Have you noticed that the extraordinarily useful feature that most websites used to have — right next to the “social share” buttons — is now gone?
I want it back! I don’t always want to read pixels on a screen.
I suspect it was killed by some sort of knee-jerk “save the planet” attitude.
There are extensions to do it. This is but one: https://www.printfriendly.com/extensions/chrome
Cool. I’ll try it. Although recently I’ve been deleting plugins from Chrome to limit memory use. Chrome has been killing me.
If you just print the page, usually the option (often default) is to create a PDF you can view right in the browser. IDK… that might be a solution.
My guess would be that the removal of the print buttons is more a function of their lack of use than any ulterior motive. While I’m with you and I print things when I want to read something lengthy, particularly for work, we’re in a shrinking minority. The number of people who own printers is dropping dramatically and even those who still do are using them less and less.
And remember that even existing features aren’t “free” to keep. At a minimum you have to test that the features all still work after changes are made to any part of the code. And then in other situations as APIs are upgraded and changed the underlying features have to be modified/fixed to comply with the new versions.
So if you have an unpopular feature, sadly, it’s only a matter of time before it disappears.
Those are all good points. Perhaps it died because only you and I were using it! 🙂
I doubt it’s eco-motivated. The printer-friendly function is itself eco-friendly, because it keeps you from having to print out all the junk on the page that consumes even more paper. For your take to be right, they’d have to be assuming that without the PF button, people just won’t print. But IMO people who feel strongly the need to print web pages (something I find myself increasingly rarely needing to do) are more likely to just go ahead and print the unfriendly version, which doesn’t save anything.
I think Deacon Ken Crawford is likely right.
So this was a feature of websites? Wouldn’t that feature hurt ad revenues? A printer friendly display wouldn’t display ads… nobody pays for content hardly… ads pay for them.
Want to see something outraging… Wife wanted to watch Canelo Alvarez fight… Mexico’s current most famous boxer…and maybe the world’s current as well. Paid $80-90 and there were still ads…