New Font Uses Holes To Cut Ink Use 540
An anonymous reader writes "A Dutch company has taken an open source Sans Serif font and
added holes to it to try and save on printer ink costs. The Ecofont is claimed to save up to 20 percent of ink costs, but it allegedly took the firm a while to perfect the ratio of the maximum number of holes possible without sacrificing readability."
Unfortunately (Score:5, Funny)
I'm willing to make that sacrifice if it means saving Mother Earth!
Not just for saving ink (Score:5, Funny)
Just imagine how many electrons could be saved if people used this font in their browser.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Holy Illegible Font, Batman! (Score:3, Funny)
You know you were thinking it.
But how much e-ink (Score:5, Funny)
will it save while I view documents on my ereader?
The obligatory line: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is pointless (Score:5, Funny)
Shouldn't they have done this with a serif font if it is meant to save ink/toner?
They started with a serif font. What's left is sans serif.
In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
In other news several Dutch legal firms were visited by executives from Epson, HP, and Lexmark, muttering about theft of lost revenues.
Dot Matrix Draft (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer to use Inverted Ecofont, in which everything else is removed and only the holes remain. This saves 80% of the ink, and it known to some people as "dot-matrix draft mode".
This is new font is stupid and not news.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
I agree. Their idea is redundant as most letters come pre-made with holes in them.
Re:Horrible on screen (Score:1, Funny)
No, but from your description it sounds better than most of the fonts currently available to Linux users.
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:5, Funny)
On an LCD, you should use a dark theme in the winter so that the dark pixels soak up the extra backlight photons and convert them into heat. In the summer, go with a lighter theme that will let all of the photons out before they have a chance to run up your AC bill. Oh, and make sure you set the monitor up near a window so the extra photons can just keep right on going.
Re:This is pointless (Score:5, Funny)
That said, I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about
Don't worry, it doesn't show.
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:3, Funny)
The horrible part comes when you do a screen print and forget to swap the colors, thus negating all that money you were saving on toner.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
ask me how!
Re:This is pointless (Score:4, Funny)
So "green" is the new "pink" and "eco" is the new "black"? Or is "black" the new "light"? I'm so confused.
Re:Here's another cleverly simple idea: cookies (Score:5, Funny)
Poke holes in the cookies before serving. The cookies are now 20% healthier!
Re:I agree many things don't need to be printed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is pointless (Score:5, Funny)
So "green" is the new "pink" and "eco" is the new "black"? Or is "black" the new "light"? I'm so confused.
You are so dead at the next zebra crossing.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:4, Funny)
f u cn rd ths u cn sv on prntg cst...
How... Wow... Did you learn that in SMS-class? I have a better idea however. It seems that only the upper half of the letter is necessary for reading. That would save 50%!
Re:I agree many things don't need to be printed (Score:5, Funny)
Or modify English spellings to conform with those used by 13 y/ olds in their text messages.
u cn save ink n papr 2 !
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:5, Funny)
Just imagine how many electrons could be saved if people used this font in their browser.
I always recycle my electrons.
Real Conservationists....... (Score:1, Funny)
...print everything as an outline.
Plus you have the added fun of being able to color in all the letters later!
Dutch? Really? (Score:4, Funny)
I would've expected such an idea to come from Switzerland.
Re:gray color (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but it uses up all your gray ink.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:3, Funny)
I just installed this to have a look at it. Didn't appear in OpenOffice. OK, guess I did something wrong. Fiddled about, removed, reinstalled, regenerated font-cache.
Nope.
Checked another applicaion...nope no 'Ecofont'
*30 infuriating minutes later*
THE FONT NAME IS 'SPRANQ ECOFONT'? Dear holy frak that took me ages to find. Who the hell prefixes their goddamn font with a company name. No one. God that pissed me off. MOTHERFUCKING *VENTING* GRRRRR.
Nice font though.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:2, Funny)
That assertion is based on cost figures for newspaper classified pages; drop the font size, save a ton of ink and paper. Papers all over the country have been doing this for years as their margins shrink.
