How to Save Printer Ink When Printing Web Pages

Sometimes, as you "travel" around the Web, you may decide that you would like to keep a printed record of some pages in hard copy format. I know of at least one person who prints selected web pages and then gathers the various folios into a single spring-clip binder for easy reference later. One way to avoid wasting printer ink is to omit printing unnecessary graphics. Here's how to ensure that you print the page content only.

If you print web pages without making a few simple tests first, you can end up using more (expensive) printer ink than you need. Here's how to minimize ink use to keep the focus on the content of the page rather that its appearance.

• Before printing, look around the web page for buttons, links or labels with names like: Print, Print Format, or PDF. If you find one, choose the button, link or command to view that version of the page. Often, print or PDF versions of a web page contain only the text content - precisely what you need. Nevertheless, always check what the format of the page looks like on-screen before you print.
• If you don't see Print or PDF buttons or links, the filtering of a content web page to remove unnecessary graphics may be done automatically. Therefore, simply choose your web browser Print Preview button to check if the web page is filtered for you. Often, web browsers provide a Print Preview button somewhere on their File menu. If what you see shows a version of the page with the page content intact and most of the various web design graphics removed, you know that the page is filtered automatically for you.
• In the unlikely position that a website does not provide Print or PDF buttons or commands, nor carries out automatic filtering of page make-up graphics, one other option is to check the Properties for your printer. Here's how: usually, when you choose the "Print ..." command from the web browser File menu, somewhere within the Print dialog box, you may see a Properties button. When you choose the Properties button, most likely there is an option to omit printing graphics.

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