Printed version is different to that showing

Hi @gartond, thanks for reporting this issue. Sorry it’s not formatting well when it finally comes to the PDF or print.

Thanks for sharing the URL to your site, that helps.

Could you maybe send me a screenshot from a PDF where the images are too large, and point to the corresponding post on your site where the images look correct? That would help me have a bit more info about what you’re expecting.

Hi
I have uploaded screen shots to lapfordhistory.co.uk/16386-2/

My pages mostly use standard Guttenberg columns (I usually use 2 50:50 columns, but sometimes 2 columns with say a 2:2 split). I was finding that the preview version that Print My Blog generates of the pdf/print was OK, but the generated version was always different because it reverted to one column (hence oversizing pictures) as it doesn’t recognise the column formats.

I have partly solved the problem by changing the Print My Blog setting to 2 columns. When I do this I now find that the printed version is now OK (it generates a 50:50 column even if I have used a different split but I can live with this). However the preview version is now an ugly 4 columns (i.e the end result is OK but the preview is quite different and might persuade users not to attempt printing). The screenshots show the 4 column preview and what is actually generated (2 columns). Is there anyway that the preview and final versions can match if I am using columns in my posts?

Print My Blog looks like a really useful tool and I can see the customer service is great, but is it likely to be limiting if I use column formatting?

Ahhh ok I think I understand better now.

I think your theme and WordPress are automatically collapsing the columns block during printouts.
Really the long vertical columns aren’t very good as the columns of text continue across pages (meaning you have to completely read one column, across multiple pages, and then when the column is finally finished, go back to the first page and start reading the next column). Here’s a screenshot that might help me explain it: https://i.imgur.com/B3Zjp7z.png

So I think what we should do is:
* when printing, automatically collapse the column blocks (so they’re just regular text)
* set the printout to use 2 columns (these columns will behave as expected, where you read all the columns on the first page, and then all the columns on the next page, like a newspaper).

To do that, you’d need a bit of custom CSS:

1. Go to wp-admin on your website
2. On the left, under “Appearance”, click “Customize”
3. On the left, under Additional CSS” add the the following code:

.pmb-print-page .wp-block-columns{
display:block;
}

Does that work for you?

(FYI I’m thinking about making this standard, but column blocks can work provided they’re not so long that they span multiple pages. So I’m afraid you might have a special situation that merits this little bit of extra CSS code).

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Michael Nelson.

What fantastic and attentive service. I can see that my long columns are not ideal to viewers anyway so will shorten then, but the fix works in any case.

Thank you so much!

?? nice!
Ya I agree the really long columns don’t end up working that well on the web anyway. I would consider removing the columns, and just using small images (like 300-400 px wide) and floating them to the sides.
And thanks!

Hey Michael,

This is a very helpful plugin! I am having a similar issue when printing the final page though. The preview is perfect but the printed result is not good. I am using the Avada theme page builder, and this is the page https://www.newhavenholidaypark.co.uk/2007-willerby-richmond/

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Rick

Hi @lightwavin, ya your post’s body is pretty complicated, and the theme is doing quite a bit. However, I have some custom CSS that should help.

1. Go to wp-admin on your website
2. On the left, under “Appearance”, click “Customize”
3. On the left, under Additional CSS” add the the following code:

.pmb-print-page{
    background-color: #d7d6d6 !important;
}
.pmb-posts{
    width: 100% !important;
}

Lemme know if that works for you.