...yet another way to save paper :)
Re:I counteract this (Score:3, Funny)
I print on the finest amazon rainforest paper, with several layers of black ink, and then dust the wet ink with ground up dark-roasted panda bones.
Re:Holy Illegible Font, Batman! (Score:2, Funny)
*swoop* You rang?
Coming soon... (Score:5, Funny)
The eco-boat.
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:3, Funny)
They have monitors that have white? Mine is only green text on a black background.
Mod parent down! (Score:5, Funny)
Really, guys. I'm not that funny.
Re:+1 PARENT. Saves paper too. (Score:3, Funny)
I'm going to make the cookies tonight. I'll let everybody know.
A day in the font (Score:5, Funny)
I read Slashdot today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in ecofont sans serif
And though the holes were very small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill "the Albert Hall"
I'd love to turn you on
Re:I agree many things don't need to be printed (Score:4, Funny)
aawwwwwwwwwww datz riily riily smart!!!!!!!!!!!!"##
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Since there are printing costs overruns, I suggested we should charge people by the number of pages not picked up at the end of the month. My suggestion was quickly shot down. I'll never make it into management.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Unfortunately, since you don't take ink seriously, I'm guessing you are spending too much printing your newsletter and will be out of business shortly.
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:5, Funny)
You got green? Mine is black text on a black background. I have to guess what everybody is saying.
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:5, Funny)
Bonus tip: if you put everything in quote tags, it saves on black electrons.
Re:Horrible on screen (Score:3, Funny)
But how much ink got wasted by everybody on /. firing up their laser printers?
Re:Practicality? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm waiting for the serif version of that font; there they'll replace the serifs with spoilers. I also think they will add a special Type-R sticker glyph in a Unicode Private Use Area to make it go even faster. Then the only thing that could possibly beat the font would be drift typing - but everyone knows that technique can be handled only by the most extreme Japanese fonts.
Woohoo! (Score:5, Funny)
Save both ink AND paper... (Score:3, Funny)
A bt f cre8v splng cn sv bth ink & papr. Thez 2 sntncs hv svd 31% f bth.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:3, Funny)
Save the Earth!
Cut holes in the 20% of heads of Oil Company Executives, Bankers and Presidents!
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:4, Funny)
meh, BLINK tag save FIFTY PERCENT of the electrons !
Re:Mod parent down! (Score:5, Funny)
Ironically, it was, then somebody modded it down.
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:5, Funny)
f u cn rd ths u cn
I blushed when I read this: "fxxx xxu cxnx, rxdx thxs xxu cxnx"
Re:What a fucking stupid idea! (Score:3, Funny)
I find I have to print like 500X over to make the ink raised enough for a braille reader. On the plus side, they don't know they have inky fingers.
Ink/toner costs (Score:1, Funny)
When I was 23 and naive, I took a job as the sysadmin for a large high school. Like an idiot, I formed a technology committee of one person from each academic department to advise me. The math department head spent multiple meetings talking her head off against laser printers. Her arguments:
- Inkjet cartridges cost only $25 each, and I was pushing laser printers that needed $70 toner cartridges.
- Laser printer toner page yields are "your mileage may vary", so the 4000-page estimate from HP isn't accurate.
Re:This is pointless (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not just for saving ink (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is pointless (Score:3, Funny)
wingdings
Burials? (Score:3, Funny)
Will some enterprising company use this technique to reduce body size, and therefore casket and grave size, to cut burial costs?
Or are there some holes in my idea (cha-ching!)
Wow, that was bad even for me.
Re:Mod parent down! (Score:3, Funny)
20% less words works just as well (Score:2, Funny)
MEMORANDUM
Date: July 1, 200
To: Harold Sr.
: Isabel
Subject: for Payroll Advances
There is new procedure (to reflect) for obtaining payroll advances. I believe will find it improvement over the old, confusing. The new is as:
1. Obtain special Form number, Request for, from your.
2. Complete the form in all the blanks in the section of the.
3. Have your immediate approve your request by signing on the Supervisor.
4. Take the approved Form the receptionist in the Payroll and, Building Z, Room.
Thank,
Hmmm... on second thought... um, maybe not.