That Dreaded Blank Last Page in Your Printout

Judging from your remark, I think you are the one who needs to see a doctor.

seem like a conspiracy, did your company venture a new business on this? Making people pay for printing? Wait..are you in the air force?

You should seek the counsel of a Grammarian.

could i make you one good counsel? i bet i make you one of my defense panel, it surely is fun..thorns and poundings makes one tough. --

I tell the printer how many pages I want to print...typically only ONE (1 of 1) for most websites, so as to capture the URL of the website and the date/time.

Maybe they can get a federal grant in the hundreds-of-thousands to research and solve the issue?

Yes, I am familiar with the problem...

I certainly don't think the paper industry is promoting it. Rather it is a simple matter of inattention to detail (otherwise known either as laziness or hurry). They create the document in Word or some other similar program, and when 'finished', don't bother to check whether some tiny item has moved down far enough to force a new page.

I too usually select the pages to print, but it's hardly rare that I forget, and waste that page.

I like the blank sheet at the end. My printer seems to know when I need some new scrap paper.

Similar to what I was thinking.

If the page is totally blank, it goes back into the printer for the next job. If it is "defaced", it becomes a scratch sheet for use at my desk. Either way, no waste if reused, recycled, or repurposed.

I also do that. If there is a minimal image and I am printing one sided for record purposes, it will also go back into the printer.

my printers do it if I fill a page to the last line if I leave some lines ( not always my choice) then I get to sort through the printing and gather the blank pages and place in paper tray.. It is a pain in the a---.

Printing out web pages is problematic; I get around problems by just selecting what I want to print by highlighting it; hit the copy command; copy the contents on MS Word 2011.

MS Word 2011 preserves the formatting. I rarely print out a web page. It's usually a waste of ink for stuff on the web pages that I don't need.

/Silicon Valley Regards

I do the same as lonewolf except I only have Word 2000. My inkjet printer will "duplex" or print both sides. Any spoiled sheets of paper or any junk mail with a blank backside gets loaded into my laser printer for junk printing.

Its always best to copy the data into an editor of some sort, and print only what is needed as someone has already mentioned.

What nobody has exactly mentioned is that the page 1 of 1 that the website gives you can be 10 pages of more long when printed directly to the printer.....I have been caught out with that several times!!! Trying to stop the printer quickly after the first page is then the only alternative!!!

You raise a good point. When I print out a bank statement, I first download it as a PDF file, and only print the pages I need to examine, or to work with.

/Silicon Valley Regards

Due to the way complex web pages render out to printers, it seems inevitable that there will be a 'blank frame' that gets printed at the end. I think it's the invisible 'tracking GIF' hidden on the bottom of the page, or the invisible 'we won't let you right-click and download this image GIF' that gets overlaid over images they don't want you to copy with a simple right-click.

One thing I like is when a website has the 'printer friendly' link on a page, which takes you to a minimalist version of the page, no fancy formatting, no forced line breaks aside from the normal end-of-paragraph. It all gets sent to the printer in practically plaintext so the printer driver can adjust things to the most efficient layout for the page.

Right - the Printer Friendly page is a godsend - I wish it were more common. As for your comment on not being able copy/download an image - thanks - I wondered how that was done.

Well, that's the 'old' way, where you would right-click to safe the image, and you'd end up saving a file called blank.gif which was the 'cover image' over the image you wanted to copy. The workaround to that is to look at the page info (In Firefox: Tools > Page Info ), select the Media tab, then scroll down the list files used in the page until you find the one you want, and save it from there.

The Newer methods of preventing image saving are things such as using JavaScript to 'hijack' the RMB clicks on the page, or putting the pictures in a Flash file, since right clicking over the flash frame is automatically hijacked to open the flash menu, which is entirely useless to the average web user.

Do people actually print out web pages? How bizarre.

Why bizarre?

I sometimes take say a Wiki page, put it into word, reformat it into a booklet and print it out for quick reference when working.....I still like a paper copy best.

Yes, and you can still print on the reverse of the test copy for another test copy or a proof copy of what you have composed. A hard proof copy is useful to have someone else check for errors you didn't see.

Several reasons to print out a web page:

When collecting product data from B2B stores to present to Purchasing as 'proof' that you've done your price checking, so they won't decide to 'substitute' your PO request with something else. ("A 32-pin I/O board from Allan Bradley costs how much? We'll just get this 16-pin I/O board from Omron, it's less than half the price." (Don't ask me how you're supposed to plug an Omron PLC card into an A-B PLC, Purchasing never asks those questions either.)

When making handouts for a meeting, since it's easier to pass out than having laptops set up to display the page in question. (And less distracting, as the meeting attendees cannon secretly play minesweeper on a printout.)

To be able to carry the information from where the computer is located over to the work location, which is possibly unsuitable for computers or even a hostile environment for electronics.

To make a quick 'wish list' from various sites, rather than writing out all the info on each item by hand.

That remark is just too stupid for words.