Ask HN: Do you print software documentation? If so how do you do it?
So far my plan is
1. gather the vital documentation for a given project (including language, apis, etc)
2. choose which aspects of the documentation to print. Let's use the Elm language for example, I wouldn't need to print docs for every single package just the ones I'm using in the project.
3. clean up the documentation so it is print-ready. I did a dry run for the Elm language and realized this would be a tedious step but doing it well should result in less wasted paper and easier-to-navigate documentation
3. print
4. collect into separate 3-ring binders with tabs to make navigation easier. For example I would have a binder for Elm, a separate binder for the backend language, a separate binder for miscellaneous
I know that these will get out of date, and I suspect some documentation like React and HTML will be difficult to curate due to the large volume. I'm primarily a web developer and these technologies seem to move faster than others which means the risk of them getting outdated is higher.
So while "print out documentation" sounds simple enough, as I've begun thinking it through it seems more complicated than it should and I would love any insight anyone here has, including any references to blogs about this, and especially if a service already exists that does this sort of thing
Related:
As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44113210 - May 2025
You should try out a Remarkable and see if that works for you (it didn't for me but it was close). They don't have a lot of distractions and they're pretty good at displaying PDFs.
Currently I buy books and put up with them being a little behind the bleeding edge. Good ones are hard to find though.
If I print documentation I'm going to do it with my home printer and use a 3-ring binder so I think the cost should be do-able. I haven't specced it out exactly but paper is cheap and toner is... cheaper than paying someone else :shrug: