Why sites now need print versioning

Websites nowadays are designed to fit all monitor sizes. But the popularity of bigger monitor sizes now means that web pages won't always print comfortably on an A4 printer. Print versioning your site makes sure that all your pages can be printed by your users all the time.

Clean Printing from Frozen Interfaces

In the early days of the web, interfaces were designed to fit one monitor size: 640 x 480 pixels, which was the dominant monitor size of the web viewing population. This is what is known as a fixed width or 'frozen' web interface. A frozen web interface optimised for 640 x 480 was the right strategy for its time as most users viewed websites through this monitor size and of the others that had larger monitor sizes, most of these were only slightly larger than 640 x 480 pixels.

A fortunate by-product of a frozen design optimised for 640 x 480 monitors was that web pages held within this interface type printed cleanly on an A4 printer.

Liquid Interfaces and the Need for Print Versioning

Consequently the most useful type of interface now developed for websites is one which can adapt to any monitor size and fill up all the available space within the browser. This is what is known as a stretchable or 'liquid' web interface. Adopting a liquid interface is a good thing for websites: it maximises the use of space for site users, regardless of browser window size, and minimises the amount of scrolling a user is forced to do. Most websites nowadays are designed with liquid interfaces.

Unfortunately though, one of the downsides of this advance is the loss of being able to cleanly print documents out directly from the browser. Unless your viewing a website with a liquid interface from a 640 x 480 monitor, you will not be able to cleanly print a web page onto an A4 printer. Instead the width of your web page will overlap onto another A4 page, making the printed material not very reader friendly.

The Best Practice Solution

The best practice solution is to print version your site with an alternative interface optimised for printing page content on an A4 printer direct from the web browser.

Sitewide print versioning effectively creates a printer-friendly duplicate of every page published on your site. Each published page contains a link that allows the user to view and print the print friendly version.

Sitewide Print Versioning: How it Works

Sitewide print versioning will ensure that every published page of your site, current and future, will always be easily printable for users who wish to print out your page content direct from web browsers.

With sitewide print versioning installed on your site, each page of you site, including future pages, will carry a link embedded in the interface of your site (for example, a link titled 'Print Version' located in the banner of your site) that will take the user to an alternate version of the page being viewed that is optimised for printing.

Some Examples

Social Change Online recently installed print versioning on the following sites:

• Australian Council of Trade Unions
• CommunityBuilders
• Workers Online
• Sydney Catchment Authority
• NSW Commission for Children and Young People

To find oput how Social Change Online can get your site print versioned please contact us on:

Tel: 02 9692 5100
Email: info@socialchange.net.au