File listings from the command line

The OS X Finder suffers from a rather amazing limitation: you can't print the list of files you see in a Finder window. You can grab them and paste the list into something that can print, or you can do a screenshot and print that, but that's almost all.

There is Print Center. You can get that in your dock by clicking on it (it's in Applications->Utilities). Drag a folder onto that, and it will print the contents. Very little flexibility there, though.

There is a third party product called Printwindow that gives you better options. However, you can also get quick printing from the command line. Open Terminal, and try:

 ls | lp
 ls -l | lp
 ls -lR | lp
 ls -l | sort -r +4 | lpr
 

Don't neglect reading the "ls" man page if you aren't familiar with it; there are a lot of options.

I'm sure OS X will eventually address this, but printing from the comman line will probably always have more power and flexibility.

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