Save Ink Or Toner By Changing Your Font
Sure, you can save ink and paper by changing around your printer settings, but to truly commit to saving ink or toner, try changing your font.
That's where the Ecofont comes in. It's your basic sans serif font, with some holes punched out of it. It's not only legible, it's vaguely festive-looking, and it's free to download!
Ecofont [English site] (via The Cheapskate)
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You know the economy is screwed beyond repair when we are trying to save a little money by using a more economical (and extremely ugly) font.
Decreasing the point size of a more attractive typeface will have the same (or better) ink/toner savings as printing Verdana with pinpricks in it.
I'd sooner drink out of plastic bottles again than use that font. #overboard
@admiral_stabbin: You have a good point - this is essentially like typing disemvoweled to save bandwidth.
Don't think it'll really make a giant difference in the end.
The same effect can be achieved by setting your text color to a 75% gray, unless you are using a low DPI laser printer and then the screening becomes apparent.
the font looks grayed out
after printing....may I add.
Why did I make the post before the sentence was finished...
*rolls eyes*
Iiiiiiii just write everything out with a pencil.
This will save me a lot of money printing all those resumes. Thanks!
Didn't this come out like 2 years ago?
Crazy... but innovative. I love this.
Pleah...I bought a laser printer, which saves me money because the amount I have to print out would be astronomical if I used my inkjet. I don't really care about the amount of toner; I can't print a 549-page manuscript on a stupid inkjet printer. Those little cartridges are expensive, even the generics at Staples.
The toner cartridges are recyclable, so I do that. :)
This is a great idea, but it needs to be done in several different fonts. For example, assignments for my classes (terms papers and such) are generally required in 12 pt. Times New Roman. Unfortunately, Ecofont is, well, as you put it, "festive looking."
Hopefully they'll integrate this into a whole bunch of fonts in the future.
Just set your printer to its variation of "Fast Draft" mode...
Wait wait... white dots in my black font? Sure I'll save black toner, but then I'll just wind up using more white toner.
@HogwartsAlum: You're up to 549 pages? Wow - sounds like you've been very busy! You're going to let us know when you hit the best seller list, right? Or will you still talk to us?
@Applekid: Yeah, and I can't even figure out where the white toner goes in my printer. I took the whole thing apart, and there's just no slot. Clearly I can't use this stupid font. Nice job consumerist. Post something everyone can use next time, not just something for fancy people with white-printing printers, kthx.
I also can't get my printer back together now.
@kateblack: I'd rather poison an American Eagle with a poisoned snail darter, pluck its tailfeather, then write using lead-based, mercury ink on a parchment made from the skin of a Bengal kitty.
*feeling of dread alarm from angry scowl my Bengal's giving me*
OK. From the skin of a fluffy, milk-breathed puppy.
@categorically: Sorry (see above)
I confused yours with Kate's due to the razor-sharp kitty claws embedded in my thigh.
@Applekid: As soon as I go to Office Depot to buy more straight lines (my laser printer only has bezier curves left, alas), I'll try to find the white toner in mine.
Ugh.
Typography these days is already a nightmare. First we had cheapo fonts being sold by the hundred — or thousand — on CDs costing just a couple bucks. That led to people creating documents that were a riot of horrible fonts with poor metrics, annoying to look at and difficult to read. Then Microsoft came out with Comic Sans MS ... 'nuff said about that. That was after said company inflicted Arial on a world already attuned to Helvetica and passed it off as a clone of it ... but woops, it's not the same after all.
Now, we're going to be looking at letters with holes in them, printed out by people trying to shave a tenth of a penny off the cost of a page. It will look horrible but these people will actually congratulate themselves for saving all that money and reducing toner consumption.
As I said ... ugh.
People, do yourselves ... and more importantly your documents' readers ... a favor, and leave the typography to the professionals. OK? Be guided by people who know design. There's just no substitute for high-quality fonts which include good hinting and kerning ... and also no substitute for not using optimal tracking and leading ... and also no substitute for never using more than three (preferably two) fonts in the same document/presentation/whatever.
P.S. Microsoft recently took a step toward rehabilitating itself, typographically anyway, after the disasters of Arial and Comic Sans. The new fonts included in Office 2007 (for Windows) and Office 2008 (for Mac) are actually very good. Chances are, if you use Calibri in place of Arial (which is the "default" in Office 2007 applications) you will likely save money on toner since Calibri is slightly "leaner." Gimmick fonts like this one? Eeewww.
