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14-Year-Old: Governments Could Save $370 Million by Printing in a Different Font
Breitbart ^ | 28 Mar 2014

Posted on 03/28/2014 5:37:46 PM PDT by mandaladon

Fourteen-year-old Suvir Mirchandani found a way to save the federal and state governments almost $400 million from their yearly budgets just by changing the typeface they use on handouts. The best choice? Garamond!

Mirchandani’s school was looking for ways to save money, but he noticed no one was paying attention to the ink used on its many handouts. He noticed that Hewlett-Packard printer ink is $75 an ounce, while an equivalent amount of French perfume is only $38.

Here is how he came to the conclusion that Garamond is the best choice:

Collecting random samples of teachers' handouts, Suvir concentrated on the most commonly used characters (e, t, a, o and r).

First, he charted how often each character was used in four different typefaces: Garamond, Times New Roman, Century Gothic and Comic Sans. Then he measured how much ink was used for each letter, using a commercial tool called APFill® Ink Coverage Software.

Next he enlarged the letters, printed them and cut them out on cardstock paper to weigh them to verify his findings. He did three trials for each letter, graphing the ink usage for each font.

From this analysis, Suvir figured out that by using Garamond with its thinner strokes, his school district could reduce its ink consumption by 24%, and in turn save as much as $21,000 annually.

He then used the data to project how much the government, both at the federal and state levels, could save via the switch.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fonts; garamond; government; printing; suvirmirchandani
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To: Jack Hydrazine

There’s not one individual font that is best across the board, it depends upon the usage and aesthetic considerations if any.


61 posted on 03/28/2014 9:24:23 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

What is your favorite for every day reading?


62 posted on 03/28/2014 9:29:10 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

There’s a reason Times Roman and variants are so widely used. Serifs aid in legibility within large copy blocks.

That doesn’t mean it’s my favorite font, just that the utility of it is hard to deny. I actually ‘like” Helvetica Serif better, conflict in terms though that name may appear to be. I just wouldn’t use it for extensive pbody copy.


63 posted on 03/28/2014 9:35:18 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Lisbon1940

Telepresence will continue to grow as a useful way to communicate over distances. Car sharing, however, will never, ever work. See: The tragedy of the commons.


64 posted on 03/28/2014 9:44:18 PM PDT by Ramius (Personally, I give us one chance in three. More tea anyone?)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
Yes, but there are lighter fonts than those. Just google free fonts.

Most free fonts aren't worth what you pay for them. Creating a quality font is a lot of work. There are some great free ones out there, but just about all of them were designed by professionals.

65 posted on 03/28/2014 11:39:56 PM PDT by zeugma (Is it evil of me to teach my bird to say "here kitty, kitty"?)
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To: mandaladon

Government offices still use ink jet printers? No wonder everything they do takes so long.


66 posted on 03/29/2014 4:25:02 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault
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To: mandaladon

Maybe FreeRepublic could save money by changing the font too?


67 posted on 03/29/2014 4:58:13 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Over production, one of the top 5 worries for the American Farmer every year.)
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To: ThomasThomas
Most government agencies don’t use ink type printers. It is too slow.

Heck, I stopped using inkjets about 7 years ago. No need for color and whatever pictures my wife has printed at W-Mart, doesn't come close to the cost of printing them with colored ink and special paper.

If I were to throw out a laser printer when the toner ran out, I would still be printing cheaper than if I used a ink printer.

68 posted on 03/29/2014 5:02:00 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: mandaladon
This reminds me of the decision of General Motors decades ago that 'employee' was to be spelled with only one e at the end. This was purported to save millions of dollars in typing time and reproduction costs.

Missing from analyses such as these is the true cost of documents. Ink and paper are trivial compared with the cost of composing, editing, and reading documents. The biggest savings, by far, in the production of documents is a decision, early on, to never produce the unnecessary ones in the first place.

69 posted on 03/29/2014 5:15:44 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (for)
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To: mandaladon

75 dollars an ounce? I have an Idea!


70 posted on 03/29/2014 5:42:23 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: mandaladon
It won't be long before Obama figures out that if the laws and regulations are printed using no ink at all, he can change them at will with no one being the wiser....
71 posted on 03/29/2014 6:30:01 AM PDT by Eric Pode of Croydon
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To: Stosh

You LIKE your font?

You can KEEP your font - just use the next size SMALLER!

After all; eyeglasses are COVERED under Obamacare!


72 posted on 03/29/2014 8:42:44 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Stosh
Toss out (or burn) paper all together!

Any information that is REALLY needed can up uploaded to your personal Telescreen© for perusal at your leisure.

73 posted on 03/29/2014 8:44:16 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Sacajaweau

If you know where to drill the hole!


74 posted on 03/29/2014 8:45:16 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: sasquatch

Sheryl also told us how to use less paper...


75 posted on 03/29/2014 8:46:13 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: bert
By using less ink or toner, how much does it cost to remedy the eye strain?

Ha!

You'll not be WORRIED about fonts after THIS!!!

















































76 posted on 03/29/2014 8:49:47 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Bryan24

Uh...

Because it CAN?


77 posted on 03/29/2014 8:50:08 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: bigdaddy45

GMTA


78 posted on 03/29/2014 8:50:28 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: RegulatorCountry

Give them the razor and they’ll HAVE to buy the blades.

Have ya noticed that printers are almost free these days?


79 posted on 03/29/2014 8:52:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: zeugma
(Is it evil of me to teach my bird to say "here kitty, kitty"?)

Maybe. What kind of bird is it?

80 posted on 03/29/2014 8:55:38 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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