Experiments in Cutting Campus Printing Costs

Ink, Paper, Scissors

Malinda HuskInformation Manager, Indiana METACyt Initiative

Who am I and why am I here?

• Seventeen years in IT at Indiana University– Eight campuses with > 110,000 students total– Bloomington campus has ~ 43,000 students

and ~ 8,000 faculty and staff• Support and communication• Writing, editing, and some publishing• What's the first thing I thought of?

“It’s the economy, stupid!”

• Universities are cutting costs to cope with slashed budgets

• Does printing make a difference?– Ink and toner– Paper– Printer maintenance

Where it all began . . .

In 2010, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay changed its default email font from

Arial to

Century Gothic

36 points

30% less ink

. . . potentially saving $30,000 per year on toner.

$30K a year? Sign me up!

• 10-point Century Gothic – 30% less ink than Arial– BUT . . . 10% more paper than 11-point Times

New Roman• One page email? No problem!• One hundred page document? A bit iffy . . .• Fifty users printing a one hundred page

document? Problem!

Fifty users printing a 100-page document in 10-point Century Gothic on a non-duplex printer will

use an entire ream of paper more than the same users printing the same document in 11-point

Times New Roman.

The method behind the madness: Choosing fonts

• 2009: Printer.com tested common fonts for ink usage– 10-point Century Gothic, 11-point Times New

Roman ranked highest– Also ran: 11-point Arial

• What about Garamond?

The method behind the madness: Testing the hypothesis

• First pass: solid block of lorem ipsum

Font Size No. lines

Approx. no. pages

Approx. no. characters per full page

Century Gothic 12 275 6.5 3,110Century Gothic 11 242 5.5 3,702

Times New Roman 12 242 5.5 3,702

Arial 12 242 5.5 3,702Arial 11 242 5.25 4,086

Century Gothic 10 242 5 4,093

Garamond 12 209 5 4,197Times New Roman 11 209 4.5 4,623

Garamond 11 198 4.25 4,886

Save the ink, save the world . . . ?

Century Gothic 10 242 5 4,093

Times New Roman 11 209 4.5 4,623

Font Size No. lines

Approx. no. pages

Approx. no. characters per full page

100 pages 200 pages 300 pages0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Century Gothic 12

Linear (Century Gothic 12)

Century Gothic 11

Arial 11

Century Gothic 10

Linear (Century Gothic 10)

Times New Roman 11

Linear (Times New Roman 11)

Number of pages in Times New Roman 11 point

Nu

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of

pa

ge

s i

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The method behind the madness: Testing the hypothesis

• First pass: solid block of lorem ipsum• Second pass: three previously published papers

– Used Word Count feature in MS Word to count pages and lines in original font

– Chose a page to estimate character count– Substituted our chosen fonts

Comparing published papersPaper Font Pages Lines Characters

per page

1 Calibri 12 (published) 106 5,883 2,899Century Gothic 10 108 6,145 3,370

Times New Roman 11 107 6,165 3,491

2 Garamond 11 (published) 59 2,289 4,178Century Gothic 10 65 2,548 3,765

Times New Roman 11 63 2,361 3,983

3 Times New Roman 12 (published) 104 13,302 2,719Century Gothic 10 103 12,488 2,719

Times New Roman 11 103 12,577 2,719

No papers were harmed in this comparison.

It’s not just the ink and paper

• • Readability must be a key factor in your decision• A few words on Century Gothic

– Suitable for small blocks of text such as headlines

– Not recommended for longer documents – use Times New Roman or Arial instead

– Says who? Allan Haley, director at firm which developed Century Gothic

If you can’t read it . . . you won’t.

Don’t shoot the serif

• “Serif faces are somewhat easier to read in blocks or paragraphs of text than sans-serif…” – Merriam-Webster’s Manual for Writers & Editors, 1998

• For presentations, Microsoft recommends sans-serif

Readability is subjective

• Personal preference• Context• Medium

Original 1969 Woodstock poster by Arnold Skolnick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Woodstock_poster.jpg

Original 1969 Woodstock poster by Arnold Skolnick

Same poster reimagined, flaunting design rules*

* and, frankly, good taste

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Woodstock_poster.jpg

Readability is mandated (sometimes)

“The guidelines [for formatting grant proposals] ... establish the minimum type size requirements; however, ... readability is of paramount importance and should take precedence in selection of an appropriate font for use in the proposal. Small type size makes it difficult for reviewers to read the proposal; consequently, the use of small type not in compliance with the above guidelines may be grounds for NSF to return the proposal without review.”

- National Science FoundationGrant Proposal Guide

Student printing on campus• Print quotas for students

– At IU, funded through Student Technology Fee– More than 85% of students can print without incurring

additional fees• No way to limit student print jobs to certain font/size combos• It is possible to educate them about making smart choices

when printing– At IU, how can I conserve paper in the STCs?

http://kb.iu.edu/data/aqez.html – Educational posters in computer labs

Departmental printing

• Perfect-bound, full-color, 152-page report – $31/ea for 160 copies = $4,960– $21/ea for 260 copies = $5,460

• Printing costs exceeded remaining project budget

• Storage space already filled with excess copies of other documents

• Desire to be environmentally friendly

Print-on-demand

• Print only as many copies as needed• Order more at any time without additional setup

costs• Cost can be passed on to consumer

Wait . . . what?

Pros and cons

• Pro: Print-on-demand model saves the department money

• Con: Message reaches a narrower audience (i.e., only those willing to pay for it)– Offer the same document electronically for free– Sell the report at “publish-at price”– Use departmental money to purchase copies for

others (at a lower price than that offered to the general public)

Show me the money!

• Remember our perfect-bound, full-color, 152-page report?– $31/ea for 160 copies = $4,960– $21/ea for 260 copies = $5,460

• We purchased two copies– Unit price was slightly higher than $21– We didn’t have to buy a minimum number of

copies– Our $5,000 print job instead cost just over $50

Everyone has an opinion, and they’re all valid

• Helvetica (the documentary)• Comic Sans• Comic strips

A font of wisdom

• IU Pervasive Technology Institute standardized on 11-point Times New Roman for printed documentation consisting mainly of text blocks

• Departmental PowerPoint template is in Century Gothic

• Documents destined for professional design and printing will continue to include a mix of fonts chosen with ink and paper usage in mind

• Employees are encouraged to avoid printing whenever possible

Conclusion

Choosing a font based solely on its ink or paper usage is dangerous. If your message is rendered ineffective by its presentation, any ink or paper used can be considered wasted.

Any questions?

Thanks!• Please cite this presentation as: Husk, M.J. Ink, Paper, Scissors: Experiments in Cutting Campus

Printing Costs. 2012. Presentation. Presented at: SIGUCCS 2012 (Memphis, TN, 18 Oct 2012).

Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/14718

• Except where otherwise noted, the contents of this presentation are © the Trustees of Indiana

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• Thanks to Craig Stewart, Dennis Cromwell, Kim Milford, Stacy Morrone, Susan Coleman Morse,

and Sue Workman for their valuable comments on the first draft of this paper.

• Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indiana University.