Web Development
Web Developer Guidelines
Visual Design Recommendations

Checkpoint 7.6 - Core

Print stylesheets are used

DEECD Requirement

DEECD Guideline

Often web pages are printed onto paper for later reference and reading. Browsers contain default print stylesheets that are activated by the browser's Print button. This default prints the full web page, including images, colour, hyperlinks as displayed on the screen, etc.

The web developer can apply a specific stylesheet for printing which overrides the browser's default print stylesheet.

Requirement

Create a specific print stylesheet to be applied to the website.

Recommendation

Consider the following items when constructing the print stylesheet:

  • Removal of any main and page-level navigation items, such as menus, breadcrumbs and search boxes
  • Expand all hyperlinked text with their target URLs
  • Consider restricting the colour range to black and white
  • Suppress background colours and background images
  • Consider removing images, especially if they have no information value to the page
  • Use a fixed font for all text, such as points (pt)
  • Change the font to a serif font, such as Times New Roman
  • Ensure that all specially laid out components, such as multi-column lists and tables, are printable
  • Ensure that no printed information is truncated by the right hand margin

Checking Tool

  • Internet Explorer - AIS toolbar: CSS > Show Stylesheet(s)
  • Firefox - Web Developer's Toolbar: CSS > View CSS
 

Back to top