Re: [Groff] Introduction

[Dorai Sitaram]

Meg McRoberts wrote
> 
> I prefer HTML as an output format from the same source that can also
> generate PS, PDF, formatted ASCII...  It's great to get a technical
> document into HTML to display on the web but if I want a printed
> copy, the HTML doc isn't compact enough to be satisfying...


I would have thought so myself, but I've been lately reading about CSS's
"@media print", and it seems to be a highly tweakable way to tell a browser
how it should print an HTML document -- fonts, spacings and margins, text
decoration, ignoring elements that have no relevance for the printed page.

Just last night, I tried adding some "@media print" options to my program
for converting TeX to HTML, and the versions I get by printing (well, I
used preview) from the browser seem to be eerily close to what I'd get by
running TeX on the document.  And I wasn't trying really hard at all.

My respect for CSS shot up several notches...  -- and it also made me
wonder (I'm sure the thought will pass...) why I needed TeX/troff at all,
if I could bring myself to authoring directly in HTML.

Some online blogs that talk about this:

http://www.maratz.com/blog/archives/2004/09/21/10-minutes-to-printer-friendly-pages/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/goingtoprint/  (by CSS guru Erik Meyer)
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200509/printfriendly_css_and_usability/

Some lateral searching may help as well.

Back to lurking.  Thanks for being an interesting crowd.

--d