Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out

print

Want your printer to do more for you? Here are 5 interesting ways to put your printer to good use.

1. Print out your very own customizable pocket organizer

pocketmod

The PocketMod is no stranger to productivity fans and has been around for a very long time.  It’s basically a paper replacement of a PDA, but extremely well designed, very customizable and simple to set up.

It’s more functional than a simple notepad, cheaper and less cumbersome than a PDA. 

It also opens like a book, leading to easier to find, more organized notes, and the first page has a pouch - big enough to carry a business card.

All you do is use the download the free PocketMod maker, or just create one instantly on the site.

Still not convinced?  PocketMod even comes with extensions for ‘Google Calendar’, ‘30 Boxes’ (Online Calendar), ‘Remember The Milk’ (To do lists), as well as many other useful services.  (Yes - it’s a PAPER replacement of a PDA). 

2. Quickly print out big beautiful nametags

bigfirstname

A better way to create good looking nametags, Big.first.name helps you come up with handy nametags in a snap. 

Big.first.name supports importing name lists in plain text or CSV (comma separated value) format, as well as direct extraction from event service Upcoming.Org, which means you don’t have to spend a lot of time crafting these tags. 

3. Print out graph paper, Smith Charts, Soduku tables, and so much more

graph

PDFPad provides a place to download all kinds of other specialized papers like graph paper Smith.  This site is perfect for science and math work, craft projects and other graph paper needs - all of which are customizable in terms of size and measurements.  When you just need a few sheets of specialized paper, this is a quick easy way to get it. 

4. Design printable professional looking business cards

businesscards

Businesscardland is a free service which helps you design your very own business cards online.  It comes with a mountain load of templates, text, backgrounds and templates to make your life easier.  After you’re done designing your card, you can save it as a PDF file to send to a commercial printing service (or do it yourself if you have a good enough printer). 

5. Print out a lens hood

camera

This site contains PDF documents that can be printed and cut out to make lens hoods for a variety of 35mm and digital SLR camera lenses. Lens hoods give better quality photographs by reducing flare caused by non-image-forming light.

  • Ultra compact - can be carried unfolded
  • No waiting to order one - simply download, print, cut-out and attach
  • Redundancy - don’t worry if you lose one; just print another!
  • 100% recyclable
  • Can be modified to cater for different digital SLR sensor crop factors
  • Available in both ’rounded’ and ‘petal’ versions

Update: Due to good response and contributions from readers - here’s an extended version of this post - an ultimate guide to items you never know you could print out!

What other interesting items do you print out?  Tell us in the comments!

[tags] paper, printouts, print, pocketmod, pdfpad, [/tags]

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    • 34 Responses to 'Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out'

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    1. Zia said,

      on July 17th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

      Fantastic stuff…Thanks!

    2. syahid ali said,

      on July 18th, 2007 at 1:05 pm

      the PocketMod tips is a nice one. thanks for the pointers.

    3. Jason said,

      on July 18th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

      readers, drop me an email with your big.first.name username quoting “friedbeef” before july 25th 2007 and I will upgrade your big.first.name account free of charge! Jason.

    4. Best of Feeds - 41 links - blogging, humor, geek, lifehacks, facebook « Internet Duct Tape said,

      on July 22nd, 2007 at 4:06 am

      [...] [LIFEHACKS] Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out (friedbeef.com, 7 saves, 2 inbound links, 36 diggs) [...]

    5. Frankie A. said,

      on July 25th, 2007 at 11:53 pm

      I print Cornell note taking sheets for my university courses at http://eleven21.com/notetaker

    6. Fernando Cormenzana said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 12:28 am

      USEFUL ! TNX !

    7. Anonymous said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 12:59 am

      iwrap.de lets you print out iPod Covers

    8. Enrique said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 1:20 am

      For puzzle lovers, you can print two colorful Triazzle style puzzles:
      http://www.playlandstation.com/2007/03/29/print-and-play-puzzles-for-your-kids/

    9. Ryan said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 1:21 am

      http://iPaperCraft.com lets you print out iPod Covers and paper wallets too.

    10. HeartBurnKid said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 1:25 am

      You can print out a CD sleeve at http://www.papercdcase.com/. Apply a little packing tape to the edges, and it becomes an ideal CD mailer as well; the site even lets you put a mailing address on the sleeve. That’s one of my personal faves.

    11. temolesto said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 1:37 am

      http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

      a wifi antenna

    12. Rick said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 1:56 am

      Paper *rulers* rule!
      http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/paper_rulers/

    13. Bones said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 3:11 am

      PocketMod is pure genius, I’m going to use all the paper I have in the house for it!!!

      Thank You!!

    14. Kerri Brewster said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 3:59 am

      Thanks for these links! You’ve hit on a few of my own favorites, and introduced some others (love those printable Triazzle puzzles!)

