How Can I Force Landscape Printing of HTML Documents Without User Intervention?

Landscape Printing from HTML

Printing a web page in landscape orientation is desirable when it contains multiple columns. However, users may need to manually adjust printer settings to achieve this. This article delves into the various options available to print HTML documents in landscape mode without user intervention and explores their browser compatibility.

CSS @page Rule

The CSS @page property allows you to specify page settings, including the size and orientation. To print a document in landscape, use the following CSS rule:

While this rule is part of the CSS 2.1 specification, support for the "size" attribute is limited, as it was deprecated in CSS 3.

JavaScript or ActiveX Workarounds

Some articles suggest using JavaScript or ActiveX to send keystrokes to the user's browser, essentially changing the printer settings programmatically. However, these workarounds are not ideal and require modifying browser security settings.

Rotating Content

Instead of rotating the page, you can rotate the content within the page using CSS transformations:

This method has its own drawbacks, causing alignment and layout issues.

PDF Conversion

Another option is to create a landscape version of the document in PDF format and point the "print" button to it. However, this may not work for automatic printing in IE7.

Conclusion

Printing HTML documents in landscape orientation is not straightforward, and support varies among browsers. The @page rule may work in some browsers, while JavaScript or ActiveX workarounds are unreliable. Rotating content is possible but creates other issues. Converting to PDF is an option, but it may not be suitable in all cases. Ultimately, the best method depends on the content and the browser environment.

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