Arial is bad for the planet
AP reports:
A US university has found a new way to cut costs with email – by changing the font.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has switched the default font on its email system from Arial to Century Gothic. It says that while the change sounds minor, it will save money on ink when students print emails in the new font.
Diane Blohowiak is the school’s director of computing. She says the new font uses about 30 per cent less ink than the previous one.
That could add up to real savings, since the cost of printer ink works out to about US$10,000 (NZ$14,000) 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.
I expect to see a Green Party bill to ban the Arial font in due course.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:05 am
It’s easy to laugh at this, but if it saves people money then it is a good thing, regardless of the environmental consequences.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Arial should be banned simply for being unimaginative. That, and Comic Sans.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:22 am
This is silly. Why not remove every second letter, or write in invisible ink? The key issue is readability. Less readable fonts are more inefficient. The result – less productivity per tonne of greenhouse gas emission.
The Green movement will have no credibility with me until it moves from looking at input costs to relative outputs.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:27 am
‘Arial – it’s a little bit bullshit’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwuFCBwVYFw
March 30th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Why don’t they just stop printing out their emails?
March 30th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Use less ink, use more paper Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh
March 30th, 2010 at 11:42 am
Yeh, Arial is Helvetica’s poor cousin.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:50 am
So the challenge is to develop a font that is as skimpy as possible while remaining readable and pleasing to the eye.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Just so long as they don’t use Times New Roman.
Any CV I see in Times New Roman goes in the bin. They may as well write at the top of their CV: “I have no sense of style and cannot tell a nice font from a bloody awful one and I don’t know how to change the default font in Word despite using the bloody program for 20 years”.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Verdana for me.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Barmeno is where it’s at.
Edit: Toad… Komata has been looking for you. I’ll tell him you’ve surfaced.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Ink? Surely toner?
Someone did actually design a font for offset use with little holes, exactly the size to be covered by ink spread when it was printed. So it works out as slightly paler but otherwise the same.
But yeah, I’ll wager the extra time and eyesight trying to read their skimpy serif font onscreen will outweigh any benefits in the few cases where there’s actual printing. Possibly more people would print mails because they’d be easier to read.
Edit: not that I’m supporting Arial…
March 30th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
I used to like Verdana, but now I’m a little embarrassed to admit it. I used to think Ford Capri’s were pretty cool as well.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Again I’ll say – if you can help it, just don’t print out the emails…
But seriously! Wingdings FTMFW!
March 30th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I once heard a most excellent radio programme about Font Nazi’s (I consider myself one). I can’t remember which author it was but he had a whole run of books pulped because the type-setters used the wrong font. Good man.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Arial is already disliked as it is a bastard clone of Helvetica begat of Microsoft.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Actually, Garamond is supposed to be one of the most readable fonts on paper. It’s a serif font though, so I’m not sure it would save ink.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
If they greens propose a bill to ban fonts we should bombard them with Wingdings, Webdings, Marlet and other weird fonts and the one that just types little boxes…
March 30th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
ps, Century Gothic is also the poor cousin of Futura or Avant Garde typefaces.
Century Gothic is the font used in the titling of Bond movie ‘Casino Royale‘.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
God there is SUCH a need for a sarcasm font these days.
March 30th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Since letter recognition is determined mostly by the upper half of any letter [for example: h and n have the same bottom half, as do i,l,f] why not have a Green typeface which doesn’t use the wasteful bottom half of letters?
See the word “
minimum” – above strikethrough says ‘mimimun’, below strikethrough: rubbish.It would also go some way to representing many Green ideas: half baked and not a leg to stand on.
But seriously, this would use maybe a third less ink in printing and the lines could be closed up closer to save paper.
March 30th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@Murray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark
March 30th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Lets be honest guys, you can’t get any cooler than Edwardian..
March 30th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Murray: http://www.notascoolasitseems.com/review/sarcasm-font
It includes something it could be used for:
To: John
From: Lisa
OMG you are so sexy.
Please tel me more about World of Warcraft!
March 30th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I’ll just have to HTML it I guess.
I must email Greg Aldrete at GBW and tell him how useful this study was and to pass on my personal thanks. /sarcasm
March 30th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
DPF you have finally gone too far.
Leave the Little Mermaid alone!
March 30th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
NZ$14000 per US Gallon for ink? You have to be joking. I could be wrong but 1 US Gallon is about 3.8 Litres, that means the ink cost is about NZ$368 for 100 ml.
I have continuous ink supply on a Canon and I pay NZ$12.95 for 100 ml of ink.
I could be wrong, but before the Greens or anyone start banning to save ink because of a font type, they should check the ink price.
Maybe the ink is full of dihydrogen monoxide
March 30th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Fletch you know far too much about fonts. Its disturbing.
March 30th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
malcolm – who do you work for? Just so that people do not waste their time and stamp posting off a CV just because you do not like their font for some whimsical reason.
