Ecofont is an open source font designed as a way to save ink in printing, which is supposed to help the environment.
Here are some questions from the Ecofont FAQ, which I assume was written by someone whose first language is not English. The first answer is especially illuminating:
How can Ecofont be free?
We do not have to make a profit out of the Ecofont.The letters are not really clear on my computerscreen.
The Ecofont works best when font size 9 or 10. The results vary depending on your software. If you work on a Windows platform you could use ClearType.When I print the font, it looks as if my printer is running low.
The print is somewhat greyish because less ink is used.
It’s nice that they’re trying.
Using shorter, monosyllabic words also helps to save ink. For instance, a word like “monosyllabic” should never be used.
Gay.
I liked it when it was called ‘budmo jiggler’ and neumos didn’t beat it to death.
I try and shorten my words when speaking as well, so as to consume less oxygen and do my part for the environment.
Or consider using acronyms.
Why spell out whole words when just the first letters can get your message across? I think the corporate and government worlds could save TONS of ink and paper if they tried a few TLAs (that’s three letter acronym. See how much I saved right there?) The military too. And NASA, who already has the idea what with their name and all, and just needs to try a little harder instead of all those words, words words everywhere.
Also! Ask me about saving electricity by emailing messages which use letters whose byte values are mostly 0s and not so many of the wasteful 1s. With a few simple changes in letter and word choice, you can cut your carbon footprint in HALF with every message.
Not too soon, since I just went and spent $26 on two black Hewlett Packard #21 inkjet cartridges at Staples for my Deskjet 2300. I swear, I’ve printed less than 100 pages since the last time I bought a #21…is the only point of the inkjet to sell those pricey cartridges? And don’t tell me about refilling. I tried it and it didn’t work — the refilled cartridge ran out after about 20 pages!
Yes. That’s the only point. I went back to laser even forsaking color because I’m tired of paying for ink.
I had an HP Laserjet that would print 5,000 pages before I needed a new cartridge. The cartridhe cost $500.
This font looks stupid. I wonder if you use less toner if you printed everything dark gray.
When I print the font, it looks as if my eyes are going bad.
Not that the explanations are mutally excusive.
Bingo!
Why do you think the printers are so cheap (practically free, sometimes)? It’s like buying razors — the handle’s cheap, the blades cost a fortune.
The only thing inkjet is good for is high-end photo reproduction, the kind with six or nine or fifteen separate color cartridges, which is really a whole ‘nuther category. Laser is the only way to go. You can get a workable laser for almost as little as an inkjet nowadays.
It’s also 40% lighter, while retaining the same structural strength as the original. Boeing should get in on this shit.
Or you can just read something on your monitor and save 100% on ink… and paper… and hassle.
Oh I forgot, reading your Vonnegut novel on an Amazon Kindle isn’t trendy enough for the Stranger crowd.
Is this font compatible with the squant color?
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Who the heck thought the problem was the ink? There’s so much paper wasted that it makes me sick (like any good Seattlite child, I got in more trouble for not recycling a sheet of paper than I did for just about anything else, including broken windows).
That’s fucking stupid.
Couldn’t this wear out your printer faster? I’m thinking if the thing breaks every 2 or 3 months this font wouldn’t be worth it.
If this is not a hoax already, it should be one. And @3, your slavish hipster devotion to newly discovered obscure crap (this year it’s typeface, apparently) is, while probably appreciated by a lot of Slog’s denizens, highly annoying – get a fucking hobby.
love,
Why not print with lemon juice and apply to heat? Totally organic AND no support for the printer industrial complex.
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!
when your print window pops up choose options then “fast and economical printing” the print will be slightly lighter but your ink cartridges will last a lot longer I always print on both sides,too.
@12: Go home please.
Hi Slog,
What would the proper translation be?
Regards,
Jim
my office went to back printing on a bunch of older laser printers – works fine
we feel very smug and three shade more toward the true holy green
and some humor if you read the wrong side – can you recycle used staples?
@6 – Yes, that actually is the business plan. Has been for quite a while, which is why they tried to put the toner refill places out of business. Heck I think it was Panasonic who incorporated part of a lubricating mechanism into the cartridges – which meant that if you used a competitor’s or refilled cartridge, your printer would seize up.
If you’re looking to have a lower cost-per-page on ink/toner, then you need to move to a more expensive printer, where they will sell you larger cartridges for less money because the cost of the printer offsets the loss in ink/toner revenue.
Have they measured the processing power required to render those glyphs against a standard font, and compared the environmental cost of any additional power to the cost of the saved ink?
A glyph like that which isn’t a simple fill of bezier curves (or at the least requiring many extra curves for the fill circles) isn’t going to be as cheap to render.
THESE PEOPLE NEED TO THINK LIKE ENGINEERS.
If you are that worried about the environment, you should just kill yourself because the world will be better off and much less polluted without you.
This Ecofont is nothing more than a blatant marketing exercise – top marks to Spranq for finding yet another way to use the whole “eco” thing to raise public awareness of their company. We are supposed to believe that by adding holes to a font it is going to save ink and therefore by extension the environment … and it uses 15% less! 15% less than what? the same font without holes? nevermind that this font uses more ink for the same pitch size than most other commonly used business fonts in the first place! By my reckoning, thie “ecofont” uses about the same amount of ink as Arial. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that if you really wanted to save ink by font selection, that you merely have to chose a “thin” font to start with – like common old Century Gothic for example.
Ecofont has turned this idea into software. Using their demo software I can tell that it works on existing fonts. The software makes holes in eg Arial, which is a common font. When you look close you see the holes. With the ridicules prices the printer vendors dare to ask for toner I think it’s a great idea.