Can you print a blank page?

Hardware

No printing!

Don't remember when or where I saw the above picture, but what's to stop somebody… printing that picture? Wouldn't a more apt replacement for content they didn't want printed be… a blank page?

Ah, but what is "printing"?

I suppose we're getting into philosophy now: can you "print" a blank page? I've unwittingly done it many times with blank paper shooting out of the printer, but has it truly been "printed"? I would define "printing" as material being adhered to paper, but if the definition is merely having paper passed through a printer then perhaps you could print a blank page. Would it still have printing if a printing press creates a page full of white space?

I'm off to print a blank page to stare at for a while.

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Ruben Schade is a technical writer and infrastructure architect in Sydney, Australia who refers to himself in the third person. Hi!

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