Want to be green? Build a printer style sheet

January 28, 2008 · Chris Peters

I was printing a quick report from Google AdWords and noticed how it wasted an entire sheet of paper on information that I didn't need to consume by paper anyway. If Google had implemented a printer stylesheet, I could have potentially wasted one less sheet of paper.

I was printing a quick report from Google AdWords and noticed how it wasted an entire sheet of paper on information that I didn’t need to consume by paper anyway.

The printout looked something like this. Use your imagination. :)

It was annoyed when I threw away a sheet of paper, wasted on promotional items and footer navigation. It’s not like I’m going to be able to navigate anywhere from my printout.

Printer style sheets to the rescue

Creating a Cascading Style Sheet for printouts isn’t new technology, but you’d think that it was new based on how few sites use them. Have you ever needed to click a “Printer Friendly Version” link in order to be able to print a web page? Entirely unnecessary.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allow for you to use a single file to define how your site appears on a number of devices. Style sheets can actually take the exact same HTML and display it in very different ways, with no change at all to the HTML itself. (See CSS Zen Garden for a prime example of how their community has taken the same HTML and displayed it in many fantastic ways using style sheets.)

How does this relate to printing? Well, you can write a stylesheet that displays your web page’s layout entirely different for printers. So when a user goes to File > Print… in their browser, the printer prints out a version of the content optimized for the printout.

With a printer style sheet, you can then hide unnecessary items from appearing on printouts, such as navigation and footers.

Helping Google do their part

If Google had implemented a printer stylesheet, I could have potentially wasted one less sheet of paper. In all fairness, Google cannot easily guess how many sheets of paper that my printouts will require. But they can help me conserve printed space by eliminating unnecessary page elements with a printer style sheet. That results in less paper and ink used—and potentially wasted.

When Google and other large companies have as many users as they do, that can actually have a positive impact on the environment. All for a half hour’s worth of simple coding.

You can do the same with your own site. Have your designer learn how to create a printer style sheet.

About Chris Peters

With over 20 years of experience, I help plan, execute, and optimize digital experiences.

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