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magazine
14
Print Software
preView+; GreenPrint Analytics; and
GreenPrint Advisor.
n
Greenprint Analytics is a web-
based print measurement and analysis
tool that tracks the use of network and
local printers via an agent on workers’
PCs. Totally invisible to the user, it
provides detailed reports on how much
people are printing, to what devices
and from what applications. It can be
used as a standalone product to gain
information on the printing activities of
individuals/departments and to identify
opportunities for savings. Or, it can
be used in a bundle with GreenPrint
PreView+ and GreenPrint Advisor.
n
GreenPrint PreView+ is the flagship
product. It sits on the user’s desktop and
enables them to interact with print jobs
to remove unwanted pages and images
with a click of the mouse. There is also
The growth of managed print services
has put the spotlight on how printers
are used and how they can be
controlled and managed better. But
according to Kent Dunn, VP of sales
at print software provider GreenPrint
Technologies, a device-centric
approach addresses just part of the
problem.
Speaking at October’s Photizo
European MPS Conference 2011, he said:
“Managed print service providers are
great at managing devices and divining
when printers are inefficient and fixing
that. But printer efficiency is inherently
an individual problem: we are all
responsible for our own print jobs.”
You can set printers up so that they
always print on both sides of the page
or only print email messages in B&W.
But Dunn points out that that won’t
stop someone from printing a whole
presentation when all they need is one
slide or printing a complete string of
email messages instead of just the most
recent.
GreenPrint’s software products
are designed to help users print more
efficiently, whether used on their own or
in conjunction with device management
solutions. Distributed in the UK by
NewField IT, they include GreenPrint
GreenPrint Technologies’ expanded range of print software puts
end users at the heart of enterprise print reduction strategies
You choose
Another way users can lower the impact (and
cost) of printing is to reduce the amount of
toner put on the page. This can be done with
draft printing mode, of course, but third party
solutions allow users to go even further with,
their developers would say, much less impact
on print quality.
NewField IT’s TONERmiser,
for example, can reduce
black and colour toner
consumption by as much as
50%, compared to savings of
just 10% with some resident
draft print modes. It can be
administered centrally and
applied automatically to all
or certain types of print job,
or it can be selected by the
user on an ad hoc basis, with
the ability to adjust savings
via the TONERmiser slidebar.
Preton’s Pixel Optimizer performs
a similar function, intelligently
identifying and removing wasteful
pixels (and graphics and images)
during the printing process without
visibly impacting print quality. This is
a key component of the PretonSaver
range of print management
solutions, which includes PretonSaver
Enterprise, PretonSaver Premium,
PretonSaver Standard and
PretonSaver Home (available as a
free download from www.preton.com/free.asp).
Winner of Frost & Sullivan’s 2011 ‘Global New
Product Innovation Award in Print Management
Solutions’, PretonSaver Enterprise combines Pixel
Optimizer technology and configurable print rules
and policies to deliver savings of up to 70% on
toner and ink use and a 20% reduction in paper
consumption.
www.preton.com www.tonermiser.com
the facility to create a PDF of the
edited document for emailing, without
modifying the original. By making it
easy to print only what’s needed and
removing unnecessary pages, this
product helps reduce paper and toner
waste.
n
The latest product in the range,
GreenPrint Advisor addresses users’
choice of print device in a simple, non-
intrusive way. Based on information
gleaned by GreenPrint Analytics, it
categorises and colour codes printers
according to how efficient they are.
When a user sends a document to a
bad (red) printer, a pop-up appears,
giving the option to transfer it to a
good (green) printer with one click.
The user can accept or decline the
suggestion and, if they want to, make
the ‘green’ printer their default model.
Dunn argues that giving users the
final say over which printer to use is
preferable to enforced re-routing of
print jobs. “We don’t redirect prints
because it’s a really bad policy: it’s
intrusive to end users and you can’t
know what their reasons for choosing a
particular printer are,” he said.
Device management software can
have a big impact on print volumes, but
it can only take you so far. To maximise
the potential for savings, it is important
for end users to take the initiative.
GreenPrint’s gentle persuasion makes
this much more likely.
www.newfieldit.com
Device
management
software can
have a big
impact on
print volumes
Less is more