[Whatwg] Request for HTML-only print link

[Sander]

Sander Tekelenburg schreef:
> At 07:12 +0200 UTC, on 2007-07-28, Sander wrote:
>   
>> Well, it can be usefull from a usability point of view to offer this
>> function from within the web page, for instance: "you may want to print
>> this confirmation", where print is a link that actually prints the page.
>>     
>
> I don't see how that is good usability. Quite the contrary, because this
> approach means things work different on each website. That's confusing;
> incosistency makes things harder to use. A print method that works the same
> across web sites is much more usable.
>   
I don't think it's confusing as the browser's own print button is still 
there. So, people who prefer to use that one still can. For those who 
are not so familiar with the interface of the browser it can be much 
easier having the word "print" being an actual print link.
Compare it to the sentence "You can find our address on the contact 
page". From a usability point of view it is advisable to make "contact 
page" a link to that page instead of having people to look where they 
can find that page.

> Well, they'll just have to learn. AFAIK on most OSs the print command/button
> is/looks the same in every app. So all they need to learn is that. Having to
> learn how to print on each differen web site is much more likely to fail.
>   
Again, a print link does not disable the default print function of the 
browser. It's an extra that can make it easier for the user.

> Btw, consider the surprise of all those users clicking the link without
> realising that it triggers their printer into wasting paper.
>   
It's the responsibility of the author to make clear that it is a print 
link. Just as with mailto-links.
Then again, I believe there's always a print promt before the printing 
really starts (or there should be).

>> Or maybe
>> you want to offer people the option to print different parts of the page
>> seperately.
>>     
>
> Yeah, that'd be useful. But it should be left up to the UA to provide users
> with that. (As I understand it, iPhone's Safari more or less already does --
> provided the document in question is well structured it allows users to
> 'grab' specific sections of a web page to interact with that section. Perhaps
> it already does let users  print that selected section?)
>   
But if you leave it all up to the UA, then it's not all the same for all 
users, in all cases.

cheers,
Sander

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