Sublime Forum

Printing Capability

#1

OMG! Really? I can print in literally EVERY other text editor I know, but not Sublime? I need to print my code, so that I can parse through it by hand. Why in the world is this not a default feature?

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Printing features
#2

This has been extensively discussed Here and Here (among others). These threads already answer your question.

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#3

As mentioned in the threads linked by @GameGenie710, I’ve found that ExportHtml is a good option for printing source code from Sublime.

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#4

Thanks, but as mentioned in the threads provided, it’s a feature that’s at least been requested since 2009 and it’s still not there. If it’s a priority at all…low or not, 8 years is a bit excessive. It’s not excessive, however, to ask for a very basic and common feature that all competitors have and any text/code editor should have.

In fact, the first words on the Sublime Text home page are: “Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor” Lacking a basic functionality, such as being able to print, makes that claim rather awkward. Relying on statements like “is there a reason you don’t want to use any of the plugins that provide printing through the browser?” is also, frankly, BS. I’m not trying to sound insulting, but honestly, it’s a print function, not a feature you should have to rely on another app or plugin for, simply because your “sophisticated text editor” can’t bother to have it. All that tells businesses and professionals is that your $70 app can’t handle all the basic functions that 99% of the free text editors can do.

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#5

As an example, I’m actually trying (as we speak), to get my employer to buy this for me, rather than me using my personal license. While they were willing to do it, as I spoke to them about it, once I got to the fact that it couldn’t print, they cocked their head and gave a smirk. That doesn’t speak well for spending $70 on a “sophisticated text editor” that can’t even print. What my employer starts hearing is how much it can do, but all they remember is “but it can’t print.”

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#6

As mentioned in the linked threads, literally EVERY other text editor can NOT print. Atom does not print, neither does Visual Studio Code or Adobe Brackets. Vim does not print natively, nor does Emacs - just to mention a few.

Sure, it can be annoying the few times you actually need printing, but there are solutions available for Sublime Text. Searching Package Control for print gives several hits, among those my own plugin that I put together almost five years ago. It is still good enough for me…

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#7

Just by curiosity @psiclone: how many times do you have to print something, per week (days, months, you tell me)?

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#8

What about Notepad ++? And it’s free.

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#9

Ironically, your post is a great argument for not adding printing to ST.

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#10

@svenax Still good enough for me too, thanks.

What’s all the fuss about?! Install svenax’s Simple Print Function plugin.

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#11

Off the top of my head, here are just two editors that can print are Eclipse and NotePad++. Here’s a few more (VisualStudio, TextMate, Coda, and Espresso), and there are many others. I mentioned VS, as you did, because…as you can see here (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1zh337ws(v=vs.100).aspx), you CAN print using VS.

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#12

Tell you what…it’s no big deal. Don’t add printing, forego the sale, and we’ll call it done. NotePad++ here I come. It’s clearly a more capable editor, anyway, and they don’t pretend to be by lopping on a $70 charge.

Obviously, adding a built-in functionality of basic Windows apps is too hard for this developer, or they’re just not up to the task. The need for print capability as justified by the fact that the topic has come up a number of times over the last 8 years and requires workarounds (like plugins) says a lot about why the program isn’t worth the $$.

I’ll just laugh about this when I have to go to my boss again with a code snippet that I printed and say, “Hey, we saved $70!”

This requirement, by the way, has come up in forums for all the programs mentioned that don’t support printing and there’s literally no good reason not to provide such a basic capability.

NOTE: For the record, I tried installing and running the Simple Print Function plugin and got an error about ‘lpstat.’ I’m not going to fight with that to get it to work. It’s great on you to write the plugin, don’t get me wrong, but some need must have prompted the effort to program it.

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#13

I’m glad you found a solution that makes everyone happy.

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#14

Yep, thanks. It sounds like the right thing to do, considering the general attitude about supporting this app. What a waste of time and money.

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#15

I mentioned Visual Studio Code, not Visual Studio. Not that it matters, there are of course examples of both behaviours.

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#16

:laughing:

It’s by missing ST (and using Notepad++) that your going to waste your time. Have you even had a look at the Edit menu? took the time (about a day) to try to use some of the command that are listed in it and realise how much time it’s saving you? Have you learned to use the goto anything properly (5 minutes)? Did you take the reflex to use the command palette instead of the menu? Did you have a look at some of the plugin built by the community? Have you learned to use the snippets? The build systems? The macros? The layouts?

I’m not mentioning the possibility to create your own plugin here, since it’s not common to customise ST that much. (although it should be in my opinion)

Or you just came, saw there weren’t any printing option by default, and start complaining? If it’s the case, I can tell you: you’re missing something.

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#17

That was a huge factor for me. Being able to easily and rapidly extend Sublime was key. I can just use Python. I don’t have to compile dlls or any foolishness like that. And I really like Python ;).

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#18

The ‘Print to HTML’ plugin works like a charm for me. Shift-Alt-P, colorized text with line numbers in your browser and it even brings up the print dialog box. ST3 on Win10. I tried Notepad++, once; ok, maybe twice but there is nothing like ST!!

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#19

Yep, good thing you have a browser to help you with that.

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#20

Seriously, how often do you need to print from your editor? It feels like this is analogous to saying that Sublime Text is poorly supported because it doesn’t natively support floppy disks.

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