SAVE INK!!! (Well, maybe.) Download free Dutch Ecofont

[bryan9]

Ecofont is the name of a TrueType font invented by Colin Willems, of Spranq Creative Communications, located in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Willems developed the font in an attempt to discover how to reduce ink consumption without sacrificing legibility. His testing revealed that the best results employed fonts containing small, non-inked circles.

Here's a sample:

You can download the font here:

http://www.ecofont.eu/assets/files/spranq_eco_sans_regular.ttf

The font is copyrighted but licensed for free redistribution for non-commercial purposes.

Will it save ink in our inkjet printers? The savings are proportional to font size, Willems says; the bigger the font, the more you save. Just how he arrived at his 20% savings figure is, unfortunately, not explained. I print a ton of stuff in 12-point type that winds up in the recycle bin; I wonder how much I'd ink I'd save using Ecofont?

--Bryan

 

[brendo]

not so sure it will save much ink, but interesting idea.

As soon as i started reading this i thought it was just more mindless spam, but this advertising is at least semi related to printers, sooooooo.... Good work!

 

[bryan9]

not so sure it will save much ink, but interesting idea.

I just tried it out, and I was actually quite pleased with the results. When set at 12 points, you can't really see the circles, so the font is quite readable. At a fast (draft) setting, which is an ink saver in itself, this font prints in a way that contrasts surprisingly well with the paper.

It's probably not worth it to me to use it, though. I do my text printing on a wonderful old ip4200 that I picked up at the Salvation Army for $5, and I keep its PGI5BK (text printing) cartridge loaded with pigmented black ink, of which I have about a half gallon! For people who don't refill and do a lot of text printing, this font is definitely worth a look.

Thanks for recognizing that I'm not a spammer! I read about this in my local newspaper (Charlottesville Daily Progress -- or Daily Regress, as we like to call it), and thought it would be of interest to other inkjetters.

Best wishes for the new year!

Bryan

 

[websnail]

It's a nice idea and great for people who actually look after their printers as an ink saving idea however there's about a dozen things that could be done to reduce the environmental cost of inkjet printers and the key one is if the [expletive] manufacturers of the printers actually made them last as long as they could without trying to tie consumers in all the [expletive] time.

Ultimately stuff like this is just window dressing while the landfills sit chock full of printers that could have worked for another 2 or 3 years instead of being turfed out because of a service required message or similar that comes down to nothing other than bad design and greed...

*and breath*... sorry but this feel good cr*p gets my goat because I just know the printer manufactures will use it as FUD material to show how much better the consumer can make the world and not take responsibility themselves... *sigh*

 

[woodmonkey]

Here's another way to see how much your actually saving. Check out this font calculator i came across. You can see exactly what the percentage of ink is you are saving by switching to different fonts and font sizes including ecofont. Hope it helps. inkfarm.com/Best-Fonts-for-Saving-Ink

 

[The Hat]

I seem to be missing the point here which I often do, but for those of us that use 3rd party inks
savings ink would amount to little or nothing.

In fact I dont want to save ink it defeats the whole purpose of buying good quality ink at a very reasonable price.
I refill my cartridges and use a CISS and armed with the two I print as much as I can whenever I like
simply because 3rd party ink is a steal compared to OEM ink, half of nothing is still nothing.
I dont waste any ink at all, Im to busy using as much of it up as I can to have the time.

Happy printing I say..