[Web4lib] Non-printable pages?

[Deborah Kaplan]

On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, Jim Brucker wrote:
> If there is no simple solution, though, I'll probably  
> just create the pages in Flash.

*Please* don't!  From an accessibility perspective, Flash is a
complete loss.

A print stylesheet, while easily circumventable, is the easiest
to change in a pinch, easiest to implement, most accessible
(Javascript solutions aren't as bad as Flash, but you have to be
much more careful than you do with css), and most elegant.  If
you're only interested in stopping the non-tech-savvy students
and the students with low initiative from printing, then a
stylesheet is the way to go. 

But in any case, Flash should be reserved for toys and those
tools which absolutely can *only* be implemented in Flash, at
least until they solve the accessibility issues.  Javascript's
problems can be worked around; Flash's can't.

-Deborah
--
Deborah Kaplan
Digital Initiatives Librarian
Brandeis University