I sometimes cringe at the output of paper being printed these days. Did that really have to be printed? Did it really have to take so many pages? It couldn’t be cut down somehow? I snickered when I heard the ghosts of carbon footprints whispering their guilt to me as I discovered PrintWhatYouLike.com’s bookmarklet.
What the devil is a bookmarklet? Well, it’s a small application disguising itself as a bookmark in your browser. Wikipedia explains it further and with more detail, if you’d like.
Anyway, PrintWhatYouLike.com developed a smart bookmarklet that skims down web pages for print. I hate printing web pages because of the useless surrounding images, ads and text that are just too much effort to cut out. But, with my new find, it’s not too bad anymore…
PrintWhatYouLike.com’s bookmarklet allows you to decrease the font size, select specific items, remove or isolate specific items and much more, all in the name of greener printing. This interactive demo runs through each of the features.
Normal Web Page: 
Web Page On a PrintWhatYouLike Diet:
PrintWhatYouLike also comes in other flavors: button for Google toolbar, Ubiquity command, Firefox extension or a simple URL. These other flavors support the über cool Ecofont. Which… will make printing even greener according to Ecofont’s findings, an estimated 20% less in printer ink consumed.
Ecofont?! Whaaaaa? Okay, imagine solid text that’s been punched with numerous tiny holes. Holes that are tiny… tiny… tiny. You only see those tiny holes if the font is enlarged enough. That’s Ecofont. Make sense?
Ecofont in action: 
Oh, did I mention PrintWhatYouLike is free? Just another article to follow our free theme (three recent articles make it a theme now, right?). If you are interested in further greening, Treehugger has a few more free greener printing recommends here.
1 comment
Heather says:
December 17, 2009 at 1:13 pm (UTC -7 )
When I first took a look at the “demo” on this page, I thought “Oh, brother… WAY too many steps, looks like a webpage-making template… and I’m just not that smart.” But then after literally only a few seconds worth of clicking, testing, and right-clicking, I had a super printout of my article, completely ad-free! Thanks SND!