If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

We have shared with you various ways through which one can shave a few extra dollars off printing expenses, and in one particular post we shared with you that one way will be to change the font that you use on printed documents. Specifically, we shared with you how making the shift from more ink-hungry fonts such as Arial to Century Gothic, which is described as more “toner friendly” than other fonts.

A feature by The Associated Press reiterates the impact that the proper font choice can have on printer ink costs. The article shares how data from Dutch company Printer.com convinced the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay to switch default fonts to Century Gothic when printing. The University’s information technology user support coordinator Diane Blohowiak shares that there has been positive feedback so far to the move: “Century Gothic is very readable,” she shares.

In addition to using Century Gothic for its printed documents, the University also plans to change the default font of its e-mail system to Century Gothic. They expect to save $5,000 to $10,000 from their annual printer ink expenses, which normally runs up to $100,000, by switching fonts.

Interestingly enough, however, the same article questions whether switching fonts is generally better for the environment. The argument is that while Century Gothic does use up less ink when printed, the font’s design – which is wider – will tend to use up more paper. A single page document when using Arial can end up being a 2-page document when making the switch to Century Gothic.

Allan Haley, director of “words and letters” at Monotype Imaging Inc., shares: “Maybe the individual characters use less ink, but if you’re using more paper, that’s not so green, is it?” Monotype Imaging is the developer of Century Gothic.