You can save money on your printouts by simply changing the font settings on your computer, a University of Wisconsin study has found.

The University’s Information Technology Department discovered that by changing the default font from Arial, the most commonly used font, to Century Gothic, you will use 30 per cent less ink in printouts.

Ink, one of the most expensive fluids in the world, accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the cost of a printed page and costs about US$10,000 ($890,000) a gallon, far more than a gallon of gasoline. However, Century Gothic consumes both less ink and less toner, a saving of about $267,000 on a gallon of ink.

Rohan Reynolds, senior marketing executive at SSP-Aptec, a computer supplies company, told Sunday Finance that while he knew that some fonts can use less ink, he was surprised that Century Gothic can save as much as 30 per cent of the cost.

Reynolds said that Arial and Times New Roman, the most common fonts, would use more ink than Garamond, Courier and Century Gothic because of the difference in the style of the fonts. He said the way a common letter such as ‘I’ is presented on screen, suggests that one would use more ink than the other. For example, Century Gothic has a straight ‘I’, while Arial has a flat base, which would use more ink to print just the one letter.

“Letters are more slender in Century Gothic than Arial,” Reynolds added. He however noted that Arial and Times New Roman are more popular because they are the fonts accepted for business mail, some academic styles, such as the APA format, and is used in PDF documents.

“The main reason is that it is very easy to read in whatever size from 8, 9, to 10 point fonts,” Reynolds said about Arial.

He added that the good thing about the result of the research is that Century Gothic has some of the same benefits as Arial, in that it is also easy to read and looks good on-screen and on the printed page, a fact that the University also noted.

The benefits in terms of savings is not comparable between the fonts though. Reynolds said that for individual home use, 30 per cent savings might not seem like a lot, but for universities, businesses, government agencies and large corporations that consume copious amounts of ink, 30 per cent can be a lot of money.

“I would recommend that they use Century Gothic especially in those large organisations,” Reynolds said. “It will take a while for persons to get adjusted to it but if you use it as your default font it will make a difference”.

He acknowledged that while there is the potential to save a lot of money with the change, in many of these organisations where ink is used frequently it is not the user who pays for the ink, therefore the user may have no incentive to switch.

“If you leave it up to them it won’t catch on,” Reynolds said.

The University of Wisconsin recognised this problem and through its technology council converted its default font in Outlook campus-wide and notified the members of the change.

Said the University: “This change will occur the next time you reboot your PC,” the University said in a statement to staff and students of the institution. “In addition, we encourage everyone to switch to Century Gothic as their default font in Entourage for Macintosh, Word, and Excel.”

Reynolds recommended other ways that can reduce the use of ink and the cost of printed documents.

Firstly, he reccommends selecting the correct printer without paying too much attention to cost. He compares this to buying an energy-saving, higher priced lightbulb, over a lower priced regular bulb that burns more energy.

“Try not to pay too much attention to the cost of the printer, but to the yield per page,” he said, adding “The higher the yield per page, the more printed pages you will get per ink cartridge.”

As a guide Reynolds said that a toner that yields 3000 pages really works out to about 2000 pages or less because the ‘yield’ is typically five per cent of the printed page. Printing a letterhead, for example is equivalent to 20 pages based on the calculation of per page yield.

He also recommended switching the default print quality to ‘draft’ mode instead of ‘normal’ or ‘best’ because draft uses less ink and is generally of good quality.

“Never print colour unless its absolutely needed. It will cost you about one and a half times what it costs you to print in black,” Reynolds said. “It is more expensive and you get less toner when you buy coloured ink.”

He also recommended that companies restrict printing in colour to only a few staff members.

And finally, Reynolds said when buying printing supplies, persons should ask for the large capacity version of the toners. He said the physical size is the same, but there is more toner in the large capacity toner cartridge, than in the standard cartridge even though the large capacity toner costs a bit more. “It is two and a half times the capacity at less than two times the price”. The large toner can yield as much as 8000 pages, while the standard toner yields about 2000 pages, while the cost is not twice the amount of the standard toner.

Here are instructions to change your default font in Word and Excel

To change the default font in Word

1. Open a new document in Word. From the Home tab, select the Font dialogue box launcher from the Font group.

2. Select your default font and then select the Default button. Click on yes to update your normal template

To change the default in Microsoft Excel

1. Open Excel and select the Office button then ‘Excel Options’

2. On the popular tab, change the font settings in the “When creating new workbooks” section

3. Select the font and Save your new settings and close the window by selecting ‘OK’