Because of the Coronavirus, we all suffer from the lock-down of many domains of public life. Impact is huge and unprecedented. Those who do not need to fight the virus on the front line, or who are otherwise not tied to a specific work location, are now forced to accomplish their work and studies in their own home.
It is heartwarming to see that caring, solidarity and resourcefulness never fail us during this difficult time. Although we have to push ourselves to the limit, at the same time we can learn a lot. This is a time to reflect on our ingrained habits, and to rethink the way we relate to each other and to our planet.
Now that we actually make less use of private and public transport and can no longer print on the office printer down the hall, we pollute less and save more paper. Nonetheless, it seems we can cope with these limitations. At least for the time being. It is too early to draw conclusions yet, but it looks like we are onto something. May be the Corona crisis can teach us things we can use to mitigate the dangers of that other crisis called Global Climate Change.
SavaPage has always taken a special position regarding Print Management. Instead of trying to make printing a no-brainer, it deliberately slows users down to make them Think before they Print. Job Tickets are an obvious example to handle bulk printing carefully. But the policy of bringing documents to SavaPage as the first step in any print scenario also helps users break the habit of always printing everything on paper. On second thought, users may use the Print Preview to remove unnecessary pages, completely skip the print flow, or decide that a PDF version of the print is much easier to distribute after all.
These are challenging times. We are all forced to slow down now. We may even have to give up the print work-flow as we know it and adapt it to a whole new way of working together. In that perspective, SavaPage’s mission to “Produce Open Printing Solutions with Free and Open Source Software” is more topical than ever.
I call on all Community Members to share their experiences, ideas and wishes regarding SavaPage Open Print Portal, so we can adapt it to immediate and future needs. But above all, take care and stay safe.