You don’t get paid from an ad network if a visitor prints out their ad along with the rest of your page. In fact, there are probably lots of elements of your site that don’t make a whole lot of sense on paper (e.g. links don’t work). You can easily make your site more printer friendly by including a button from Joliprint.
I had previously used the WordPress plug-in WP-Print but it hasn’t been updated in 1.5 years. While WP-Print utilized a print CSS and WordPress functions, Joliprint operates a little differently. Joliprint takes a page and renders it into a sharp-looking, magazine-esque PDF. Open it in your PDF reader of choice and take it with your or print it. Perhaps given the option, your visitor won’t need to print it, moving us in the direction of the paperless office.
For a demonstration of Joliprint with the default settings, you can see the screenshot below or click the Joliprint button above to render your own PDF of this article. After you click the button, it will open a small pop-over layer and show the conversion process for a short time or present it to you immediately if the PDF has already been created and cached.
The Joliprint button is easy to include on any site. It comes as a WordPress plugin, or embeds directly with Blogger and WordPress.com sites. Joliprint also comes in the form of just a few simple lines of Javascript.
With the Joliprint WordPress plugin, you can configure a number of different settings like where the button appears and what icon the button should use. You can also do some configuring to control the layout within the PDF.
Even for the majority of people who don’t have their own website or want to stick this button on their page, Joliprint can still provide a useful service by converting webpages into nice looking PDFs. Beyond aesthetics, there isn’t much difference between using Joliprint and using a PDF printer like CutePDF but the magazine look and feel may be worth it.
Instead of visiting Joliprint.com, you can also add the bookmarklet your bookmark toolbar so you can send the page you’re currently viewing through the Joliprint conversion process.
I’ve added Joliprint to 404 Tech Support (as you can see above) but I’m also using the bookmarklet for some long pages that could use a face-lift to make them more readable. Joliprint seems to be a cool, free service.