Web2print, web-to-print, html2print, code2print, css-print
https://post.lurk.org/@doriane/109212502315263311
doriane (ungual) @doriane@post.lurk.org
hello @ the french speaking libre graphic design spheres, i know 'web2print' sounds nice to refer to the process of crafting printed document from HTML & CSS but im a boring nerd and the more i see it the less i like it
Oct 22, 2022, 16:55 · · Web · 0 · 1
doriane (ungual) @doriane
firstly because often we're not using the web, but web-standards like HTML & CSS. idk it sound confusing to me to use the word 'web' if it's not an online thing
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-to-print is already its own thing, and it refer to online printing e-commerce. which makes sense: it's something online that you use to print Web-to-print - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
around 2012 OSP came up with HTML2PRINT http://osp.kitchen/research/#h2p which makes a lot more sense to me but now i can't unsee HTML2PRINT as this specific set of tools with its own name and ways to execute this process OSP (Open Source Publishing) → OSP research tracks osp.kitchen
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
so does anyone has funny suggestions? :)
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
naive but funny, WYWIWYG for "what you write is what you get", to point to the fact its designing by writing?
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
WWWIWWP for "what we write is what we print", to point to the fact its designing for print by writing and we're not alone lol
Oct 22, 2022
raphael (Raphaël Bastide) @raphael
@doriane "code to print" popped up at some occasions during last week's publishing partyline at varia. I kind of like what it opens. cc @manetta @dddoss @zestelereste @julienbidoret ...
Oct 24, 2022
julienbidoret (Julien) @julienbidoret
@raphael @doriane @manetta @dddoss @zestelereste This is perhaps the most universal way of talking about these practices. #todo : at some point, we should make a little Venn diagram to map all this.
Oct 27, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
i totally started drafting this kind of diagram right after the initial tweet following the energy of it :) but i guess my personnal questionning is really about what parts of this diagram is "hosted" and what is not. and if it makes sense for the words we use to include that or not. like using web-standards as a material is a bit different than using the web as an interactive place.
Oct 22, 2022
rra (𝓻𝓻𝓪) @rra
@doriane disagree, the interesting part of web2print workflows is not that they use html and css but that they use web-based collaborative tools (etherpad, wiki, git hosts etc) to do enable novel print production and design flows.
Oct 22, 2022
doriane (ungual) @doriane
@rra of course, i do agree that it is the interesting part! but i see lots of cases of printed documents refered as web2print while none of the primary files are really online, so what do we call those? (still seems like its becoming a practice of its own)
Oct 22, 2022
raphael (Raphaël Bastide) @raphael
@doriane @rra Yes, and lots of cool publication uses non web programs and should not be ignored just because "web / HTML to print" exists. That is why #prepostprint was chosen as a "technology neutral" name.
Oct 22, 2022
manetta (manetta) @manetta
@raphael @doriane @rra
A slow reply ⏲️, I wanted to reply in October but never did in the end.
For me web-to-print, or web2print depending on how you prefer to write it, feels at the moment as the most suiting way to me to describe the practice of making design workflows based on web technologies. Even when documents are produced locally and are not accessible through the wider internet, they still use web technologies (HTML, CSS) and thus still have the possibility to be published on the web some day.
Also, web-to-print practices do not have to rely on HTML and CSS exclusively. You can make workflows like for example a wiki-to-local-file-to-PDF using other PDF rendering tools like Reportlab or LaTeX, where you don't use HTML and CSS to develop a layout.
The "web" part of web-to-print refers to the open-endedness of the web, and the possible forms of sociality it brings, which is why i feel closer to it, and less close to html2print or code2print or CSSprint.
May 3, 2023