5. Classic Print PDF (and Variations)

513 September 24, 2021
ByMike Nelson
Supports* front matter
* 1 layer of nesting (each article can put in a part)
* back matter

Purpose

Very similar to Print My Blog Free, but supporting Pro features. Great for printing your WordPress content.

Features

  • Supports nesting articles (like posts and pages) into “parts”
  • External hyperlinks (links to web pages not in the project) can be automatically converted to footnotes or removed
  • Internal hyperlinks (links to content included in the project) can be automatically converted to footnotes, inline page references, or removed
  • The default title page can include: Project Title, Subtitle, Site URL, Date Printed, Credit to Print My Blog
  • Each article can include: Title, ID, Author, URL, Date Published, Categories and Tags, Featured Image, Excerpt, Custom Fields, Content
  • Optionally automatically center images
  • Optionally float images to the top or bottom of each page

Page Layout

This design is meant for printing on both sides of the page so you see two pages at once (the “page spread”). So the left-hand page will be styled differently than the right-hand page.

  • Page numbers in bottom-outside corner, part titles appear in the top of the left page, article titles appear at the top of the right page. Front-matter’s pages are numbered with Roman numerals
  • Each article can optionally begin on a new page

About the “Editorial Review” and “Economical Print PDF” Variations

These design variations have all the same settings, but their initial values are setup differently. The “Editorial Review” adds extra space between each line of text to leave room for notes. The “Economical Print PDF” uses smaller text and images to save paper. Their settings can also be adjusted to meet your needs.

“Title Page Content” controls what is shown on the default title page.
“Post Content” controls what is shown on each article that uses the default template.
“Each Page Begins on a New Page” forces each article to begin at the top of a page, instead of continuing directly after the previous article.
“Title page and Part Header Font Size” sets the title page and part header size.
“Header Font” controls which font is used for all headers.
“Font” controls which font is used for non-header text.
“Font Size” controls the base font-size (headers are always proportionately bigger).
“Maximum Image Height” resizes larger images to the desired height, which can be nice if you want to save on space.
“Default Image Alignment” can automatically center images with no alignment, which often looks better in print.
“Image Placement” can dynamically move images to improve layout. For example, if an image would appear across a pagebreak, PMB Pro can instead “snap” it to the beginning of the next page.
Setting it to “Don’t Move” means PMB Pro will never do that; “Snap to Bottom or Top of Page” will always “snap” all images to the top of bottom of their page; and “Only snap if it would cause a pagebreak” will only move images if it will improve the page layout.
“Page Width” and “Page Height” will change the pagesize.
“Paragraph Indent” gives the project a more classic book feel by indenting the first line of each paragraph and moving paragraphs closer together.
“Internal Hyperlinks” are all the links to content included in the project; and “External Hyperlinks” are links to your website and elsewhere on the internet.
“Remove” will remove the link (but leave the text); “Replace with page reference” (only for internal hyperlinks) will add text like “(see page 124)”; “Replace with Footnote” will add a footnote with the full URL written out.

Generic Settings

“Apply Website Theme” will let your current theme help style the generated file. Generally themes are not well-suited to print and require significant customization to work, so we generally suggest you leave it unchecked. If you decide to check it on, you will need to have a business license in order to receive help resolving layout issues. So again, it’s usually recommended to leave it off. (The most common reason people want to use their theme is because they like the font, but adding a custom font to your design is usually easier than resolving all the theme’s print layout issues.)
“Custom CSS” is CSS code to be used only in files PMB Pro generates; it won’t be used anywhere else on your website. Because PMB Pro uses Prince CSS, use any CSS from the official Prince documentation.