PYP Blog

According to a recent article from Yahoo! News, you can save money on printer ink just by changing the default font of the documents you print.

It all has to do with the font you choose to use in your documents. The amount of ink that a font uses depends mostly on the thickness of the lines, or how "heavy" the font is. Those with thicker lines naturally use more ink to print. So knowing which fonts use less ink, and then using those fonts for your defaults, could help your printer cartridge last a little longer so you can pinch your pennies a little tighter!

The top choices in ink-conserving fonts? Century Gothic or Times New Roman. Printer.com, the Dutch company that ran some of these font evaluations, says that Century Gothic uses 30% less ink than Arial. However, others have rightly pointed out that Century Gothic is not necessary designed to be used for full documents and can be hard to read in that context. So they suggest sticking with Times New Roman as your best ink-saving bet.

Other ways to save:

• Print in "economy" or "draft" mode


• Use the double-sided print option if you have it


• When printing text from the web, highlight the section of text you need and choose "Selection" under Page Range in File -> Print (to print just what you have highlighted), instead of printing the entire page from the default print button (which can end up printing multiple pages of text and graphics that you may not need)


• Whenever possible, skip printing graphics or pictures in text documents


• Print in black & white or grayscale instead of color


• Use generic print cartridges if available or have your cartridges refilled


• Print multiple pages per sheet of paper (depending on program settings)