HP Tabblo Print Toolkit

The Following is a post I did for RIT's Open Publishing Lab:

If you’ve been paying attention, you have probably noted a very quiet whisper around the web lately which is slowly growing in volume. In fact, if you dig around enough, you might find the words, but for the most part the idea seems to be just on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Maybe it’s because no one is quite sure as to the viability of such an endeavor, if you look at the way significant movements throughout the web have developed over the past five-plus years, it’s contrary to what the hype has led us to believe. I’m talking about web-to-print, something that the folks here at the OPL have had their hearts and minds invested in for some time now (see Wiki Print Extension for an obvious example), and it’s something that we hope you’re paying attention to as well.

With the advent of web-based publishing, there has been a growing interest in getting information into the hands of users in a much more literal way, but with content designed specifically for the web the question on everyone’s mind has been how to do it, and make it look good?

HP’s Tabblo Print Toolkit offers one such solution, with relative ease. It shouldn’t be surprising that HP, one of the world’s largest producers of in home printers would have an interest in expanding the web-to-print market, that’s just smart business. As some move to get it all onto the web, others see the opportunity in getting it back off the web. Not to push any agenda, but it’s about time the web got wise to content-to-go.

What’s Tabblo?

Tabblo was it’s own company once. Founded in 2005 by Antonio Rodriguez, now head of R&D for HP’s internet media-to-print operations, it was acquired by HP in March, 2007. Rodriquez began his company with the observation: There is no good online application for putting together photos and words with styled templates that can be customized by the author for the purpose of telling a story.

The company began as a way for people to convert their online media into websites (tabblos), and share them through social networking via Tabblo’s forum, blogs, and other social networking sites. They do this by offering a series of pre-designed templates which users then use an application to place their media into. Media is imported using browser-based file upload, java/flash-based upload clients, or picasa-plugin. They created a server-to-server import interface that allows users to import their entire Flickr to Tabblo via access to Flickr’s Commercial API. Flickr has denied access to their API to competitors other than Tabblo, stating they don’t want to allow direct competitors access to their site, but have made an exception for Tabblo, which offers different technologies and uses for Flickr, and the deal offers both companies the possibility for growing their user base. This sets a precedent however, which some bloggers appear to be wary of, as Flickr has effectively sent the message that they will decide where you can and cannot use the media hosted on their servers, even along with their claims that the media and meta-tags are the property of the users.

The Tabblo Print Toolkit:

Utilizing the same basic principles, the HP Tabblo Print Toolkit (TPT) works to allow website creators and bloggers to make their content more fit for print via templates.

TPT for websites works like a CSS style sheet, and it can be set up with a bit of ease:

1. Pick a template from the template directory.
2. Create a ‘recipe’ – JavaScript which identifies the content which should be printed.
3. Include the recipe in the header of the page.
4. Create a print link that invokes the TPT harvesting code using an HP print button.

The Recipe works by defining content, by assigning content names for each type of content on a page. If you know CSS already, it’s very easy to use and understand.

Essentially, HP has just created a mark-up language that works with their server-side layout engine, to generate a neat-looking PDF file to save, share, or print.

One assumes that this whole ordeal is still in its beta phase, as the number of templates is fairly limited in scope, and while HP has already partnered with various companies for examples, there are virtually no websites using it exclusively yet. TPT also offers blog plug-ins which work great and are really simple to install, though they have yet to appear on almost any blogs. One complaint is that there seems to be no good way to track advertisements going to print. Advertising is tracked per click, and being a staple of the blogging “industry” (if you will) many are not convinced that taking users away from their pages is a good idea. Another complaint is that Tabblo essentially moves your data through its servers, but doesn’t allow access to its API. The web appears to be wary.

There is a movement building in the web consciousness toward technologies which will streamline the to-print process. As social networking and web-based publishing begin to grow out of their awkward teenage years we are seeing a rise in the number of third party applications and widgets moving to address the needs of a world wide community trying to manage the mess we have all created (continue to create). HP’s Tabblo Print Toolkit is a decent start to organizing one aspect of life on the net, but the web community has learned its lessons hard, and come out with “street-smarts” (net-smarts?) that are unmatchable. It’s going to take some impressive offerings on the part of HP in the months to come in order to convince people that their technology will be more beneficial than something based on an open source community, but you have to admit, it’s pretty cool! It might be time to stock up on toner.