Go Green and Design for Print

January 25, 2010 | by Marylou Jones | Posted in Web Design

Many of our clients focus on "going green" and strive to adopt best green business practices. I am very proud to recently have had the opportunity to support one such client. Whenever they print anything, they always save waste by duplexing and choosing recycled papers.

One may ask: What does this have to do with the web?

If you think about how often you print something from a web page, usually you want to grab and go with the content. Perhaps some directions; a map; an interesting article; anything you can quickly read while in transit.

More often than not, the printed web page contains all kinds of stuff you don't care about - colorful graphics, advertisements, photos, logos headers, footers, sidebars, meaningless links, copyright information, fonts that are oversized, undersized or lack a sans-serif font for easy read on a printed piece of paper.

Please, Just the Content! Content is King!

Last week, I attempted to print 1 page of content and my printer spewed 9 pages of junk that I did not want. SIGH. The week before, I attempted to print out a restaurant menu and I got NOTHING - everything was suppressed. SIGH again.

Good website design always includes styles for printing. Good design always suppresses unnecessary images but includes relevant content. Good design always adjusts the font to the appropriate print size and a serif font for easy readability. Good design gives you the content you want! 

Our expertise ensures you will never be bombarded with reams of paper filled with unneeded graphics and images. In general, the web print rules are:

1. Always ask: How would this look best on paper?
2. Avoid absolute positioning and set width in inches or percentages. 
3. Avoid printing in color to save on ink; instead use shades of gray. 
4. Make use of the display and visibility properties to suppress content that isn’t applicable for print. 
5. Use font sizes somewhere in the 9 to 12 point range; then, set an appropriate line height that is 1 to 4 points greater than your type size. 
6. Finally, for large blocks of text, use a serif font family, as this will not tire the eyes.

Related reading:

Context is the New King by Larry Brooks

Context Makes Good Content by Carrie Hane Dennison