• Posted Dec. 17, 2012, 8:57 a.m. - 11 years, 3 months ago

Add PDF Creation to Your WordPress Blog and Make Printing Easier

Many times I read a blog post and would like to print it out.  Sometimes I wind up with a whole lot of pages with commercial adds and pages of pictures.  How I wish for an easy way to print to a PDF file for printing or just putting away fro future reference or archival purposes.

 

 

Print Friendly (aptly named) is a WordPress plugin that gives you customizable icons for printing and saving as a PDF file.  You can even substitute your own icons.

This app is unique in that it opens up a lightbox on the WordPress blog window.  Your readers will still stay on the blog page rather than being distracted by a separate print or save as PDF screen and never returning.

You can even make custom branded headers.  This allows someone who looks at the PDF to be able to easily see the source of the post.

The really unique features of Print Friendly are the selection options.  You can eliminate any pictures you desire.

If you only need part of the article, you can remove the paragraphs you do not need.  This is especially handy when the post covers multiple subjects.  On top of these things, Print Friendly optimizes the content which results in smaller PDF files and less ink used if you decide to print.

Just go to the Plugins | Add New section of your WordPress Dashboard, search for Print Friendly, install, activate and then change your settings to customize the application.  You can also get Print Friendly for your web site.