save paper

Save Paper and Ink with Free Ecofont

jplatt — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:00:00 -0500

A few weeks ago, I wrote about GreenPrint's EverGreen font, a typeface designed to maintain readablity while using thinner letters, so printed documents use less paper.

A similar idea comes from Ecofont, a free typeface that prints using less ink. Each letter printed in Ecofont actually contains dozens of tiny, ink-free dots (like the big version of the font you see illustrating this article). They're invisible to the naked eye, but they combine to use less ink than fonts that use a full amount of ink.

Now, Ecofont is only designed for use in 12-point type or less (ideally, it should be used at 9 or 10 point), but unless your eyesight is going, that's still perfectly readable.

Of course, we should all be trying to print less whenever possible, but if you really need to create a paper copy, installing Ecofont could help you use less toner, which makes your printed documents a wee bit greener and saves you a little bit of money.

Hey, every little bit helps, right?

Save Paper, Ink with Free Software

jplatt — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

I first wrote about GreenPrint World -- a great computer program that helps you reduce the amount of paper and ink you use in your computer printer -- several months ago, but a little voice told me it was time to write about it again. And that voice was right. Because now, for the first time, GreenPrint World is available for Macs.

GreenPrint World is free for PC users (or $29 for a premium version that does not display advertising), and $29 for Mac users (you can also get a free 30-day trial). Each version of the program analyzes your print job, then lets you decide what elements to print and which ones to skip (say, photographs, or the legal disclaimers at the bottom of a web page). It keeps track of how many pages you don't print, allowing you to "track your impact" (how much paper you have used, or how much ink you have saved) and monitor your overall printing habits.

You can also use GreenPrint World to generate PDFs of any document, allowing you to keep a digital copy of a web page instead of printing it at all.

According to GreenPrint Technologies LLC, "GreenPrint saves the average user over $90 and 1,400 wasted pages per year and allows enterprises to quantify the ecological and cost-saving benefits that result from using the software."

There's one more new thing -- the GreenPrint EverGreen font, which has been designed to use less space and ink while not sacrificing readability. Says the company, "Compared with common fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica, EverGreen reduces paper use by 15-20%." The EverGreen font costs $10 and works for PCs or Macs.

Businesses looking to save money on their printing expenses can also purchase enterprise editions of the software.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try today!

Got a Blog or Web Page? Make it Greener with the Eco-Safe Merit Badge

jplatt — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:00:00 -0500

If you have a blog or a web site, you can now help people use it in a greener manner by installing the Eco-Safe Merit Badge. This free widget encourages your site visitors to not print your content, but to use electronic tools to save or distribute it.

The Eco-Safe Merit Badge allows your readers to turn your web page into a saveable PDF or email it to themselves as text. All of these options save paper, and reduce the energy we would spend printing.

According to the Eco-Safe Foundation, more than 8.2 million Eco-Safe widgets have already been installed. (And I just increased that number by one.)

Not convinced? Here's an extra bonus: when you install the Merit Badge on your site, you can earn free Apple iTunes music downloads. Something free for doing good? That's a bonus that works for me.

PS -- Want more free music downloads? Check out the music player on the RiverWired home page. It lets you download all kinds of great, free music.

Save Money, Paper, Power -- Ditch the Fax Machine

jplatt — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Did you know that fax machines are among the most energy-hogging devices in your office? It's true -- like copiers, fax machines tend to be on 24/7, much longer than they are actually used. While they run up your electric bill, they also use needless amounts of paper and toner, not to mention space.

But don't worry, the Internet has a solution: online faxing.

Quite a few online faxing services have popped up in recent years, offering anyone (individual or business) easy and inexpensive options to send and receive faxes directly from their computers or email systems. Using one of these services helps you to cut your energy costs, use less paper and toner, and keep smelly fax-machine fumes from filling up your office.

I have used FaxZero for months. Since I only need to send the occasional fax, it's a perfect, free solution, allowing me to send up to three pages at a time with no charge. (Ads appear on the recipient's cover page.) It's not perfect (I can't receive faxes with FaxZero), but for me, it does the trick.

For businesses with the need to both send and receive faxes, companies like eFax, fax.com and RapidFax all offer comparable levels of service and pricing. But one company -- MyFax -- stands out but actually giving companies an incentive to recycle their old fax machines. MyFax will give three months of free service to any company that donates a fax machine to one of several charitable or e-recycling organizations. (The offer expires May 31st.)

So go ahead and cut the fax umbilical cord. It's time we let that technology die and embrace the next generation.

Save Paper. Save Trees -- Try Digital Magazines

jplatt — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We get a lot of magazines in the Platt household. We love every one of them, but boy do they pile up quickly. And man, do they use a lot of paper.

Which is why I recently gave Zinio a try. This new service (currently in beta version) delivers digital versions of more than 350 different consumer magazines. You can subscribe or buy individual issues -- including recent back issues -- which you can read online, download to your PC, or even read on your mobile device.

I started with a few free sample issues, and was quickly impressed. The digital versions are exactly the same as their printed counterparts, only paperless. They carry the exact same articles and artwork, in the same layouts, but with added navigation tools and the ability to increase the viewing size of any page up to 400%.

The online versions also come with an abundance of hyperlinks, making it easier to explore the web when a link is included in an article or advertisement. All in all, it's a pretty good experience.

I did have a few problems with the Zinio versions. For one thing, they exaclty reproduce the layout of the printed magazines. This required me to scroll up and down columns, and from one column to the next, in order to actually read any of the articles. That's too much for my poor carpal-tunnel addled wrists.

The Zinio versions are also priced the same as the printed magazines. Since the publishers don't incur printing or shipping costs, I would have expected the prices to be lower. Maybe that will come as Zinio hits some economies of scale.

Still, despite my reservations, Zinio magazines aren't printed on paper, and they aren't shipped from one corner of the globe to another. They don't include non-recyclable cologne inserts, and they don't come in annoying plastic polybags. Any magazines you buy are archived online, so you don't need to keep paper versions lying around, and there's nothing to recycle.

If you're a magazine junkie like me, but have been worrying about the environmental impact of your monthly fix, this could be the solution you've been looking for. Give it a try.