Re: [css3-page] Recommendation for page-size with UA interaction

On Thursday 28 March 2013 02:29:27 Liam R E Quin wrote:
> On Wed, 2013-03-27 at 23:37 +0100, Julian Viereck wrote:
> > From an internal chat I had with Simon:
> > 
> > On 3/26/13 9:28 AM, Simon Sapin wrote:
> > >> Julian Viereck wrote:
> > >> 
> > >> We are talking here only about print-header/footer but similar
> > >> things apply for page-size. E.g. in Gecko/Firefox, the user can
> > >> change the page-size from the print-preview menu e.g. on Linux.
> > >> There should be a recommendation what todo if the website
> > >> developer specifies a page-size (e.g. disable page-size
> > >> selection in the UA).

[Omitted Liam's argument for not sending the wrong size to a printer.]

> Some programs (e.g. Acrobat) have an option (selected by default) to
> scale down as necessary to fit the document on the paper, avoiding
> the Weeping LED problem.

It seems the choices for the user are:

 a. Reflow
    I.e., ignore any page size defined by the document itself and
    lay out the document for the chosen paper size.
    (This is like a user style sheet with !important)

 b. Scale down
    I.e., if the document defines a page size, lay the document out for
    that size, and, if that is larger than the chosen paper, scale the
    pages down. (If the document does not define a size, there is no
    difference with (a)).

 c. Use multiple sheets (print as poster)
    I.e., if the document defines a page size, lay the document out for
    that size, and, if that is larger than the chosen paper, use
    multiple sheets of paper for each page, to be glued together
    afterward like a poster.  (If the document does not define a size,
    there is no difference with (a)).

If the document does not define a size, all three have the same result. 
If the document defines a size that is smaller than the user's paper, b 
and c will have the same result.

The author may have added media queries for different sizes of paper. 
The choice above applies to whatever size results from applying those 
media queries, given the user's chosen paper.

(UAs may not want to offer choice c. It may be difficult, especially if 
you want double-sided printing at the same time.)

There is also:

 d. Scale up or down
    I.e., if the document defines a page size, lay the document out for
    that size, and, if that is different from the chosen paper, scale
    the pages to fit the paper. (If the document does not define a size,
    there is no difference with (a)).

 e. Clip

But these seem not so useful for text.



Bert
-- 
  Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/
  http://www.w3.org/people/bos                               W3C/ERCIM
  bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
  +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Wednesday, 3 April 2013 17:41:25 UTC