I have two questions about printing from within a web browser.

1. Are there any good tools, plug-ins, etc that help to create better looking output when printing within a browser?

2. What are web page programming (HTML, CSS, etc) tricks that make for better output when the page gets printed?

With option #1, I'd like control over page breaks, selection and separation of content from menu-items and sidebar "pogs" and adverts.

With option #2, I'm not talking about any sort of printer friendly edition of the page in question. I'm asking about markup and similar within the native page such that the browser's "print page" output is more useful, more often.

Merci D'avance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

As regards item 1, you could try using your own style sheet.

I know that Opera allows you to select a custom CSS to override the one for the page (Opera-->Page-->Style-->Author Mode|User Mode) and I suspect that other browsers offer this facility either natively or through plug-ins.

I suspect that, in the long run, given that many pages are poorly written and laden with scripts, it would be more trouble than its worth.

As regars item 2, I'm still learning.

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1 members found this post helpful.

I found the following page, Dissecting the CUPS Filtering System. This article explains what goes on behind the scenes:

• after your application creates the data it wants on paper
• before any bits get sent to the printer device
• conversions among various data formats
• sending the bits to the printer device

When talking about "printing" with a linux workstation, one eventually needs to understand the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) package of software.

In short, CUPS takes responsibility for:

• knowing details about over 3,000 devices and the bits they need to put data onto paper
• knowing details about all sorts of application data formats using the MIME-type of that data
• converting from MIME-type to whatever the target device needs and wants
• managing the connections with the target printer devices
• accepting, spooling, queueing, managing and dispersing print jobs

Follow-up:
Another resource that deals with printing and linux can be found at Open Printing. This used to be known as http://www.linuxprinting.org.

An important resource found here is Foomatic. That page describes Foomatic as follows.

Quote:

Foomatic is a database-driven system for integrating free software printer drivers with common spoolers under Unix. It supports CUPS, LPRng, LPD, GNUlpr, Solaris LP, PPR, PDQ, CPS, and direct printing with every free software printer driver known to us and every printer known to work with these drivers.

Cordialement,
~~~ 0;-Dan