Reduce The "Noise" When Reading Online, Save Paper And Ink With PrintFriendly PDF

Today's free tech tool is truly a "two-fer". Now that our students have printing capabilities from their chromebooks, it's time to teach them a lesson in responsible printing. Let's face it, we could all use a refresher when it comes to this topic. I have definitely been guilty of hitting the print button only to be shocked at the number of pages that come out of the printer. If I thought I was printing a long document, that would be one thing. However, I am usually caught off guard by how many pages (and ink) are taken up by the ads, navigation bars, and other "junk" that sits on the average web page. It's an honest mistake and one that can easily be resolved with an extension called PrintFriendly PDF.   For those of you counting at home, that's one ability from today's tool.

 Where is the aforementioned two-fer?

Interestingly enough, most of the teachers that I talk to who use PrintFriendly PDF don't actually ever print. They use it as a distraction-free, easier on the eyes, reading view. We often want our students to access text from digital content that is laden with distractions and might even be difficult to read because the page is cluttered with extras that make it difficult to read. 

PrintFriendly PDF is both an extension*  and a website that you can use. It gives you a print preview, it allows you to edit before printing, and you can save it as a PDF if you are not ready to print. On the website, you simply cut and paste the website URL into the box at printfriendly.com. The extension has the same capabilities. Once you add the chrome extension from the chrome webstore, you just click on the little icon on the top right side of your screen and you will magically see your clutter-free version of the text. If you choose to save it as a PDF, you can easily share it, remove images, change the font size, or even email it. 

Here is a screenshot of one of my favorite websites:

Here is the same website with PrintFriendly PDF:

Here is a video showing how PrintFriendly PDF works. It's just under 2 minutes. Enjoy!

Are you using PrintFriendly PDF or other tools to clear the clutter when reading and make printing safer for the environment? Comment below to share!

*Quick check for understanding: an app is like a car, you drive it to get somewhere while an extension is like the air conditioning in your car, it runs while you are driving to make the driving experience better