March 30th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I have my machine set to Arial Black, font size 10 for all my emails. Too hell with subtlety. I also use explanation points a lot!!! Right now I have the shakes using this wussy font. Need a shot..have to fire of an email to somebody. (!)
March 30th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Ah much better now. Upped the font to 18 and sent message to type-setter mate of mine!
March 30th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I know how much computer printing takes place in universities.
This idea is a lot less silly than people here are saying it is.
March 30th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Steve – I think there could be a typo in the original article.
If it was NZ$14,000 per U.S. liquid BARREL (=31.5 U.S. Gallons) then @ 3.8L / U.S. Gallon that equates to an ink price of NZ$11.70 per 100ml which would be the same as the price you’re getting (if a margin of 10% were added.)
A saving of 30% is still a pretty good saving on anything though. (Unless that is another typo???)
March 30th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
It was partly tongue-in-check, but is it any different to rejecting someone because they don’t have the good sense to wear a suit to the interview? Or not chew gum? Or not slouch in their chair? Or they have a leak and floppy handshake? Or don’t look you in the eye? The whole CV-screening and interview process is very subjective and our intuition is often better than we think.
Also until recently if you got a doc in Times New Roman, there was a good chance this was because the person didn’t really know how to use Word. Which could be an indicator that they’re one of those people who refuses or fails to learn new things and can often be heard saying “we never get trained on these new computer systems…”
March 30th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Can you explain what an explanation point is?
Mayoral job candidate?
March 30th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
“..weak and floppy..” It’s good to know that someone reads the rubbish I write – thanks Pete.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Next someone will be suggesting university students use txt ‘language’ to write their assignments as it will save money on ink. I’m sure the students will be happy with this as some already try this on on the basis that txt is a legitimate ‘language’.
Prhps w shld hv drv to lmnt ll vwls s ths wll sv n nk.
Sorry, very sorry – getting ahead of myself.
Perhaps we should have a drive to eliminate all vowels as this will save on ink.
Malcolm 12:02 pm
March 30th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Malcolm, Times Roman type fonts have been widely used because it is an easily readable font. I remember research that showed that serifed fonts like Times Roman as body text were easy to comprehend than sans serif like Helvetica/Arial, and Rial type fonts worked better as headings and in forms. That principle was often taught.
I think the Times Roman will still work as a readable font but it looks a bit old fashioned and overused. I guess if I typed my CV in Times Roman it would be appropriate.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
*sigh* They’re a university… and they haven’t figured out that ink (or toner) consumption is also a factor of the font weight, and that paper can be svaed by turning off the horrible default kerning on most fonts and spending some time adjusting it (more characters per line = less lines per publication = less paper).
Then again, I should keep quiet. Next they’ll be applying for government funding for a double blind study using Arial Narrow, which will keep a dozen PhD candidates busy for three years…
March 30th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Too true, Kris. That was a cheap shot at an honest cheap-and-cheerful ‘English sportscar’. In the true Spitfire, Vitesse, MG, Mini 1275 GT sense of the term.
My wife thinks I’m mad as I point out interesting old cars: “ooh look, a Citroen DS”, “ooh look, a Triumph Herald”, “bugger me, an old Spitfire – now that was a real sportscar”, “ooh look, a dirty old XJS – lovely.”, “Hells bells, a TR7 – I would have given my left ball for one of those when I was 7 years old”.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Pete, that’s my main objection to Times New Roman – it’s so over-used. But I will stop now. It’s a very interesting topic and you’re either a font person or not. When I see a nice font or an appropriately selected one I feel a little wave of pleasure…
March 30th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Malcolm 5:19 pm
… as long as that “little wave of pleasure” occurs above the belt it’s acceptable, Malcolm – if not, then let’s just say ‘I know your type‘
March 30th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
RRM @ 4.53.
Could be a typo/s
Then again Diane Blohowiak is the Director of Computing and probably wants funding of the 5 year plan to go green.
She us justifying her job, all on the public tit of course.
I could be wrong, but I smell bullshit and it aint mine
March 30th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
You can also adjust the weight on some laser printers. I don’t know if they still do but Brother lasers used have a lighter default print weight than others. Many print drivers also have an economy setting which reduces toner/ink use.
If you use too much of a bold font it can be very hard to read. Arial Black is only effective in small doses.
I quite like Tahoma for a bit of clean looking variety.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Ps, there is also an Eco Font software that “shoots holes” in the letters (invisible to the naked eye) that claims to save up to 25% of ink.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
There is also a software called Eco Font that “shoots holes” in the letters invisibly and is supposed top save up to 25% of ink.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Testing….
March 30th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
There is also a software called Eco Font that “shoots holes” in the letters invisibly and is supposed top save up to 25% of ink.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Pete George..this might be helpful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark