How about a Print Icon?

[crossi]

I would like a icon that I can click to send my catalog to a printer.
I would like to be able to customize the output as to which columns will be printed in which order and have Calibre remember those preferences.

[jackie_w]

The current way of doing this is to choose to create your catalog in CSV format. You will be able to select which columns to output and calibre will remember the selection.

You need to open the CSV file in Excel (or other spreadsheet) to change column order and print according to your preferences. If you know how to write Excel macros you could automate the reformatting/printing.

[unboggling]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only user who thinks being able to easily print the booklist would be extremely useful. Exporting csv to externally mess with formatting and reordering columns is unnecessarily time consuming.

[unboggling]

Here's another one:

Originally Posted by thalaniel

2. Print gui list. I understand the catalog generation options but there seems to be no simple way to generate a printed list similar to what I see in the gui Library view. It's awkward and time consuming to output XML or CSV then use some outside application to clean that up for printing, when what I want printed is what I have already formatted and prettily displayed in the gui. Suggest adding a capability to print gui Library list, again with selectable and orderable fields. Suggest that it apply only to the records currently displayed so the printout could reflect specific searches or tags. There could also be a feature to generate that same formatted table output to printer *or* disk. The lack of an easy Printing feature is the main reason I still need to keep a separate db of pBook and eBook metadata in a spreadsheet. I'd love to get rid of that and keep it all in calibre.

[Manichean]

I'm sure that if someone got a patch together, Kovid would consider it. However, I don't know if it is on the "official" roadmap somewhere, and if it is, how far up it is.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Manichean

I'm sure that if someone got a patch together, Kovid would consider it. However, I don't know if it is on the "official" roadmap somewhere, and if it is, how far up it is.

It isn't on mine. Can't speak for other devs.

[GRiker]

Not on mine either. All of my lists are in catalogs.

G

[unboggling]

I'm not a developer. So I'm probably naive in thinking it wouldn't take that much work. But correct me if I'm wrong. Doesn't some calibre routine(s) already grab and massage all the metadata I see before putting it in the main gui list? Wouldn't it be easy to take that same output and convert it entire for printer output? Isn't that just another sort of conversion, this time to some printer decipherable format such as PS or even PDF?

[Manichean]

While it could potentially be somewhat easy, you're forgetting that this is an open source application. This means that mostly, the developers create functionalities that they themselves are interested in or see a use for. Also, at least in my experience, something that should be trivial tends to break things horribly in some totally unexpected place

[chaley]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Wouldn't it be easy to take that same output and convert it entire for printer output?

No.

Printing is in fact hard. There are lots of issues to deal with. For example, paper doesn't have scroll bars and screens don't have page breaks. Paper is linear -- screens are not. And I don't even want to think about how to convert calibre's library data model and data formatting into something printable. My guess is that weeks of work would be required to get something that would pass muster.

[GRiker]

And, while you may not want to do the 'awkward and time consuming' work on the CSV in Excel, you get exactly what *you* want as the output.

G

[mediax]

Originally Posted by GRiker

And, while you may not want to do the 'awkward and time consuming' work on the CSV in Excel, you get exactly what *you* want as the output.

G

. . . and if it's something you're going to be doing often, you can set up a macro to do that work for you - then it becomes "Create the CSV file from Calibre and press a button in Excel to import. convert and print it".

This is not intended as a sarcastic remark (honestly!). I know it's not an integrated solution (which would obviously be preferable), but it will do the job you want quickly and easily - albeit using two applications instead of one.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by mediax

. . . and if it's something you're going to be doing often, you can set up a macro to do that work for you - then it becomes "Create the CSV file from Calibre and press a button in Excel to import. convert and print it".

This is not intended as a sarcastic remark (honestly!). I know it's not an integrated solution (which would obviously be preferable), but it will do the job you want quickly and easily - albeit using two applications instead of one.

OK. Sorry once again about propounding my incorrect newbie assumptions. The macro solution works well enough.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by unboggling

OK. Sorry once again about propounding my incorrect newbie assumptions. The macro solution works well enough.

posting the macro for all to use would be nice.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by unboggling

OK. Sorry once again about propounding my incorrect newbie assumptions. The macro solution works well enough.

Printing, even a simple 1 liner per book would burn a lot of paper (and printer time).
Your library may be a few dozen books. Mine is 2000+ and there are mentions here of 5K 10K and even 15K book Libraries.

If you printed Grikers catalog: It would be 1page (assuming reasonably short metadata comments) AND a few lines Per Book
(the book details, the Author entry, the Recent/date-added list, the genre list)

There is very little need to Print.
Keep the current catalog ON your reader (or external chip if ro device supports it), Use the "Browse your library from anywhere (if you own/have permission, your computer and have a full-time connection).