Set printer paper size from HTML?

On 29 Jan, 05:51, Stan Brown <the_stan_br... (AT) fastmail (DOT) fm> wrote:

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:25:05 -0800 (PST) from Al Grant
algr... (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com>:
I have a 'printable' button to generate printable output
and want this to use A3 if available, irrespective of the
user's default printer setting.

Stop wanting that. What size paper I use is my business, not yours.

What I put on my pages is my business, not yours.

In article
<1629b03d-b983-41a8-8a19-80f14a9e9f84 (AT) e6g2000prf (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
Al Grant <algrant (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com> wrote:

On 28 Jan, 22:11, David Stone <no.em... (AT) domain (DOT) invalid> wrote:
What if the user does have A3 paper, but wants to print on
A4 paper anyway? *Maybe they even prefer to do a "two up"
layout to save paper, so each page is effectively A5?
There's a reason that these things are called USER preferences!

I and colleagues are the users and this is how we would
prefer to do it. The pages contain machine-generated reports.
The HTML specifies the fonts, font sizes, colors etc. to
maximise readability; specifying a paper size preference
would avoid paper wastage when people forget to select A3
and get something unreadably small.

Why the assumption that I'm setting up a public website
that has to be acceptable to the US market? It seems to
reflect a narrow view of what HTML can be used for.

Because you didn't specify otherwise in your post! It was
obvious to you what you were talking about, but not to anyone
else reading your original post. So now you have established
the proper context for your question, hopefully you will get
better answers!

As a starting point, I'd suggest that anything requiring
information about a user's browser, monitor, or printer
settings is going to require Javascript at a minimum. HTML
certainly doesn't provide that information. With CSS, you
could create an @media print block in the style sheet (although
your reply above suggests you may already be doing this) which
would provide A3-specific layout and sizing. But I think that's
about as far as currently implemented HTML/CSS will take you.

Al Grant wrote:

I and colleagues are the users and this is how we would
prefer to do it. The pages contain machine-generated reports.
The HTML specifies the fonts, font sizes, colors etc. to
maximise readability; specifying a paper size preference
would avoid paper wastage when people forget to select A3
and get something unreadably small.

If you need this much control over the page layout, you might consider
delivering in PDF format.

You still have no control over the paper size in the user's printer, and
the user can still resize the page, but you can format the page
specifically to fit a certain size of paper and hope the user
understands that.

Al Grant <algrant (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com> wrote in news:50cea324-cc0b-4afd-a9f3-
b00be7de2dda (AT) d4g2000prg (DOT) googlegroups.com:

I have a 'printable' button to generate printable output
and want this to use A3 if available, irrespective of the
user's default printer setting. Is there any way to set
a page's preferred printed paper size from HTML?
Portable if possible, but IE-only would be better than nothing.

A CSS rollover on the button to set some image to say "USE A3 PAPER
SETTINGS" is easy to implement and would seem to be better than nothing in
your specific situation. Sorry this isn't more use.

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Al Grant <algrant (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com>
writing in news:21379bda-a216-46e2-9a8d-
72dbf198b20d (AT) e25g2000prg (DOT) googlegroups.com:

On 29 Jan, 05:51, Stan Brown <the_stan_br... (AT) fastmail (DOT) fm> wrote:
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:25:05 -0800 (PST) from Al Grant
algr... (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com>:
I have a 'printable' button to generate printable output
and want this to use A3 if available, irrespective of the
user's default printer setting.

Stop wanting that. What size paper I use is my business, not yours.

What I put on my pages is my business, not yours.

On an intranet, yes. On the WWW, no.

--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

Al Grant wrote:

On 29 Jan, 05:51, Stan Brown <the_stan_br... (AT) fastmail (DOT) fm> wrote:
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:25:05 -0800 (PST) from Al Grant
algr... (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com>:
I have a 'printable' button to generate printable output
and want this to use A3 if available, irrespective of the
user's default printer setting.
Stop wanting that. What size paper I use is my business, not yours.

What I put on my pages is my business, not yours.

*My* pages. *My* paper. *My* printer.

(This seems like such an odd thread. How w many people you think happen
to have a tray loaded with A3 paper sitting on their printer anyway?)

On 30 Jan, 04:07, Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removet... (AT) comcast (DOT) net>
wrote:

(This seems like such an odd thread. How w many people you think happen
to have a tray loaded with A3 paper sitting on their printer anyway?)

I write more HTML-based intranet apps than web pages. Most of my users
do have printers with selectable letterhead / plain paper, and must be
able to auto-select between them. As it is, all the document handling
is done via Word because the overall "web page" technology suite fails
to allow this level of control.

In the past I've also wanted to switch landscape / portrait, and even
to switch to a tiny label printer for doing barcoded ID cards. I've
not needed A3 as yet, but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

In comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html message <QpCdnRW0aKEL5APanZ2dnUVZ
_ruqnZ2d (AT) softcom (DOT) net>, Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:55:48, David E. Ross
<nobody (AT) nowhere (DOT) not> posted:

Being in the U.S., I have letterhead and legal sizes of paper but no A3.
Do you mean that I should not print your page?

All that you need to do is to Google for A3 paper supply USA then
go to the current first hit, select A3 in the top left yellow box, then
move to the right, scroll down, and order.

AIUI, US legislation rarely forbids the use of established international
standards, and US business generally makes it possible.

--
(c) John Stockton, London, UK. *@merlyn.demon.co.uk / ??.Stockton (AT) physics (DOT) org
Web <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.
Correct <= 4-line sig. separator as above, a line precisely "-- " (SoRFC1036)
Do not Mail News to me. Before a reply, quote with ">" or "> " (SoRFC1036)

Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removethis (AT) comcast (DOT) net> wrote in
news:60abghF1qbackU1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net:

Al Grant wrote:
On 29 Jan, 05:51, Stan Brown <the_stan_br... (AT) fastmail (DOT) fm> wrote:
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:25:05 -0800 (PST) from Al Grant
algr... (AT) myrealbox (DOT) com>:
I have a 'printable' button to generate printable output
and want this to use A3 if available, irrespective of the
user's default printer setting.
Stop wanting that. What size paper I use is my business, not yours.

What I put on my pages is my business, not yours.

*My* pages. *My* paper. *My* printer.

(This seems like such an odd thread. How w many people you think happen
to have a tray loaded with A3 paper sitting on their printer anyway?)

I used to have an A3 printer. I hated printing anything from the web,
because so many people did things in weird ways, and I was forced to use
Internet Explorer (this was around 1999 - 2003) on Windows 2000. All
technology sucks, but printing stuff out from the web, using IE, in 2002,
with piss-poor )(or no) css and spacer pixels and all that went with
them, REALLY SUCKED.

I have a lot of sympathy for the OP, especially if he's in the UK,
because often a boss will force the staff to do something in a suboptimal
way.

On 30 Jan, 14:15, Dr J R Stockton <j... (AT) merlyn (DOT) demon.co.uk> wrote:

US business generally makes it possible.

You've not tried to buy a non-locally sized paper tray for a HP
printer, have you? 8-)