Printing Blog Posts

There are times where I wish it was easier to print blog posts.  Just as the mainstream media found as they came online that they needed to make it convenient for readers to email and print stories, why isn't it easier to do so with blog posts? 

Feedburner has a widget that makes emailing relatively simple, but I have yet to find an option to convert blog posts to a printer-friendly format.  While most blog posts are short and easy to read and digest on-screen, I'm still old school enough that I like to print out longer ones or ones that I want to "chew on" a little bit. 

For instance, when Shel Israel posts excerpts from Global Neighbourhoods for review and comment, that would be a perfect candidate for printing.  Or Philip Liu's "101 Great Posting Ideas."  Or Stan Schroeder's "Big Memetracker Roundup."

Since all this stuff is available as a feed anyway, it would be great for Typepad, Wordpress, and the other platforms to make it an easily available link.  And Feedburner should make it part of its "FeedFlare" since so many folks use that. 

Technorati tags: Feedburner, TypePad, WordPress, blog posts, printing, printer-friendly

Comments

[Ian Muir]

This has always been a thorn in my side as well. Especially since there are some very simple techniques to make this work.

All WordPress or Typepad has to do is apply a CSS stylesheet for printing. All of the modern browsers know how to recognize this. You wouldn't even need a printer friendly link, the browsers automatically apply the print style when you print.

[AgentSully]

I agree. Feedburner does have a feedflare that you can add that is called "print this" but I tried it and it doesn't work. It is one of the 3rd party feedflares. If you ever find a plugin for this, I'd love to know about it!