How green are your printing habits?
(Credit: GreenPrint)A free flavor of GreenPrint software that enables people to waste less paper when printing became available Monday.
The new application, GreenPrint World, detects and highlights unwanted content, such as banner ads on a Web page, that tends to spill over onto extra pages. It also lets users delete images from the printed page and quickly create print-friendly PDF documents. The GreenPrint interface appears when users print from any program.
The software displays the amount of paper, money, and greenhouse gases users could be saving. GreenPrint estimates that regular usage may save up to $90 each year, the equivalent of more than 1,400 pages. GreenPrint aspires for widespread adoption of its product to spare 100 million trees from being chopped down and 300 million tons of greenhouse gases from polluting the atmosphere.
Only the paid Home Premium and Enterprise versions of GreenPrint offer faster-loading, ad-free print previews as well as tech support via e-mail and telephone. At this point the app is only available for Windows computers.
GreenPrint also sells the first "green" font, called EverGreen, for $10. It's supposed to take up one-fifth less white space than Arial, Helvetica, or Times New Roman. The company aims to design more fonts.
In November, GreenPrint partnered with Xerox 8560 and 8860 business laser printers. Xerox claims that its solid ink printers create 90 percent less waste than rival laser printers.
Canon, meanwhile, is aiming to outdo competitors by tacking a green label on the packages of its new printers.
Canon printers will soon arrive in stores with a green label flaunting eco-friendly features including energy conservation and recycled materials. The company's "Generation Green" brand will mark Pixma and Selphy photo inkjets as well as the laser ImageClass lines of printers.
"Printers are the one area where you can really improve the environment," said Canon spokesman Justin Joseph. "Their production is a massive undertaking that requires a lot of raw materials, and we've found so many ways to reduce that."
Some inks will be encased in NatureStone biodegradable packs made from limestone rather than wood pulp. User manuals are to be printed on 70 percent recycled paper, and recycled plastics will make up the power supply casings for the Pixma line.
Modular product designs have helped to reduce the size of boxes by 20 percent. Instead of styrofoam, air-filled baggies cushion the products during shipping. The packaging changes alone will halve greenhouse gas emissions, nearly halve the energy needed to make it, and reduce the use of petroleum by 65 percent, according to Canon.
Nine in 10 Canon printers already automatically flip over pages for double sided-printing, saving paper. Canon has offered free mail-in recycling for laser printer toner for several years but lacks a disposal program for inkjet printer cartridges.
The printers comply with the EPA's Energy Star guidelines and with European rules governing the use of toxic materials.
Other than Energy Star, there are no industrywide consumer labels to mark printers and other consumer electronics as eco-friendly. Joseph said the highly competitive nature of the industry largely prevents printer makers from creating a common "green" standard.
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