Add page breaks between addresses if printing multiple addresses

Postcrossing Suggestions
1

Proposal: Add page breaks between addresses if printing multiple addresses

Why

Label printers and similar devices can automatically cut labels if a page break is inserted. This means that, while printing multiple addresses, each label would be cut automatically. Right now addresses have to be printed separately or cut by hand. Having the ability to print and cut multiple addresses at once would be a real time saver for people who write a lot of cards at once.

How

A simple way would be to add table {break-after: page;} to the CSS of the print pages and make the tables block elements again, either by removing the display rule or adding an display: block to the table definition. This can only be done on the print page, as it would be incompatible with other pages.

I use the following JavaScript to achieve this:

let styles = 'table {break-after: page;}'

let styleSheet = document.createElement("style")
styleSheet.type = "text/css"
styleSheet.innerText = styles
document.head.appendChild(styleSheet)

let matches = document.querySelectorAll("table");
matches.forEach(function(t) {
  t.style.removeProperty('display');
});
​```

Problems

Adding the page breaks to the existing layout might (and will) break peoples existing workflows or prevent them from printing multiple addresses on one page. The solution is to make this change optional either as an option in the user profile or on the print addresses page.

1 Like
2

Somewhat similar but a little different…I print addresses not so that I can use the printed addresses on the card but because where I pick and write cards I have no computer. With the printouts I can have all of the relevant card and profile information in front of me and don’t have to keep running back and forth to the room with the computer.

I don’t mind at all if multiple profiles are printed on one page.But I would love to have the option of not allowing a single profile to “break” across a page, because sometimes I end up with the pages out of order and on at least one occasion I have written “Because you like XXX…” to the wrong person, who didn’t at all mention liking such a thing (fortunately they did like the card, though…).

I think of it as similar to having an option of not allowing rows to break across pages when you are printing a table. Unfortunately I don’t have the programming knowledge sufficient to generate sample code, though…

1 Like
3

A related topic: printing out addresses: it would be less expensive to use black and white characters between addresses. With color, I use
of expensive color ink too fast!

4

I get generic ink on ebay and it is just as cheap as black, I was having issues with my printer not working right because if you don’t use the colors they dry up. So I have added color to most of my reports so that all the colors are used all of the time and since ebay ink is so cheap I don’t think anything of it anymore. I have a printer with separate tanks for each color. The generic ink voids the warranty, but in over 30 years of home printing I have yet to have a printer break down on me where I didn’t just go buy another one because a new one is cheaper than having the old one fixed! so the warranties are useless anyway and I have never had any issues with any generic ink in all of that time.