      [...] Printables
      Inspired by Friedbeef’s Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out, here’s a list of interesting printables I’ve come across in my travels:[...]

      http://justbrowsing.tumblr.com/post/6750780

    15. Zachary said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 5:37 am

      I use the tools on the website http://incompetech.com/
      They’re under “PDF” on the sidebar, and here’s their URLs:

      Graph/Grid Paper: http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
      Mailing Labels: http://incompetech.com/beta/maillabel/
      Monthly Calendars: http://incompetech.com/beta/cal-monthly/
      Yearly Calendars: http://incompetech.com/beta/cal-yearly/

    16. Ficke said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 7:37 am

      Printable, compacted and simplified Amazon wish lists. Great for keeping with you when you happen to be in the bookstore, etc.

      http://www.xefer.com/amazon

    17. links for 2007-07-26 « LAN b4 Time said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 8:26 am

      [...] Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out (tags: crafts howto lifehacker lifehacks lists paper productivity tech templates tips tools tricks useful printing print) [...]

    18. Financial Aid Podcast on BostonNOW » Blog Archive » FAP588: Things you can print, secrets of credit-based marketing, London Fox Orchestra said,

      on July 26th, 2007 at 8:33 pm

      [...] + Revo Uninstaller for Windows + Royalty free music background tracks + The printing mega-storm + 5 Useful things to print out - like an SLR lens hood + Cornell note-taking sheets + iPod paper cover? + Paper CD case? + Parabolic wireless antenna [...]

    19. links for 2007-07-26 | Not the kinda cool you're looking for said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 7:37 am

      [...] Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out (tags: cards howto lifehack lifehacks paper print production productivity tips printing) [...]

    20. links for 2007-07-27 « J.Uma Shankar Ladha said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 10:18 am

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    21. Screen Printed T shirts said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 10:35 am

      We print T-shirts from our printers prints.

    22. JDB said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 11:40 am

      PocketMod is cool, but it’s got me thinking that the same kind of thing could be done by ImageMagick:
      1) print document to .pdf, (or save as .pdf in OO.o)
      2) make each .pdf an exact 1/8 of an 8.5×11 sheet (convert -resize)
      3) piece together the resized .pdfs so together they form an 8.5×11 sheet (montage -tile )
      voila, you’ve got your document.
      Now, if you’re creating the original .pdf documents from some kind of to do list database, then you’d be really cranking. Imagine printing out one page first thing in the morning, making a couple of snips, stapling and being good to go.

    23. links for 2007-07-27 | noahcarter.com said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

      [...] Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out [...]

    24. links for 2007-07-27 « Yet another blog said,

      on July 27th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

      [...] Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out   [...]

    25. Technology » Blog Archive » Printers: Useful items you can print out said,

      on July 29th, 2007 at 10:42 am

      [...] cards and even a camera lens hood. Add calendars and full-sized organizers to that list. Top 5 Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out [Friedbeef’s Tech via Internet Duct [...]

    26. James Yeang said,

      on July 31st, 2007 at 12:18 am

      Keep those tips coming guys - I’m going to assemble a super list soon with all your suggestions!

    27. Il meglio della settimana - 40 | Napolux.com said,

      on August 12th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

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    28. Chapters from my geeky life! » Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out said,

      on August 12th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

      [...] I wrote my post about ‘useful things you could print out’, many of you were kind enough to help out and point me to some excellent additional [...]

    29. Tom said,

      on August 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

      …and use rss2pdf to convert newsfeeds to print-ready and portable pdf files: http://rss2pdf.com

    30. Students Loan Consolidation » Blog Archive » FAP588: Things you can print, secrets of credit-based marketing, London Fox Orchestra said,

      on September 7th, 2007 at 6:52 pm

      [...] Zero+ Revo Uninstaller for Windows+ Royalty free music background tracks+ The printing mega-storm+ 5 Useful things to print out - like an SLR lens hood+ Cornell note-taking sheets+ iPod paper cover?+ Paper CD case?+ Parabolic wireless antenna [...]

    31. Aurelien said,

      on September 26th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

      I would of course add to the list paper automaton
      ( http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/ for example)

    32. Financial Aid Podcast Daily Free MP3 Internet Radio » FAP588: Things you can print, secrets of credit-based marketing, London Fox Orchestra said,

      on November 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 am

      [...] + Revo Uninstaller for Windows + Royalty free music background tracks + The printing mega-storm + 5 Useful things to print out - like an SLR lens hood + Cornell note-taking sheets + iPod paper cover? + Paper CD case? + Parabolic wireless antenna [...]

    33. Hans de Zwart said,

      on March 20th, 2008 at 8:12 am

      I had the same idea as JDB and have created a small bash script that can create a pocketmod from an 8 page PDF using imagemagick.

      See: http://textsnip.com/77f005/vb

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