Cut down on the cruft when you print web pages

You know all of those useless ad-filled pages that come out along with the one sheet you really needed? How about that last page that has nothing but the web site’s copyright statement or FAQ links?

I just took a look at a product called GreenPrint that helps you print exactly the pages you want and skip the junk with little effort.

There are many times when you still need a printout, such as when printing driving directions, but by using this tool you can cut out a third of the sheets you generate.

(This was one of the items on Julie Urlaub’s 19 Tips to go Paperless at Home)

Here’s how it works

GreenPrint installs itself as a new printer on your machine—sort of a virtual printer, similar to products such as Adobe Distiller and PDF Creator.

Just select the GreenPrint printer from the printer dialog and print to it as if it were an ordinary printer. You probably will want to make it your default printer.

The GreenPrint tool then gives you a preview of the print job and shows you what parts of your document it thinks are junk.

For example, I printed this web site:

All of the pages that are in red will be suppressed. You can see here that the very last page was automatically flagged as junk because it only has a line or two of text.

I noticed that the second-to-last page was just the page navigation bar, a fairly useless thing to print, so I double-clicked sheet 6 to exclude it.

You can change whether a sheet is included or excluded by double-clicking it. When you are ready, just click Print in the top-left corner.

Other features

The product provides print-to-PDF capability, an always-welcome feature for the paperless warrior. You can also select destination printers from the dropdown box in the top-right corner and modify the view.

You can also turn off images on any page. For example, if you are printing mainly text, and there are a dozen advertisements on the page, just turn them off with a click.

Free and Paid versions available

The version I tested is GreenPrint World, available for free for Win2K/XP/Vista. This version is supported by ads (in the right bar).

They offer a payware version called GreenPrint Home Premium, and there is a Mac version called GreenPrint Mac. Both versions cost $29.

The difference between the two is that the paid version has no ads and claims the dubious “feature” of quick loading preview, which gives one the feel that they slipped an intentional secret delay in the free version, which you pay to remove.

I like products that do one thing very well, and this appears to be one of them. I usually don’t bother using ad-supported versions, preferring ad-free use and the warm fuzzy feeling one gets from buying a license.

Of course, if they offered a $39 “Family” license that would allow me to install PrintGreen on multiple Macs and PCs in my house, I would buy it in a New York minute!