11 Small Ways to Save Big on Ink

11 Small Ways to Save Big on Ink

Printers are cheap but printer ink is pricey. One-time and day-to-day adjustments can help prevent waste and save money. Try these techniques to lower your office and home cost of ink.

1. Change the font type

Change the default font (often Times New Roman or Arial) to a lighter font, such as Century Gothic that uses less ink. According to an Associated Press article on Yahoo.com, the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay is adopting Century Gothic as the font of choice as a major money-saving move. To change your default font on MS Word, go to Format >> Font, select your font, and save as “Default.”

2. Reduce the font size

Reduce the font size to 10 or less — as long as you and your audience can read text comfortably.

3. Use draft setting

Choose the "draft" or "econo" print setting that uses less ink (making the overall print lighter.

4. Use copy services

Take major print jobs to the copy center at your office or nearby office supply store, where you can get cheap prints for significantly less per page than standard inkjet printing.

5. Get refills instead of buying new

Getting refills cost less than buying new. Be on alert for ink refill days at Walgreens. This year, on Earth Day, April 22, 2010, Walgreens will refill cartridges for $1 with a coupon — check your weekly ad circular for the coupon.

6. DIY refills

DIY refills are available from your favorite warehouse club or eBay. According to my dad, a DIYer, this approach can be messy but cost saving.

7. Recycle cartridges

Recycle cartridges by selling them to companies that buy used cartridges, selling them on eBay, or getting credit at Staples, putting money in your pocket or saving on future purchases. (Staples no longer gives immediate credit but rather gives credit through its rewards program.)

8. Buy remanufactured

Years ago, I tried and then stopped using this approach because my prints were essential components of a finished product and needed to be perfect; remanufactured cartridges dispensed uneven prints, hardly detectable to many but not acceptable quality-wise for me. So test this idea for quality, and make sure you are getting as many prints per cartridge as other options.

9. Use it up

Keep printing on nearly-empty cartridges until there is absolutely no ink left. And, instead of replacing cartridges or refilling ink immediately, change the font color to a color for which the cartridge still has ink (you won’t technically save on ink but you’ll delay spending).

10. Don't print

Use the Document Image Writer or a similar device to create electronic files of receipts rather than printing hard copies. Scan, rather than copy documents. Use a program like CutePDF to create PDF files instead of printing for your records.

11. Print selectively

Print only the information you need by using PrintWhatYouLike or software programs such as GreenPrint or EcoPrint2 as recommended by Nora as an eco-friendly way to save money at the office. Or, you can adjust print settings yourself or copy only the information that you need to a blank document, make adjustments (remove photos and extra lines), and specify print ranges to make sure that you print just what you need and no more.



Another idea: spend more on your printer, less on ink. Some printers may have more economical print settings, wasting less ink than cheaper models. Check prices of printers and ink refills before you buy.

Best ink saving fonts

best ink saving fonts

Font has different shape, space between letters, bold or not, and so it can makes a difference. Actually one font is quite popular but isn't free anymore, it was ecofont

looking on internet, I found some articles ( including wikipedia article ) , and Century Gothic seems to be a modern looking and could save 30% of ink.

but to be able to implement a on-the-fly font replacement of the pdf file with greencloud printer, I had to look at more tools and review

someone reported this link but it is dead now !
http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---

the quick conclusion is this

"Our first choice of ink saving font for body type is Century Schoolbook, which the University of Wisconsin just picked for its publications because it uses less ink, and which the U.S. Supreme Court requires for readability. It is an excellent font and it is no wonder that it is the standard for such prestigious organizations."

I wonder if it would make sense to implement in greencloud a little tool to compare the % of ink covering the page, so it could be used to review different font based on the pixel values all over the page ?

since my last post I found more sources and valuable tool to decide what font to use for your document, we are considering to be able to add an option to our green printing software to switch the font to a saving-one on the fly. for that, we are using review about the ink coverage factor
http://blog.colortonerexpert.com/cost-effective-fonts/ according this one the best choice would be Garamond

if you want to calculate and compare the ink usage of your current font I recommand this excellent online tool :
http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font

another source from an article of Cnet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20001913-93.html
in case you look for more data you can also refer to this source
http://blog.printer.com/2009/04/prin...-a-difference/

and another software to calculate ink coverage , I didn't try it

http://avpsoft.com/products/apfill/

inkfarm really does a great work in providing accurate calculations of any fonts ink usage consumption. You can use it to know how much you ought to spend when changing font,it also calculates how much you can save..       

