Web pages are primarily designed to displayed on a computer screen. There are all sorts of design considerations for how it will display. Web designers have to consider things like screen resolution and browser versions to make sure the site displays well under many different conditions.

But few designers take into consideration how well a page looks when it's printed. This is a big mistake. People print web pages all the time when they are researching companies or products. Sometimes the person making the buying decision never actually visits your website - he or she may only ever see the printouts.

I won't bore you with the technical details, but there are many things a web designer can do to make sure your page prints correctly. One option is to create a separate "printer friendly" page, but this presents a maintenance issue. Ideally the site should be designed to look good when printed without requiring a separate page.

In my article about Flash ("too much of a good thing") I didn't even touch on the fact that sometimes a Flash page won't print at all in some browsers. Guess which company is not going to be presented to the CEO when it comes time to make a buying decision?