The push for responsive web design has helped web developers consider how the sites they develop can adapt to different devices, including sizes, screen resolutions, and even contexts. It should now be easier than ever to respond to a format that has existed since the start of the web – print. I’ll walk through the process for making your responsive sites respond to the format we most often forget.

1. Making Your
Site Printable
Presented by Adrian Roselli
September 14, 2013, WordCamp Buffalo
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2. Making Your
Site Printable
Presented by Adrian Roselli
September 14, 2013, WordCamp Buffalo
#wcbuf
Photo (and notes) of Lafayette Square (1905) available at Shorpy: http://www.shorpy.com/node/12193

3. About Adrian Roselli
• Co-written four books.
• Technical editor
for two books.
• Written over fifty
articles, most recently
for .net Magazine and
Web Standards Sherpa.
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4. About Adrian Roselli
• Member of W3C HTML Working Group, W3C
Accessibility Task Force, five W3C Community
Groups.
• Building for the web since 1994.
• Founder, owner at Algonquin Studios
(AlgonquinStudios.com).
• Learn more at AdrianRoselli.com.
• Avoid on Twitter @aardrian.
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5. What We’ll Cover
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6. What We’ll Cover
• Background
• Techniques
• Measuring
• Future
• Questions (ongoing!)
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7. Background
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8. Responsive Web Design (RWD)
• Responsive design (or
adaptive design) is about
supporting any device:
• Desktop computer
• Smartphone
• Tablet
• Television
• Printer?
#wcbufPhoto of printed page from http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/has-adaptive-design-failed-of-course-it-bloody-hasnt/

9. PrintShame.com
• As developers tout their responsive designs,
they often forget the printed page.
• Support for print styles goes back more than a
decade, before RWD.
• Used MediaQueri.es as initial seed, then
picked up from articles, awards, etc.
• Hoped shaming might improve state of print
styles.
• http://PrintShame.com
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10. PrintShame.com
#wcbufhttp://www.printshame.com/2013/09/generateconfcom.html

11. PrintShame.com
#wcbufSource page: http://www.generateconf.com/schedule/

12. Maturing (a bit)
• Decided the best approach would be teaching.
• Used lessons, common issues from
PrintShame to develop tutorial(s).
• Pitched this very talk.
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13. Print Services
• Add a third-party “print” button to your site.
• You have no control over layout.
• You have no control over ads.
• You have no control.
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14. Print Services
#wcbufhttp://rosel.li/040612 “More Evidence of the Need for Print Styles”

15. Techniques
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16. Screen versus Print
Screen
• Continuous
• Visual, audible, tactile
• Vector and bitmap
• Interactive
• Online
Print
• Paged
• Visual
• Bitmap
• Static
• Offline
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17. Planning
• Is my site built mobile-first?
• Things I want the user to see.
• Things the user may not want to see.
• Things that probably won’t print anyway.
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18. Planning
• Is my site built mobile-first?
• Sometimes your mobile-first styles will get you
nearly all the way there.
• If you built desktop-first, you may be able to re-
use your smaller viewport styles.
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19. Planning
• Things I want the user to see:
• Branding
• Cross-branding
• Page address
• Copyright
• Path to page (breadcrumb)
• Link addresses (?)
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20. Planning
• Things the user may not want to see:
• Primary navigation
• Secondary navigation
• Site search
• Social media icons
• Ad banners
• Fat footers
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21. Planning
• Things that probably won’t print anyway:
• Colors
• Backgrounds (images and colors)
• Bits of timed / interactive elements
• White elements (logos, text, effects)
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22. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://AdrianRoselli.com/Bio

23. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://AdrianRoselli.com/Bio

24. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://AdrianRoselli.com/Bio

25. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://algonquinstudios.com/Engage/Careers/DeveloperI

26. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://algonquinstudios.com/Engage/Careers/DeveloperI

27. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://algonquinstudios.com/Engage/Careers/DeveloperI

28. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://buffalosoccerclub.org/about

29. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://buffalosoccerclub.org/about