Want to Save Money? Change Your Font

Want to Save Money? Change Your Font

MILWAUKEE – Here's a way you might save $20 this year: Change the font in the documents you print.
Because different fonts require different amounts of ink to print, you could be buying new printer cartridges less often if you wrote in, say, Century Gothic rather than Arial. Schools and businesses could save thousands of dollars with font changes.

Data on the subject from Printer.com, a Dutch company that evaluates printer attributes, persuaded the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to make a switch. Diane Blohowiak, coordinator of information-technology user support, has asked faculty and staff to use Century Gothic for all printed documents. The school also plans to change its e-mail system so it uses Century Gothic.

"The feedback we've gotten so far has been positive," she said. "Century Gothic is very readable."
The school of 6,500 students spends about $100,000 per year on ink and toner cartridges. Although students and staff can change the default font to something more ink-intensive, Blohowiak said the university expects to save $5,000 to $10,000 per year with the font switch.

When Printer.com tested popular fonts for their ink-friendly ways, Century Gothic and Times New Roman topped the list. Calibri, Verdana, Arial and Sans Serif were next, followed by Trebuchet, Tahoma and Franklin Gothic Medium. Century Gothic uses about 30 percent less ink than Arial.

The amount of ink a font drains is mainly driven by the thickness of its lines. A font with "narrow" or "light" in its name is usually better than its "bold" or "black" counterpart, said Thom Brown, an ink researcher at Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's top maker of printers.

Also, serif fonts — those with short horizontal lines at the top and bottom of characters — tend to use thinner lines and thus less ink than a "sans serif" counterpart.

But while using less ink at home can help you buy roughly one fewer printer cartridge each year, it's not necessarily better for the environment.

That's because some fonts that use less ink, including Century Gothic, are also wider. A document that's one page in Arial could extend to a second page if printed in Century Gothic. Blohowiak said her research suggests that ink comprises the main cost of a printout, but the environmental costs of paper are probably higher.

"Maybe the individual characters use less ink, but if you're using more paper, that's not so green, is it?" said Allan Haley, director of "words and letters" at Monotype Imaging Inc. in Woburn, Mass., which developed Century Gothic.

Also, Century Gothic was designed for limited blocks of text such as titles and headlines, not for full documents, said Haley, who describes fonts as his "children." Despite Printer.com's research and UW-Green Bay's experience, Haley said he still recommends Times New Roman or Arial for their readability.

The standard advice for trimming printing expenses still applies: Print in "draft mode," if you can. Use both sides of a page and do a print preview to make sure you're not printing pages with useless text such as a copyright line. Using an ink-saving font is just one more technique to consider.

And the greenest way to save on ink is not to print at all.

That's the philosophy Microsoft Corp. said it uses in deciding which fonts to include in its Outlook and Word applications. The more pleasing a font looks on the screen, the less tempted someone will be to print, said Simon Daniels, a program manager for Microsoft's typography group.

That's why the company changed its defaults in Office 2007 from Arial and Times New Roman to Calibri and Cambria, he said.

"We're trying to move the threshold of when people hit the print button," he said.

Changing Font To Save Ink

Changing Font To Save Ink

MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris.

A university in Wisconsin has decided to go gothic, but not in a medieval or ghoulish kind of way. The school changed the font in its email system, saying the move could save thousands of dollars in printer ink. From Wisconsin Public Radio, Patty Murray reports.

PATTY MURRAY: University of Wisconsin-Green Bay biology professor Matt Dornbush got an idea when he opened an issue of National Geographic and read an article about something called an eco-font.

Mr. MATTHEW DORNBUSH (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay): I thought, well, this is an easy solution that we could try to implement to our campus and save some serious money.

MURRAY: The eco-font uses less ink because each character, instead of being filled in, has lots of tiny circles. Printer ink adds up. A typical cartridge costs $30, and that translates to about $10,000 a gallon. So, Dornbush took the article to the school's computer technicians, but they found an even better solution: Century Gothic. That font uses about 30 percent less ink than the old Arial setting used for email.
Mark Simonson(ph) is a Minnesota-based type designer and font developer. He says Century Gothic is a good overall choice because it has a thinner print line, but he says the letters can be a bit wider.