@subtlefrog: HA! I didn't fully appreciate how tired I really, really am until I realized that I almost took your white toner comment seriously. I was in the middle of typing out an explination for you when I face palmed and woke up.
All this ignores the real problem and that is the ridiculous price of ink. I once got a ink jet printer and it was cheep, so cheep in fact that the cost of the ink carts was more than the printer. The whole ink cart system is a rip off on a grand scale and until it is dealt with the only truly solution to printing large runs is laser printer or the old typewriter.
@StevePJobs: this is what i do for recipes, readings for class, second copies of stuff for my own files, etc, but i wouldn't print in fast draft mode for something i'm giving someone else - it might just be my printer, but the alignment gets all out of whack, and the printer can no longer print straight vertical lines - there's a noticeable stagger in the lines (sometimes as much as 2mm)
I installed this ages ago, printed one page with it, and never used it again. It's hideous.
Instead, I do crazy things like only printing things I really need, or, if I'm using the inkjet, take it off high quality whenever possible. I'm a radical, I know. I also (*gasp*) flip the paper over and feed it into the laser printer again to print on both sides of the page.
@PsiCop: You get a heart for being a font geek like me. Though I'm going to have to respectfully disagree on Calibri. It bugs the shit out of me, and I always change it to something respectable like Helvetica or, better, Times New Roman, an oldie but a goodie.
Along those lines - did you watch the documentary Helvetica? Good stuff for anyone who actually geeks out about anything like this. If you don't - then, really, don't watch it,
@JamieSueAustin: Despite my comment, Calibri is still a far cry better than the majority of them (Comic Sans, I'm lookin' at you).
@JamieSueAustin: Hahaha...Heart to you too - anyone who is this interested in the whole font discussion gets a heart. BF and I have long chats about fonts.
Life is incredibly exciting in our house.
@ageshin: I finally had enough of the inkjet scam and bought a cheap laser printer for home use. I lost the ability to print in color, but I've been using the same toner cartridge for three years now.
Most word processing/text editing programs have a font color setting, usually one of the buttons below the menu bar. It's usually an A with a bar underneath indicating what color the text is. Highlight your text, click that, select color.
Ink refills are relatively cheap. (Assuming you don't have cartridges with chips that say "I can't be used anymore!" to the printer)
Tape over the hole on the bottom of the cartridge before filling. Don't use the shit tape in the kit, use duct tape or something like that.
@subtlefrog: You can liven it up by sending each other romantic notes using fonts you don't usually use, then roleplay you're having an affair!
@JamieSueAustin: The tone is the only thing that gives it away. There really ARE people who would be looking for white toner.
I don't even do tech service and I've still had to explain to more than a handful of clients that if they have their job printed on metallic paper, there will be no white in their image.
@subtlefrog: Yes, I'm a font geek. I was using Fontographer back when the company that invented it, Altsys, still existed. It's been a long time since I actually created a typeface ... it's incredibly exacting and tedious work ... but that's my experience.
Anyway, fontmeisters like us are becoming a rarity, so well met!
As for Calibri, I'm not saying it's perfect, just that it's better than a lot of alternatives that inexpert users could use. The best of the new MS fonts, for my money, is Consolas, but that's really only most useful for people who do coding (that would include myself) but it hasn't all that much utility for most users.
@PsiCop: I'll give you that Calibri is less offensive than many. I am just annoyed that it is the default. And that Word seems to always find a reason mid-document to flip back to it. NO! I'm just a little vanilla in my font-tastes, which for me is funny, since I'm not a little offbeat in most other aspects. (Witnessed by the fact that we're having this e-conversation).
I hadn't checked out Consolas. I don't code. But I could definitely see the beauty in this typeface. Thanks for pointing it out!
@kateblack: Yikes. Double yikes. I wondered if I would have to explain to anyone that it was a joke, but more than a handful?
If you learn calligraphy and write everything out like I do, you don't even need a printer. Or a computer.
As a basic guideline, this font is really good @ 10pt. You can start to see the holes in it above that.
This really reminds me of the idea I've been executing on for years...leaving words out of sentences in IM conversations to save bandwidth. Yes, I'm kidding...those are called typos.