Ecofont: print green

Have you heard of the eco-font? A Dutch company has launched a font that reduces ink use by up to 20 percent while printing, by creating tiny holes into the letters.
Spranq, the company that designed the san-serif font, says Ecofont works by omitting parts of each letter, effectively bringing down the amount of ink on a page.
The font, which works best when set in nine or 10 points, is available free from its website (www.ecofont.eu).
Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Ecofont, which is based on Vera Sans, an open source typeface, works with OpenOffice, AppleWorks or MS Word.
Spranq says that by making its font freely available, it hopes to increase environmental awareness.
As Ecofont uses tiny circles placed in the characters to cut down on ink costs, it can bring down the amount of ink use by around 15-25 percent. For example, the Ecofont version of Arial can save a minimum of 26 percent when compared to the original Arial. This calculation is based on a high resolution scan after which the pixels have been counted.
Both the wallet and environment remain safe, as ink and toner are a heavy burden on both. Ecofont software is suitable for both private and business use.
The total costs of a printed page include the write-down on the printer, the paper, the maintenance costs and the price of the ink and toner. The ink and toner represent the largest part of this price by far; the other items only represent a minute fraction of the total costs. For private individuals this is of course always a good thing. For companies, however, the amount of savings can be astonishingly large. The combination of ink savings and low licensing costs results in substantial profits through savings.
The production of ink is an especially CO2-intensive process, which is something and sadly not as well known as it should be to the public. By saving on ink and toner with Ecofont software, you considerably decrease your environmental load, and as a private person, and even more so as a company, contribute your share of social responsibility in an attractive way.
In addition to the environmental and cost benefits, it is simply fascinating to see how our brains ignore the holes in the letters while we are reading. People who print out a test page are surprised and delighted. Ecofont software clearly inspires people while enticing them with the 'fun factor'. Via the Ecofont software, sustainability and cost savings manage to work their way into the daily lives of millions of computer users.