Save Money by Changing Your E-mail's Font

(AP)  A Wisconsin college has found a new way to cut costs with e-mail - by changing the font.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched the default font on its e-mail system from Arial to Century Gothic. It says that while the change sounds minor, it will save money on ink when students print e-mails in the new font.

Diane Blohowiak is the school's director of computing. She says the new font uses about 30 percent less ink than the previously used font.

That could add up to serious savings, since the cost of printer ink works out to about $10,000 per gallon.

Blohowiak says the decision is part of the school's five-year plan to go green. She tells Wisconsin Public Radio it's great that a change that's eco-friendly also saves money.

[JohanKosters]

To read more about the research you can find the article at the blog of printer.com.

http://blog.printer.com/2009/04/printing-costs-does-font-choice-make-a-difference/

To save money and the enviroment the best practice is:
- decrease the number of printers, move to multifunctionals. From a 2:1 printer/user ratio to 15:1 ratio.
- remove old printers, use latest Energy Star printers
- duplex default (saves 30% paper, and 1 sheet = 10 x print carbon footprint)
- move to pull or follow-me printing (saves 10-15% volume and much better information security)

Move to managed print services

Save up to 30% and improve up to 50% of carbon footprint

[Ted-T]

Where are the savings? 12 point Arial requires 3-3/16" to print the above article when copied to word. On the other hand, Century Gothic takes 3-5/8" to print the same document when copied to word. So over time less ink, but potentially more paper when one;s test is required to flow beyond one page or when printing a large document that inherently requires more pages because of the font switch. A one dimensional analysis is not entirely accurate.

[joeq20]

so in all the press this is receiving I asm unable to find any reference to any study or the research that was done to support this change. Has anyone else?

[joeq20]

so in all the press this is receiving I asm unable to find any reference to any study or the research that was done to support this change. Has anyone else?

[barbaram99]

I don't like small print..I have to use a 4 power magifier. I am over 50 and I don't print e-mails.

[rwsmith29456]

This really makes me angry. Books, magazines, printed instructions, CD cases, product labels and about everything else have all saved ink and paper by thinning, lightening and shrinking their fonts to the point where I can't even read them with a magnifying glass. This is called 'saving money'. I'd rather pay an extra 10 cents and get something I can actually see and read. The printed word is shrinking out of sight.

[RoboBlogger]

You could also save with color cartridges by coloring in the pictures yourself with crayons/markers.

[unibarbie]

$10,000 per gallon. That's why I never buy new ink cartridges. I just buy the same printer, swap out the ink, and return the printer for a full refund.

[thesevenveils]

The companies that make printers and the ink and toner for them should be forced to bring their supply costs down to a reasonable level. A printer manufacturer will make more money from selling its supplies than from selling its printers. Consumers must force this model to change.

[pete_in_az]

Just get your cartridges from china. I have HP02 ink, the 5 color and one black thing, I get them delivered from LA on ebay for $13.68 for 2 blacks and one each color, with 2.5 times the HP high capacity quantity of ink, and the results are the same.

[tmittelstaed]

Who prints e-mails? That sounds like something that someone over age 50 would be doing.