It's no secret that printer manufacturers don't make their money on the printers themselves. Instead, their profits lie in the ink and toner these printers consume. A few years ago, the internet went crazy for a college kid who conducted an experiment with font types in an effort to find the most economical one. His findings led him to claim that the US government could save half a billion dollars a year in printing costs if it simply changed fonts. While the font it offers, Garamond, does indeed consume less ink, it's not as readable with smaller font sizes. Thus, the font size should increase, also increasing the amount of ink used.
Contents1. Gothic century2. Ecofonte3. Mail4. Ryman Eco5. Times New RomanAlthough the student's claims weren't entirely true, people still thought about how much ink certain fonts use. Some fonts are designed to use less ink than others, but which ones? When it comes to choosing a font for the specific purpose of saving ink (and money), size really matters. Think about it. The smaller the font area, the less ink it uses. So how do you know which fonts have smaller areas? Look for terms such as Thin, Condensed, or Narrow, as these generally refer to more economical fonts. Simple fonts also tend to be less ink-intensive. Fonts with a lot of flourishes, like little squiggles that hang off the ends of letters, usually chew up more ink.
If you need a starting point, consider using the following fonts.
Century Gothic is criminally neglected. The font is clear and easy to read while being economical. Plus, the design is simplistic and sans serif, which means it forgoes any distracting flourishes. The only real downside to Century Gothic is that the font is large, taking up more space on the page. While you'll save ink and toner with Century Gothic, you'll find that you'll have to chew more paper to do so.
The simplistic retro look of Courier is due to the fact that it was originally designed for typewriters. In order to save typewriter ink ribbon, the font uses thin lettering. Fonts like Garamond also use thin lettering, but where Courier trumps the competition is that it remains legible at smaller sizes. Courier might not be the fanciest font on this list, but it will help your ink and toner go the extra mile.
Created by Ryman Stationery, a UK office supply chain, the Ryman Eco font is free and uses 33% less ink than "standard fonts". The ink preservation method is similar to that of Ecofont. By using hollow letters, Ryamn Eco uses significantly less ink without sacrificing readability. In fact, in smaller fonts, hollow letters are negligible due to ink loss. Hollow letters are only noticeable with larger font sizes, but even Ryman Eco is nice to look at.
Believe it or not, the font that happens to be the default font for many people is actually quite efficient when it comes to ink consumption. In a study conducted by Consumer Reports, Times New Roman was determined to be approximately 27% more effective than Arial, a common substitute for Times New Roman. So if changing your default font is too big a change for you, you can take comfort in knowing that sticking with Times New Roman isn't going to break the bank.
Have you opted for one of these fonts? Have you found that you don't run to your office supply store as often to buy ink cartridges? Do you have any other tips for saving ink? Let us know in the comments!
