Save your doc- unprintable and eco-friendly!

 

Whoa, an unprintable document! Yes, we have a nice format now. The “.wwf”. The WWF format is an initiative of the WWF Germany in cooperation with Jung von Matt, Hamburg, supported by Dederichs Reinecke & Partner.

Official Website: http://saveaswwf.com/

Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/saveaswwf

The WWF format has an extension “.wwf” that works like a normal PDF document, but without the ability to print it.

According to the founders of the WWF format, every day, entire forests all around in the planet are cut down to make paper, and most of them are used to print documents like books, reports, emails, websites, etc.,. Many printed documents do not constitute the original information requirement, so along with just a few requisite information, mostly unnecessary information also gets through the printer and then on papers, marking a huge wastage of paper. The paper ultimately comes at a compelling and undeniable environmental cost and is a huge loss for present as well as future.

How to use?

1. Download the free software from the official website.

2. Install it and restart your computer.

3. You can open any document in existing formats (.doc, .txt, .pdf, etc.) and select “SAVE AS WWF” option from the Print menu.

4. Now, either print it or save it to your location. [Printing only generates a document which can be saved, not a print command to really print out that document.]

5. The ‘.wwf’ format resembles ‘.pdf’ and can be opened in any PDF reader like Sumatra PDF, Foxit Reader, Adobe Reader, etc..

Pros:

1. You can convert those documents into ‘.wwf’ format which you think do not deserve an unnecessary print, as it prevents printing. This way you can encourage others you share your documents with.

2. You do not require any extra software for using the ‘.wwf’ format other than the driver. It is compatible with any PDF reader.

3. It is free of cost and promotes sense of responsibility towards environment.

Cons:

1. Size of each document will be around 231,500 bytes (or 1.852 MB) more in ‘.wwf’ format than in ‘.pdf’ format. The additional size is due to what is explained in point 2.

[For a tiny document I tried, the attributes are as follows:

.txt = 369 bytes;  .pdf = 3,576 bytes;  .wwf = 235,237 bytes]

2. A page that promotes the project with some information and website URL is appended to each of your documents, which seems to be odd and out of standard. Many called it a silly viral marketing. But other way round, it is is good to promote such innovative projects.

Overall:

Shift your paradigm towards usage of general formats for saving and sharing of documents. Think before you print, a new green file format has arrived: WWF.