Printing from the web with few steps

Question

I need to add functionality to my J2EE-based wep application: 1) Take some page, probably with form controls, convert it to some printer friendly format. 2) Print this rendered format a) without showing it and b) without a print dialog.

I'm not too worried about 1, but have no idea if 2a and 2b are even possible.

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

I think 2b is going to be the real sticking point. 2a should be able to be accomplished with CSS via the "media" type...

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html

Answer 2

you can set a specific CSS print style. and just trust that your users can use their print screen button effectively. :)

here's an article from eric meyer on the subject

Answer 3

1. Print media style sheet that implements your printing requirements.
2. Print button in browser
3. Browser functionality that can do "quick print" to default printer.