For years I’ve kept manilla folders full of examples of great web design on my desk. Anytime I see a site that illustrates a new way of designing something I might be working on I’ll print it out so I can easily refer to it and flip through the stack of pages. It’s so much easier than pulling up screenshots or organizing bookmarks. It’s like creating my own custom issue of Communication Arts.

To print these web pages in the most accurate manner, I usually take a screenshot of the site, import it into Photoshop, upsample to 300 dpi, reduce to 8”x10”, and print it on HP Everyday Photo Paper, Matte (around $.14 a sheet in 100 sheet packages). Flipping through this folder is the best way for me to quickly brainstorm about ideas, navigation, organization, etc. Sometimes I’ll stick post-it notes on the print-outs as a reminder of what struck me about a particular site.

Lately I’ve been printing out sites of large organizations that incorporate a top universal nav bar (bbc.com & microsoft sites) that let users quickly navigate to the main areas within a large organization but have restrained color and styling so the nav bar can be applied to any microsite within the organization. Currently, these examples can be found near the beginning of the manilla folder.

If I’m soley interested in the content of the page, I’ll usually skip the details above and send it to the laserjet printer by hitting Cntrl-P from the browser. Not infrequently I’m disappointed to see that some pertinent bit of the content ran off the right side of the page by inadequate printing capabilities of the browser. In 2003, ten years since the first browser was introduced, you’d think the major browsers would have the simple task of printing down pat, but unfortunately I have to resort to the above method when I want an exact representation of what’s on my screen.