http://www.yourtechtamer.com/blog/2010/10/quick-and-easy-way-to-cut-your-printer-ink-charges/
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I get really irked at the cost of ink for my inkjet printer. The printer cost me about $1.99 (well, not really, but after several years the cost of the printer is insignificant compared to the cost of the ink that I’ve fed it). The ink costs go on and on. I try to be aware of the environment and recycle all my printer cartridges (gotta love the Staples $3.00 rebate on all HP cartridges), but still, the cost burns.
I DID invest in a printer which has a different ink cartridge for blue, pink, yellow and black (not the names that the ink manufacturer uses, I think that ‘cyan’ replaces ‘blue’ and ‘magenta’ replaces ‘pink’, but you get the idea), which makes printing more efficient. The ‘all-in-one’ cartridges force you to throw them out (or recycle them) before all the ink is gone – you have to replace it when the first color runs out.
But I digress…that’s not what I wanted to talk about today! I came across this article http://tinyurl.com/ybms6tq (and others referencing the same change) which say that switching from Arial to Century Gothic as your default print (in Word and e-mail) will save roughly 30% (yes, THIRTY percent) on printing costs because the font is so much more ‘efficient’. Now, I have no idea what makes a font efficient or inefficient (aside from assuming that bold takes more ink than normal font), but I found this astounding. I believe them, but I’m still shocked.
So, I’ve gone into my default settings in both Word (<Format><Font>, change font, click ‘Default’, say ‘Yes’) and Outlook (<Tools><Options><Mail Format>, click ‘Font’, select new font, click ‘OK’, ‘Apply’ and ‘OK’), and adjusted my font to Century Gothic (these commands are for Office 2003). Hopefully, I’m helping the planet AND saving myself some money :-)!
