Do You Save Money, the Planet, or Eyesight

A Wisconsin university expects to save up to $10,000 a year by making a small change in computer users’ habits: Changing the fonts in the documents they print. This minor change represents an easy way for officials at every level of education to tighten their fiscal belts while school budgets decline, some experts say.

Do you know you can save by making documents print in Century Gothic as opposed to Arial. Because different type fonts require different amounts of ink to print, it can effect the number of new printer cartridges you buy. Printer.com, a Dutch company has researched printers and fonts and has convinced University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to change the way it prints. They claim that the change could save them between $5K and $10K a year.

Currently they spend some $100K per year on ink and toner cartridges supporting some 6,500 students so are expecting a 10% reducing in print consumables with the font switch for all documents including email. Printer.com claim that Century Gothic uses about 30% less ink than Arial and that this is driven by the thickness of its lines. Obviously a font with “narrow” or “light” in its name is better than its “bold” or “black” counterpart.

However, just when you thought that the logic and the solution was straightforward, there is the question of the font width. Century Gothic font is wider than Arial and a Arial page may extent to a second page if printed in Century Gothic.

Then there is the real test of readability.

We thought that the article in eschools.com was amusing and the effort expended probably in excess of the savings made but to some any saving is a good move in hard times.