April 7, 2010
Save Thousands By Switching Printer Fonts
Large companies might save tens of thousands of dollars a year by switching to a less ink-intensive font such as Century Gothic, instead of the more common Arial.
This lesson in office cost savings comes courtesy of the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, which found that it could save up to $10,000 by switching to Century Gothic as the default font.
The university, which has 6,500 students, spends $100,000 a year on ink and toner cartridges, reports Yahoo, via Associated Press.
Now, the school is asking faculty and staff to use….
Register here to join EL Pro. View more PRO content or sign in.
Environmental Leader's Pro service delivers opportunity-focused, practical insights, data and news for enterprise environmental, energy and sustainability execs.
25+ page research reports covering an emerging energy, environmental or sustainability technology.
Daily presentation-ready graphs and spreadsheets on energy, environmental and sustainability data.
Monthly newsletter focusing on the most important news of the previous 30 days – and the implications for your business.
Daily policy and regulatory, standards and certifications, and enforcement briefing.
Latest news on corporate environmental, sustainability and energy initiatives and goals.
Join now and receive instant access to our archive of research, data, and analysis. New content added daily.
Stay Up-to-Date On Environmental Management, Energy & Sustainability News with EL's Free Daily Newsletter
Advertisers
Benchmark Your Company's Sustainability Goals
Custom research and advice on corporate sustainability and clean tech >>
Tesco Tackles Food Waste with Ethylene-Absorbing Strips
Reader Comments
Let me get this straight. Using a less eye pleasing document will mean less printing. What about reading it in the first plzce. If it is less eye pleasing you may not feel comfortable reading it. This is just plain stupid logic!!!
donald | April 7th, 2010
Another option to consider is EcoFont. See http://www.Ecofont.eu
John Brown | April 7th, 2010
If you are printing something such as a newsletter, this could save on the price of mailing. I recently saw an ad I think in Smithsonian Magazine for a font that still reads well, but there are small holes in the font that don’t show when printed but still use less ink.
Jan Personette | April 7th, 2010
Simple solutions save the environment. Keep telling us how we can make small changes for a bigger cost saving impact. Thank you.
Debby
Debby Bruck | April 7th, 2010
The link to “10 ideas to save energy around the office” is actually a link to “10 steps to reduce emissions”. Not the same thing. Only about half of the *steps* listed there are energy savers.
Big Skeptic | April 8th, 2010
Also, saving ink only saves energy by secondary effects. Primarily, I would think, in saving the energy required to produce the cartridges. I doubt the energy used to operate the printer changes much if you use a less-inked font.
I’m not saying that using less ink is a bad idea, but the author is confusing three issues– cost savings, energy savings, and emissions reduction. I’m hoping the author can learn from this and keep things straight in the future.
Big Skeptic | April 8th, 2010
Donald, I think you may have misread the paragraph about Calibri — the point is that it is MORE pleasing on a screen (easier to read/look at) and therefore does not need to be printed. This of course assumes that Calibri is actually pleasing….
lynn | April 8th, 2010
Saving on the energy needed to produce cartridges could be drastically reduced if printer companies didn’t make several thousand dollars a gallon on ink and chip cartridges so they cannot be refilled. Consumers already pay exhorbitant amounts for ink while the manufacturer forces people use single use equipment and cartridges and expects the consumer to cheerfully recycle the products while the company gets off with no responsibility. If we really want to help the environment, let’s go to refillable cartridges and printers you don’t throw away because the ink costs more than the printer. That would really help. Different fonts may save money, but do virtually nothing for the huge environmental impact of throw-away printers and non-refillable cartridges.
Alice | May 5th, 2010