30. Example Site
#wcbufhttp://buffalosoccerclub.org/about

31. Embedding Print Styles
Make a home for your print styles:
@media print {
/* insert your style declarations here */
}
Or:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="/css/print.css" media="print">
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32. Page Rules
The @page rule allows you to specify page
margins (CSS 2.1), size and orientation (CSS3).
@page {
margin: 20cm;
size: A4 landscape;
}
I recommend you do not use it and defer to user
preferences.
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33. Banner
Change the banner text to print units, adjust the
color so the printer doesn’t replace it with gray.
#Banner p#Title {
font-size: 24pt;
}
#Banner p#Title a, #Banner p#Title a:link, #Banner p#Title
a:visited {
color: #000;
}
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34. Navigation
Get rid of the primary, secondary, tertiary
navigation, remove social media links, and other
bits that won’t make sense when printed.
#Nav, #FlyOutNav, #SubNav, .NoPrint, p.CodeAlert,
#SMLinks, {
display: none;
}
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35. Breadcrumb
Keep the breadcrumb as a wayfinding method, but
reduce its size and remove any links.
#Bread a:link, #Bread a:visited {
text-decoration: underline;
color: #000;
}
#Bread {
color: #000;
font-size: 6pt;
}
#Bread > a:after {
content: "";
}
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36. Footer
Shrink the text, remove the search box, handle
my cross-branding.
#Footer {
font-size: 6pt;
color: #000;
}
#SearchForm {
display: none;
}
#Footer img {
float: right;
}
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37. In-Page Links
Select links in content container(s) and then
display the href value as text after the link.
#Content a[href]:after {
content: " [" attr(href) "] ";
word-wrap: break-word;
}
#Content a[href^="#"]:after, #Content
a[href^="tel"]:after, #Content a[href^="mailto"]:after,
#Content a[href^="javascript"]:after {
content: "";
}
Yes, you can do the inverse selector, but then I don’t get to show the variations!
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38. General Styles
• Clear whitespace around the content.
• User’s print settings will handle page margins.
• Let’s user get as much content on a page as
possible (yay for trees!)
• You shouldn’t need to worry about portrait vs.
landscape, A4 vs. 8.5×11, etc.
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39. General Styles
• Reset type sizes to points, set text to black.
• Points (mostly) provide more consistent text size
across browsers and devices than pixels.
• Light grey text doesn’t trigger browser overrides
to convert text to black.
• Not all users have color printers. Set red to black
so it doesn’t come out as a medium gray (perhaps
with other styles as appropriate).
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40. General Styles
body {
background: #fff;
color: #000;
font-size: 8pt;
line-height: 150%;
margin: 0;
}
hr {
color: #ccc;
background-color: #ccc;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, code, pre {
color: #000;
text-transform: none;
page-break-after: avoid;
}
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41. General Styles
h1 {
font-size: 11pt;
margin-top: 1em;
}
h2 {
font-size: 10pt;
}
h3 {
font-size: 9pt;
}
h4, h5, h6 {
font-size: 8pt;
}
img {
max-width: 100%;
}
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42. General Styles
code, pre {
font-size: 8pt;
background-color: transparent;
}
blockquote {
background-image: none;
}
a:link, a:visited {
text-decoration: underline;
color: #000;
}
abbr:after, acronym:after {
content: " (" attr(title) ") ";
}
ol, ul, img, table {
page-break-inside: avoid;
}
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43. General Styles
• Write values of title (or alt, or data-*, etc.)
attributes into the page.
• Think @cite on blockquote, or @title on abbr.
• You can do this with most attributes on most
elements, although it might not be a good fit.
• Perhaps a @data-shortURL attribute to display a
minified link address to make it easier for users to
type URLs.
• A novel way to promote @longdesc.
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44. Page Breaks
The CSS properties page-break-before, page-
break-after and page-break-inside have the
following values:
• auto: default value, no specified behavior.
• avoid: tries to avoid a page-break.
• always: invokes a page-break (not for page-break-
inside).
• left | right: Tries to place element on the start of a page
on the left or right, for when you are printing bound material
(books, magazines, etc.) (not for page-break-inside).
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45. Widows and Orphans
Use these to control how many lines must be at
the end of a page (orphans) or how many at the
start of a page (widows).
p {
orphans: 3; /* 3 consecutive lines at end of page */
widows: 2; /* 2 lines at start of new page */
}
Because widows and orphans are confusing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widows_and_orphans
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46. Invert Logos
For those rare cases with a white logo where
you can’t load an alternate image (Chrome &
Safari only):
Img#Logo {
-webkit-filter: invert(100%);
filter: invert(100%);
}
If you can load an alternate, a quick tutorial:
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/201305/replacing_images_when_printing/
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47. Further Consideration
• Hide videos.
• Hide controls for embedded audio.
• Hide Flash movies.
• Hide canvas elements (assuming interactive).
• Don’t scale images to 100% width.
• Determine if ads should be printed or not.
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48. QR Codes
• They’re a personal (lifestyle) choice.
• Allows more savvy users to get directly to the
source of the printed page.
• Easy to implement without burdening mobile
users, users who do not print.
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49. Call the QR Code
<html>
<head>
<style>
@media print {
header::before { content:
url(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=120x120&cht=qr&
chl=http%3A%2F%2Falgonquinstudios.com/Engage/Careers); }
}
</style>
</head>
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50. QR Code in Use
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51. Outliers
• Sadly, not every device
behaves.
• Samsung Galaxy S4,
default Android browser.
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52. Outliers
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53. TEST!
• Print to PDF for your first (most) rounds.
• Use every browser you can.
• At very least, use every browser that visits
your site.
• Change paper size (8.5″ × 11″, A4, etc.).
• Change paper orientation.
• Scale the content in the print dialog.
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54. Measuring
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55. Google Analytics
• Call the GA tracking image, but only when the
print styles get used.
• Attach a custom event to that image.
• View custom events in Google Analytics.
• Identify which pages get printed.
• Make sure that at least those pages print well.
• Compare to your carousel.
#wcbufFull tutorial: http://rosel.li/032613

