Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Saving Money – As Easy As Choosing Your Font
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Bryan Anderson
A small business IT budget can as aggravating as it is
important, but a critical eye and some flexibility can create
opportunities for real
savings. One unique opportunity might be easily overlooked:
font choice.
Most companies don't use Rockwell Extra Bold or other thick,
ink-hogging fonts, but there are font choices that can save
hundreds of dollars a month by cutting printing costs. All those
newsletters, marketing materials, and reports could cost a little
less with the right font selection.
Over at printer.com, a blog post recently shed light on the notion of
saving money via font choice. The study used a personal printer and
business printer, using Arial as their control font- finding some
surprising results:
"The clear winner was Century Gothic, which returned 31% savings
in both printers. For the average private user printing
approximately 25 pages per week this will easily generate a net
reduction of $20 in a year. A business user printing approximately
250 pages per week could save $80.
If your organization uses multiple printers, you can save
hundreds of dollars per year doing nothing more than picking a more
economical font."
It also points out that Century Gothic is a modern font which
comes standard in Microsoft Windows.
Check out the final data graph for the conclusions of the
study.
Some institutions have recently adopted the change to minimize
budgets and environmental impact. University of Wisconsin at
Green Bay has decided to change their default font for
Outlook across campus to Century Gothic, citing reduced consumption
and cost. The university encourages staff and students alike to
make it their default in commonly used office software to further
their efforts in "thinking green."
Another viable option offered by Ecofont, an application which
reduces your ink costs by 'shooting' holes into the letters you
have typed without ruining the legibility. The ink savings allow a
25% reduction in ink and toner costs-check out Ecofont's site with this link.
Have any other interesting ways to reduce your overall budget?
Leave a comment and share it with other business owners!
Until next time -
Matthew Hymel
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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