On my recent post about adding NY Times front pages to my Nolty diary, a commenter asked how she might be able to do this herself. Mine were clipped from a special section in the print edition of the paper, and those miniature front page images didn’t seem to appear in the online edition. But there is a way you can print any NY Times front page.

Go to the home page of the NY Times, www.nytimes.com. In the upper right hand side of the header, you’ll see a link for “Today’s Paper.”

That takes you to a page where you can see what appeared in that day’s print edition of the Times. You can also enter a previous date to see that day’s print edition. If you scroll partway down that page, you’ll see a small reproduction of that day’s front page on the right side of the screen, under the header “Today’s Front Pages.” Click the link just below it that says “Enlarge this Image.”

This brings you to a screen where it gives you the option to view the front page as a PDF. Click “View PDF,” and then you can save or print it.

My first attempt at reducing it to 30% turned out a little too big, but I found that printing at 25% resulted in an image dimension of about 3″ by 5.5″, perfect for pasting into most pocket size notebooks. At this size, all the headlines should be legible, and depending on your eyesight and the quality of your printer, you might even be able to read the stories. The proportions are a bit narrower than a typical 3.5 x 5.5″ pocket notebook but you can play with the percentage to scale the printout correctly for whatever notebook you prefer.

Hope you enjoy archiving the year’s big news in your notebook! I’m planning to do this throughout the year to capture major headlines. For those who aren’t NY Times readers, other papers may also offer a similar service, but at least in the case of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, it’s behind a paywall.