Mr. MARK SIMONSON (Type Designer): It also sits a little bit larger. So it would actually take up more space. So occasionally, you might need more paper for a printout if it pushes the document over a page.

MURRAY: Simonson says the change to Century Gothic doesn't surprise him so much as the fact that people still print emails. The computer lab at UWGB is a busy place, but no one is using the printers. Student Kara Melchert says she submits most of her assignments online and rarely prints anything.

Ms. KARA MELCHERT (Student, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay): I would say I probably print maybe five or six pages a week, just to take notes onto.

MURRAY: She may not be printing much on this campus of 6,500 students but someone is.

Mr. THOMAS HARDEN (Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay): We spend approximately $100,000 per year on toner.

MURRAY: UW-Green Bay Chancellor Thomas Harden applauds the switch to a less ink-intensive computer font. Even if the school doesn't see a full 30 percent savings, he'll take it.

Mr. HARDEN: It would be a few thousand dollars a year, which is very helpful in this economy or any time.

MURRAY: Matt Dornbush, the biology professor who got this change started, says that's a good beginning, but he hopes for something more lasting. As students become acclimated to different fonts or even lower thermostat settings in the Wisconsin winter, he wants them to keep those habits when they graduate.

Mr. DORNBUSH: We're training the students who then go out into the workplace, and if they become used to things like that, this here or slightly colder offices or whatever, they're more likely to then implement these into the businesses and so forth when they leave here.

MURRAY: Dornbush acknowledges switching fonts won't save the planet, but if a little thing can save money and resources, why not?

For NPR News, I'm Patty Murray in Green Bay.

Which Fonts Should You Use for Saving Printer Ink

Which Fonts Should You Use for Saving Printer Ink

Since ink is still the most expensive component in the print workflow, you can reduce printing costs of documents if you can figure out ways that will decrease the consumption of ink while printing.

Though we are headed towards an era of paperless offices, the pace is quite slow. That ink printer is still an indispensable part of your home office because you are frequently required to print invoices, emails, web pages and other documents on paper.

Since ink is still the most expensive component in the print workflow, you can reduce printing costs of documents if you can figure out ways that will decrease the consumption of ink while printing. For instance, when printing a document in Microsoft Word, you can switch to “Draft output” and the toner will last much longer.


Use a Font with Holes
An interesting option to help you save ink is Ecofont. Ecofont is like the popular Arial font but it has these little holes punched in the letters. These holes aren’t really visible in the printed document (that uses standard font sizes like 11px) but will save money as no ink is required when printing these dots.
Ecofont is available for download on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. It may not be a good idea to use Ecofont in client communication but you can definitely consider using this font for personal or internal use.

Which is the Best Font for Printing Documents
Now consider the third scenario. You have a document – say some training material or presentation handouts – that you want to print without sacrificing readability.
Fonts like Arial, Times News Roman, Courier, Helvetica, etc. are generally available on every machine but which one among them is the most economic typeface when it comes to printing?


Matt Robinson recently conducted a fairly unique study to determine the ink usage of these different typefaces. They used ballpoint pens to hand draw the same text at the same size but using different fonts and here’s the result. Garamond* followed by Courier turned out to be the most economic fonts of them all while Impact and Comic Sans consumed the maximum ink. This is definitely not a “scientific study” but you still get the idea.
[*] Most Harry Potter books are set in 12pt Adobe Garamond.

Printing Web Pages with Custom Fonts

If you are printing web pages, I highly recommend Readability – this is a bookmarklet that will not only remove images, ads and other clutter from web pages but will also replace the font that was originally used in the formatting of that page.
Readability can sometimes remove sections from web pages that you would like to see in the print version. If that’s also a problem for you, check out PrintWhatYouLike.com – this is also a printing bookmarklet but it gives you complete control over the page layout including the font family that is used for rendering that page .



Both the above bookmarklets require a live internet connection to work. If you are looking for an alternative that will work offline, check out Green Print - they have a free version for Windows though the Mac edition costs a few bucks. Another good option is Smart Web Print from HP but that’s only available on Windows.