Usability for print-friendly pages…

25 January 2007 Ken Yeung View Comments

Now mostly everyone knows about how to make your information architecture look good on your website, but an interesting article appeared in the Internet Marketing Report generated by Progressive Business Publications.

In this “article”, they offer tips on how to make webpages look better on paper so in the event that someone wants to print out the content on your site and take it with them wherever they go, it’ll be fine. What are some of these tips?

Essentially, make use of your style sheets to remove non-essential elements such as…

Navigation systems: Don’t need it on printed page.
Background images: May make the printed text hard to read.
Background colors: Make print style sheet have a white background with dark text.
Images: Most people print pages for text content only. But make sure your print version still has your logo.
Non-navigation text content.
Section headers
Important images, and
Page URL (so the visitor can find you again online)

They also include a link for more info: http://snipurl.com/printpage.

Ken Yeung is an web marketer experienced in helping companies build great projects leveraging Internet technologies to better engage their customers. From website builds to email marketing campaigns, online advertising & even social media, Ken understands how to make the web work for YOU. Read more about him on TheLetterTwo.com, Network Solutions' "Solutions Are Power" blog or even on Bub.blicio.us.