixed size. This will stir up an outrage among people whose sight
> > > is poorer than yours. Some seniors I know prefer Firefox because of the
> > > powerful font scaling support (SHIFT accelarator and CTRL+-). Firefox
> > > gives them the 'power' to read pages even when the Web developer is
> > > overly adamant.
> > >
> > > If you want to generate PDF's on-to-fly, you have a flexible package that
> > > you can use. It took me only an hour or two to make an HTML->PDF feature
> > > work.
> > >
> > > http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2005/07/12/wordpress-and-pdf/
> > >
> > > The package is widely used in the Open Source community. Since you can
> > > never fight a browser that puts the user in control, you may wish to just
> > > add a friendly warning that discourages users from changing the default
> > > font size. Also don't forget that pages will be rendered differently on
> > > different platforms, browsers and devices.
> > >
> > > Roy
> >
> >
> > Would there not be a way to simply fix the font size in a stylesheet for
> > printing only while yet leaving the screen image free to be seen at
> > whatever font size the user finds comfortable?
> >
> > dorayme
>
>
> I would know the answer because I almost never print anything. I imagine the
> printer will receive the input in a WYSIWYG fashion, so if print.css is
> selected and displayed on the screen, problems will arise. I don't know
> what will happen if the browser or O/S is configured to choose print.css
> 'behind the scenes'. 
>
> Neredbojias actually pointed out a good solution that I hadn't thought of.
> From experience, however, even scaling fonts based on the window
> (technically speaking, _visible frame_ rather, which excludes toolbars and
> window decorations) size is not something you can rely on. It does
> /roughly/ the right thing and I don't know how many browsers support it.
>
> Roy
different css styesheets do work! Even in IE.  This is what I use:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/main.css" 
media="screen" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/print.css" 
media="print" />



--
Wayne
http://www.glenmeadows.com