Printing Smarter, Printing Greener

Rather than creating a paperless era, with increased computer use has come an explosion in printing. Consider that more printing translates to higher consumption of paper and toner while increasing the wear and tear on printers -- all of which cost money and resources. As students, you need to print research articles and papers to hand in -- but remember that here are many choices you can make when printing that will use fewer pages. Read on for our "print green" ideas!

Print Preview

Maybe you don't need all 10 pages of a document or Web site -- you can select to print only those pages you really want.

• Before hitting print, select Print Preview.
• Enter the page range of the pages you want, then hit Print.

Look for a print-friendly option

Many pages, both on this Web site and others, will provide a way to print without the graphics, ads, or other unwanted parts. Look for a button or link that says Printable Version, Print Friendly, or just Print.

Print double-sided whenever possible

Some students assume their professors want papers handed in printed on one side only.
When in doubt, ask. Chances are, double-sided is just fine -- and will use half the number of pages!

(Most laser printers on campus now default to printing double-sided, so if you just want one-sided printing,
you will have to change it.)

PDFs Before hitting the printer icon, look to see how many pages are in the document. If you need certain pages and not the complete document, change the default ALL to Pages, and enter the page range that you need.

Be sure to pick up your printouts

Each week, hundreds of printed pages are left behind at the Library's printer! If you print something, please remember to pick it up!

PowerPoints Hitting Print in PowerPoint prints only one slide per page. A "greener" and less wasteful way to print slides is to select Print, then Handouts. You can now print 2,4, or 6 slides on one page.

Know what printer is networked to the computer

Many computers are networked to more than one printer. If your document hasn't come off a printer, make sure there is not another printer in use.

If it doesn't print the first time, ask for assistance

There could be a printer problem, or just one job that is causing a back-up in the printer queue. Often a lab assistant can delete the problem job and allow the others to print. Please ask for help if there is a problem!

Printing alternatives: Save, email or export

Many Library databases allow you to save references to a flash drive or to your U: drive. You can also save documents to your computer, then open your email and send documents to yourself. You can then print these items at home.

Copy and paste

Information from many Web sites can be copied and pasted into a Word document, saving you from having to print unwanted graphics and text. Just be sure to copy and paste the URL (or, Web address) into your Word document -- you will need this in case you want to find the page again and to promperly cite the info you use.