Ecofont puts a hole in ink usage

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 19 Dec 2008 at 14:39

A Dutch company has created a new font with tiny holes drilled into the characters, which it claims can knock 20% off printing costs.

The intriguing font was developed by Spranq, which claims it was simply looking for an easy way to reduce printing costs.

"Most appealing ideas are simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability?" The company ponders on its website.

"After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink."

The font is free to download, and though we cannot verify the 20% ink savings, the font is certainly usable. The text prints well enough at sizes up to 12, though closer inspection of the latter point size reveals the swiss cheese effect.

At sizes beyond 12, however, the holes become increasingly noticeable so that at size 16 it appears the toner is running low in your printer.