Save Paper, Save Money

5 free software downloads that spare your printer:

Printing out pages and pages of emails, websites and the like is getting more and more pointless, expensive, and, thankfully, taboo both at home and in the business world. However, there are still times when printing is necessary or simply too convenient to pass up.

If there is no “Printer Friendly Version” button to click, then free downloadable software that does the reformatting for you is a great solution. We've gathered five great free software options to save paper, ink, time, and green face.

Nuke Anything
Nuke Anything is a FireFox add-on that allows users to simply highlight a section of a webpage, right click, and select “Remove this object.” Voila! The objects are gone and you’re ready to print. This software add-on is handy for text or images. But, of course, you’ll have to be using Firefox to access it.

FinePrint
This program offers multiple ways to quickly and easily format printing, such as deleting unwanted pages or printing several pages on one sheet. While the full version is $49.95, there is a free trial version that has all the features and no time limit – you just have to put up with an extra banner ad printing at the top of the page (kinda defeats the purpose, right?). The banner is eliminated when you throw down the bucks for the full version.

Lexmark Toolbar 3
This free toolbar add-on from Lexmark simplifies the printing process. With a click, you can select a “print text only” option, which removes all images. Or if you want to keep the images, you can edit and resize them directly from the website using Picnik. You can then preview your printout before sending it to the printer to make sure that it’s as minimized as you’d like.

GreenPrint
This handy software digitally reads and omits wasted pages that have useless text and images like URLs, banner ads, disclaimers, and extra signature lines on emails. On top of saving trees, GreenPrint says the program can save as much as $90 and 1,400 wasted pages per year for the average user. The home edition of GreenPrint is available for free to users and nonprofits, but has the catch of printing a banner on your pages. The premium edition is $29.00, and is faster and ad-free.

HP Smart Web Printing
This software is a free add-on for Internet Explorer. It allows a user to grab content from the web and put it on a clipboard for organization and well-formatted printing. The process is a bit more involved than the other programs we've mentioned, but is great for gathering content from multiple web pages and condensing it into a single document. The content can then be formatted to look exactly how you want it for concise printing, and can even be turned into a PDF.