56. Query String Parameters
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Variable Description
utmac Account String. Appears on all requests. This is your UA-#######-# ID.
utmwv
Tracking code version. While my standard GA requests use 5.4.0, I opted to use 4.3 for reasons I no
longer recall.
utmn
Unique ID generated for each GIF request to prevent caching of the GIF image. I just concatenate the
current year, month, day, hour, minute and second.
utmhn Host Name of your site, which is a URL-encoded string.
utmr Referral, complete URL. In this case I just insert a dash so it is not blank.
utmp Page request of the current page.
utmt
Indicates the type of request, which is one of: event, transaction, item, or a custom variable. If
you leave it blank, it defaults to page. Because I am tracking events, I use event.
utme Extensible parameter. This is where you write your event. I use 5(Print*{page address}).
utmcc
Cookie values. This request parameter sends all the cookies requested from the page. It can get
pretty long. It must be URL encoded. It must include __utma and __utmz values.

57. Sample Query String
http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif
?utmac=UA-1464893-3
&utmwv=4.3
&utmn=2013326124551
&utmhn=algonquinstudios.com
&utmr=-
&utmp=/Engage/Careers
&utmt=event
&utme=5%28Print*/Engage/Careers%29
&utmcc=__utma%3D267504222.1477743002.1364314722.1364314722
.1364314722.1%3B%2B__utmb%3D267504222.17.7.1364314901604%3
B%2B__utmz%3D267504222.1364314722.1.1.utmcsr%3D%28direct%2
9|utmccn%3D%28direct%29|utmcmd%3D%28none%29
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58. Call the Image
<html>
<head>
<style>
@media print {
header::after { content: url(http://www.google-
analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-1464893-
3&utmwv=4.3&utmn=2013326124551&utmhn=algonquinstudios.com&
utmr=&utmp=/Engage/Careers&utmt=event&utme=5%28Print*/Enga
ge/Careers%29&utmcc=__utma%3D267504222.1477743002.13643147
22.1364314722.1364314722.1%3B%2B__utmb%3D267504222.17.7.13
64314901604%3B%2B__utmz%3D267504222.1364314722.1.1.utmcsr%
3D%28direct%29|utmccn%3D%28direct%29|utmcmd%3D%28none%29);
}
}
</style>
</head>
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59. Check the Data
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60. Check the Data
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61. Future
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62. Here or on Its Way
• Browser support for existing features.
• Electronic Books.
• HTML5 as a publishing platform.
• CSS3, CSS4.
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63. Left, Right, First Pages
• Use @page rule with pseudo classes to specify
right, left, first:
• :right will affect the page on the right.
• :left will affect the page on the left.
• :first will affect the first page.
• :blank will affect the blank pages resulting from forced break.
• An @page rule with no pseudo classes applies
to all pages.
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64. Bleed and Crops
• The bleed property relies on the crops
property having a value.
• Bleed specifies how much the page can
extend outside the page box:
• <length> units, referring to width of page box.
• Crop draws marks outside page box:
• crop: shows where a page should be cut.
• cross: used to align sheets.
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65. Boxes across Pages
• The box-decoration-break specifies how a
box’s background, margin and border behave
when broken across pages:
• slice: chops the box in two.
• clone: duplicates the styles
onto each box.
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66. Page Margin Boxes
@page {
@bottom-left {
content: "Copyright me."
}
@bottom-right {
counter-increment: page;
content: "Page " counter(page);
}
}
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67. Wrap-up, Questions
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68. Further Reading
• Make your website printable with CSS:
http://netm.ag/WA93Xg
• Calling QR in Print CSS Only When Needed:
http://rosel.li/030813
• Tracking When Users Print Pages:
http://rosel.li/032613
• Tips And Tricks For Print Style Sheets:
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2013/03/08/tips-tricks-print-style-sheets/
• Printing The Web:
http://drublic.de/blog/printing-the-web/
• CSS Paged Media Level 2:
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/page.html
• CSS Paged Media Module Level 3:
http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-page/
• Proposals for the future of CSS Paged Media:
http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-page-4/
• Can you typeset a book with CSS?
http://www.w3.org/Talks/2013/0604-CSS-Tokyo/
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69. Making Your
Site Printable
Presented by Adrian Roselli
September 14, 2013, WordCamp Buffalo
#wcbuf
Thanks for staying! Tell your friends!
Photo (and notes) of Lafayette Square (1905) available at Shorpy: http://www.shorpy.com/node/12193