All fonts aren't created equal; some fonts have more utility than others. A graphic designer can tell you the importance that a font has on the piece of media for both aesthetic and practical use. The anatomy of typography is a lot more complicated than you might imagine. Serifs, ascenders, cap height, and plenty of other design jargon is present within everything you type. But what if there was a font program out there that could save you money?
You might think it's ludicrous to equate savings to the font usage, but there's some pretty accurate science behind this reasoning. The area of every single letter and character that you type all contains a set amount of ink when printed. Some characters and typeface settings such as boldface type, CAPITALIZED LETTERS, and thick stylized fonts, all use more ink than regular typeface settings. This fact also applies to the size of your font; larger sized fonts will consume more printer ink.
All of these settings consume significant amounts of printer ink, especially if you're writing an essay or printing out a larger project. Is there a remedy to keeping the aesthetic of these fonts but reducing the amount of ink consumed? We might have a solution for you to save money on printer cartridges by choosing a different font.
What is Ecofont?
Ecofont is a subscription-based program that emulates iconic fonts and converts them into identical versions that use less ink. This is achieved by placing microscopic holes within every single character, with around 50% less space covered in every character compared to the original. Don't worry; your letters are not going to look like swiss cheese. The holes may seem like a downside, but Ecofont looks identical to the original. The holes in the font are so small that the human brain cannot even recognize nor perceive that anything is missing.
Ecofont is completely legible, as the microscopic holes do not affect the structure of the page. Ecofont is used mainly by companies that produce a lot of printed media such as magazines, brochures, and newspapers. The press is also an avid user of Ecofonts. You may have been reading Ecofonts without even knowing it. Physical media that is produced by The Economist, National Post, National Geographic, MSNBC, and Men's Health Magazine are all avid users of Ecofonts.
While Ecofonts is simply a program used to reduce ink cartridge usage on particular fonts, you can still emulate the classic fonts that we all know. Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Tahoma, and Verdana are all supported by Ecofonts. With more versions of iconic and legible fonts coming within the near future, there's nothing to lose by switching over and using their program.
Logistics of Ecofont
While you may need to jump through some initial hoops to get Ecofonts running on your computer, once it is installed, you can leave it on in the background, and it will convert your text without you even knowing. No matter if you use an HP printer or other brands, they will function identically with this program.
Service for a single personal use subscription will cost roughly around $9 per year but can help reduce your ink usage by 50%. Depending on the amount that you print, this could yield huge savings that are accumulated within the year.
Ecofonts also does not require any external hardware or additional software to run. This means you could print using the comfort of your own printer without worrying about needing an upgrade. But with all the good, there has to be some downsides to a program like this, right?
While there's not much of a downside, there are certain limitations to Ecofont that should be addressed before purchasing the service. There are some localization issues if you are printing in a different language. Ecofonts is only supported in a handful of languages, such as English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish. If you are looking to print in other languages that have special characters, Ecofont cannot be used.
As stated before, you are also limited to 6 font choices at the time of writing. Some more aesthetically pleasing fonts or specialized characters are entirely omitted from this program. If you are a graphic designer, this substantial restriction on font choice may suck the creativity out of your work.
Getting the Most Out of Your Subscription
According to independent studies conducted by Ecofont, they boast that you can save up to 50% on ink usage. While this is true, the savings really come down to what kind of cartridge you combine with your subscription. Depending on the type of cartridge, an original HP printer ink bought from the store can range anywhere from $40 to $90.
Remanufactured and compatible cartridges are incredibly cost-effective and are usually priced lower than 50% compared to the name brands. If you combine your Ecofont subscription with reasonably priced printer ink cartridges, you're bound to yield more savings.
1ink.com has been a market leader in the remanufactured cartridge industry for over 20 years. With deep discounts on all of our ink cartridges, you'll be saving up to 80% on your printing costs. We support hundreds of printers and have an easy Quick Ink Finder application right on our homepage, so you'll always find the exact ink for your printer. We support all the major such as Canon printer ink as well as HP, Canon, Lexmark, Epson, and so many more.