How to Make Your WordPress Site Print Ready
As a web designer, developer, or website owner, it is rare that you will need your website pages to be printed. However, if the need arises and you have to send your web pages to a printer, you want to be sure that they appear as good on paper as they do on the screen. In this article, we will discuss how to make your WordPress site print ready.
Why Make Your WordPress Site Print Ready?
While most people consume content digitally these days, there are still instances where printing web pages is necessary. For example, you may need to print out an invoice, a receipt, or a blog post for reference. Or perhaps you want to create a physical copy of your website for offline reading. Whatever the reason may be, it is important to ensure that your website pages look good when printed.
Optimizing Your WordPress Site for Print
To make your WordPress site print ready, you need to consider a few key elements. These include adjusting the page layout, optimizing images for print, and removing unnecessary elements.
1. Adjusting the Page Layout
When it comes to printing web pages, the default layout may not always be suitable. You need to make sure that the content fits nicely on the printed page. To do this, you can create a separate print stylesheet that overrides the default styles.
In your print stylesheet, you can adjust the font size, line spacing, and margins to ensure that the content is easy to read when printed. You can also remove any unnecessary elements such as navigation menus, sidebars, and footers to declutter the printed page.
2. Optimizing Images for Print
Images play a crucial role in web design, but they can cause issues when it comes to printing. High-resolution images that look great on screen may not necessarily translate well on paper. To optimize images for print, you need to consider their size and resolution.
First, make sure that the images you use are of high enough resolution for printing. A resolution of 300 DPI (dots per inch) is recommended for print quality. You can check the resolution of an image using image editing software or by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Properties.”
Second, consider the size of the images. Large images can take up a lot of space on the printed page and may cause the content to overflow onto multiple pages. To avoid this, you can resize the images to fit within the desired print dimensions.
3. Removing Unnecessary Elements
When printing web pages, it is important to remove any unnecessary elements that are not relevant to the printed content. This includes navigation menus, sidebars, social sharing buttons, and advertisements.
To remove these elements, you can use CSS to hide them specifically for the print version of your website. By doing so, you can ensure that only the essential content is printed and that the printed page is clutter-free.
How to Create a Print Stylesheet in WordPress
To create a print stylesheet in WordPress, follow these steps:
1. Open your theme’s style.css file in a text editor.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the file and add the following code:
@media print {
/* Add your print styles here */
}
3. Within the media query, you can add CSS rules to adjust the page layout, optimize images, and hide unnecessary elements.
For example, to adjust the font size and line spacing for printing, you can add the following code:
@media print {
body {
font-size: 12pt;
line-height: 1.5;
}
}
To hide navigation menus and sidebars, you can use the following code:
@media print {
.navigation,
.sidebar {
display: none;
}
}
Remember to save your changes and upload the modified style.css file back to your WordPress theme directory.
Testing Your Print Stylesheet
Once you have created your print stylesheet, it is important to test it to ensure that it works as intended. To do this, you can use the print preview feature in your web browser.
1. Open the web page you want to print.
2. Go to the browser’s File menu and select Print.
3. In the print preview window, check if the page layout, font size, and images appear as desired.
4. Make any necessary adjustments to your print stylesheet and repeat the testing process until you are satisfied with the results.
Conclusion
While printing web pages may not be a common requirement, it is still important to ensure that your WordPress site is print ready. By adjusting the page layout, optimizing images for print, and removing unnecessary elements, you can ensure that your website pages look good when printed. Creating a separate print stylesheet in WordPress allows you to customize the print version of your website without affecting the regular version. So, next time you need to print a web page, you can be confident that it will appear just as good on paper as it does on the screen.
