Photo courtesy of GreenPrint
Free Software, printing green, and saving trees and a few bucks too? For a frugal tree hugger like me, I have died and gone to heaven. Where do I sign up? (Thanks, Jason for this tip from your site, Scream to Be Green.)
Let’s start at the beginning. How will this free software for your home make your life greener? (Note, this software is not available for Mac users yet.) According to the Company’s recent press release,
“GreenPrint software eliminates waste before printing, saving paper, ink, and reducing greenhouse gasses. It does this by analyzing each page of every document sent to the printer and looking for typical waste characteristics (e.g. pages with just a URL, banner ad, logo, or legal jargon) and then highlighting and removing them before they are printed. GreenPrint also allows users to remove images from a page with a single click before printing, resulting in significant savings in ink or toner. GreenPrint saves the average user over $90 and 1,400 wasted pages per year and quantifies the ecological and cost saving benefits that result in easy to read report.”
Removing the legal jargon of course makes sense, don’t you think? It’s just mumbo jumbo anyways. (I could not resist since I am one of them.)
I like to print recipes I find on the web and always get that last page which has absolutely nothing worthwhile on it. I can’t tell you how many pages I have recycled and ink wasted. If you add all of us epicureans (or those that think they are) and the constant MapQuest searches with the useless last few pages, we will be saving several trees. How many? According to the Company, if all new computers used this software, we could save 36 million trees a year. Holy
GreenPrint offers three types of software: free worldwide, home premium, and enterprise edition for businesses. The free world edition has advertising on it and limited to home or nonprofit use with four features. These include highlighting and removing unwanted pages, deciding what you want to print, one click creation of PDFs without the need adobe software, and track pages and money saved. Check out the demo to see what this software can do.
What is the difference between the free software and the home premium software? Take a look at the chart on the side of this Article as to the additional features offered.
This edition is free of advertising. Direct download for home premium is $35 and with a CD is $40.
It would seem that this product is geared for home use, but to the contrary, just think of the amount of paper being used by businesses today. “A Fortune 500 company using GreenPrint would save over $2 million, 4000 trees and prevent 12,623 tons of CO2 emissions each year,” according to the Company. More facts:
- Average cost of a wasted page $0.06
- Average employee prints 6 wasted pages per day, that’s 1,410 wasted pages per year!
- The average
Although your company may or may not be a Fortune 500 company, as you can see above, each business has impact. At these figures, this could easily amount to $600 per year per employee. The cost of a business license is $70; however the company provides volume discounts for multiple licenses.
Note, the software has some known issues. It crashes on install unless you download the Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework, which can be downloaded from Microsoft here. In addition, pages with large flash elements take longer to preview.
In addition, you can purchase the EverGreen font software to create more words on the page. “GreenPrint’s EverGreen font reduces paper use by as much as 20% while also saving ink and toner”, the Company states. This font software is only available for those who purchased the premium home version.
With this software, you have won the trifecta. Good for your wallet, good for the environment and good for our trees. Download this software today! Just think. It is the end of the nasty scraggly last page. Who needs it anyways?
Jason says
February 16, 2008 at 11:45 amThanks for the link, Anna. This is a cool little product and the more I use it the more I can’t believe there hasn’t been something like this made before. Its fantastic.
-Jason
http://www.screamtobegreen.com
Jason’s last blog post..Win For FEMA Trailer Residents
Green Talk says
February 16, 2008 at 11:50 amJason, what do you think the likelihood of businesses buying this product with a $70 licensing fee and really using it given your experience with the software (as well as your IT day job)? Anna
N. & J. says
February 16, 2008 at 4:07 pmAnother way to save is to have your ink cartridges refilled instead of buying new ones. Walgreens does this and it only costs $15 for color cartridges and $10 for black. It will only work a couple times but then you can take your old cartridges to an office supply store. Most stores will recycle them and give you a discount on your new ones.
N. & J.’s last blog post..Paula Deen would be so ashamed…
Green Talk says
February 16, 2008 at 4:51 pmN & J, great idea! How are the colors when you use them and can you refill any type of cartridge? Anna
Greg says
February 17, 2008 at 9:41 amI had a couple of clients try the demo of this before and the licensing thing as a cost is not too bad.
Green Talk says
February 17, 2008 at 10:02 amGreg, what did your clients think about the demo? Did they decide to license the product? Also, can you tell us a little about crowd-farming, your site? I went to it and it is very interesting about fostering energy from crowds of people. Anna
Las Vegas News says
February 18, 2008 at 6:52 pmAnna, you find the greatest stuff. I HATE the amount of crap that you end up with when you print out a map, visitor’s guide etc. Now if they could also come up with a fax version…..
Las Vegas News’s last blog post..Las Vegas Monorail
Green Talk says
February 19, 2008 at 3:50 amI have missed you. Where have you been? I actually will mentioned this to GreenPrinter. Anna
Houston Realtor says
February 19, 2008 at 5:23 pmAnna – great find! I love this tool and really appreciate it!
Houston Realtor’s last blog post..Weekly Market Recap from Feb 18, 2008
Green Talk says
February 19, 2008 at 6:33 pmHouston Realtor, again I can’t take credit for this find. The credit goes to Jason. Let me know when you implement it if you like it. Anna
GreenPrintDiscount says
March 17, 2008 at 3:25 amGreenPrint is on sale today! 43% off here:
http://www.bitsdujour.com/
Spread the word!
steve says
May 22, 2008 at 9:43 amOK the product is a great idea, but i really dont believe the stat’s given:
The average U.S. office worker prints 10,000 pages per year
I’ve worked in offices for many years now, there is simply no way I print anywhere near this number of pages.
cover creator software says
June 6, 2008 at 11:47 pmits amazing that we could help the world with a software. Help the world to restore its green look. Thanks for the links.
Andre @ Educational software sales says
December 14, 2009 at 2:31 pmI like the good intentions. I’m from Copenhagen and the city is packed with eco-friendly people at the moment.
Retort pouches says
January 18, 2011 at 6:19 amIt is very interesting that GreenPrint offers three types of software that includes free worldwide, home premium, and enterprise edition for businesses.