Finally, Print or PDF Posts

On August 6, 2009, my beloved bride became a blogger. Her assumption, I assume, was that her somewhat saavy and sorta’ smart significant other would swoop in and set up the scene with style and speed.

Naturally, I took on that unstated challenge and, in the process, I got to learn about things like Ajax, Apache, Xaamp, PHP, and all kinds of other technologies with which I had previously not had a great deal of hands-on practice. I learned how to rewrite a theme and even how to build a forum by hand.

However, there was ONE windmill that I could never successfully tilt. Yes, that one heel to my Achilles. That one ointment on my fly. That one wrench on my monkey. It became a quest, a mission, an imperative. I became like a faithful Darwinist looking for that nonexistent observable evidence of macro-evolution. I became like Ahab pursuing that mighty and elusive white whale.

The one thing that eluded me, this entire time, was the ability to print a post, or save it as a PDF, in a way that looked highly attractive.

The problem kept me up nights. It seemed so obvious and intuitive. It seemed like such an easy thing. Yet every attempt looked amateurish or was seeded with unwanted advertising — or didn’t work. My eyes became slits. My jaw tightened further with resolve. I determined that no matter how long, no matter how many attempts, I would not fail. Ultimately, I would win and make my gorgeous wife proud.

I tried several plugins. I tried external services. I even tried to hand code something in ghostscript on my own (nevermind). The bottom line is that nothing really satisfied. Nothing worked.

Week after week, month after month, emails would arrive from faithful visitors asking, “Is there a way for me to print this recipe? Is there a way for me to print this post?” Imagine my frustration. Oh, curse the whirligig of time and outrageous fortune with all those slings and arrows!

Celebrate with me, folks. Today, this day, I hand you the fruit of my more than a year long quest.

To print any post, or to save it as a PDF, in a very configurable and highly customizable way — click on the Print or PDF button at the bottom of any post.