Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ecofont

Interning at a marketing and communications firm this summer, I have gained some insight into the business side of PR. One thing that surprised me was the amount of paper and ink we go through everyday. And we are a small house; I can only imagine the amount of supplies that larger firms must consume.

This can be both expensive and costly to the environment. I was really intrigued when, while reading National Geographic, I came across a story about a new font type that can save ink. The new Ecofont, called Bitstream Vera, was designed by a Dutch marketing firm called Spranq.

The company found that "if it used rounded holes [in the letters]...a fifth of a 10-point, Verdana-like letter could be removed without ruining readability." The savings with using this font would be optimized at smaller-sized fonts, as the holes in the font are more noticeable at larger sizes.

Though some in the business are skeptical, co-owner Alexander Kraaij has said that the new font could save a company of 5,000 employees up to $125,000 a year from printing costs.

Pretty cool! Click here to learn more and to download the new font for free!

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