Font and Printing - University of Houston
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Font and Printing

As the University looks for more ways to go green and engage in more sustainable behaviors, University Information Technology (UIT) has recommendations for both default font selection, and printer use.

Background

Earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay made a recommendation to change default font types for computer users printing out documents. Using Arial at 11 points for the baseline, they tested various fonts and selected Century Gothic as the new default printer font on campus. This will result in almost a 30% reduction of their ink consumption.

Century Gothic

Using Century Gothic comes at a cost. The font can be hard to read. So, UIT looked into the font that came in second to Century Gothic in the testing.

Ecofont

Ecofont is just as easy to read as any of the most used fonts (Arial, Courier, Times). It is only with _very_ close reading that the ink savings is visually noticeable: Tiny points within the strokes of the letter where no ink/toner is deposited. Using Ecofont has 98% of the savings realized with Century Gothic.

Ecofont is a modified version of Vera Sans, and is available for free (no registration, etc. required) download at Ecofont's website:

http://www.ecofont.com

The website also includes instruction on how to perform drag and drop installation of the font for Linux, Mac, and Windows users.

Times Roman

The font that finished third in the testing is Times Roman (or Times, for Mac users). Using Times Roman has 94% of the savings realized with Century Gothic.

Font Recommendations

  1. At a minimum, computer users at the University of Houston should have their defailt font set for Times Roman (Windows Users) or Times (Mac Users).
  2. For those users who wish to go further, they should download and install the Ecofont, available at:

http://www.ecofont.com

Printing Recommendations

  1. Instead of printing documents, send electronic copies when possible.
  2. If you need to print the document, please use both sides of the page(s).
  3. Please dispose of printed materials no longer needed by putting them in a recycle bin, instead of the trash.