Every Little Bit Helps

So simple even I can do it and just did. The Dutch communications company Spranq has designed a new environmentally-friendly font they have named the Ecofont.

It is free to download from their site complete with instructions for the computer-challenged.

This font is simplicity itself patterned after a dutch cheese with a similar look. As the designers say, “After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.”

The Ecofont saves on printing ink by using less of it. Letters in the typeface contain multiple small circular holes. Obviously, this means that each letter requires less ink to be printed.

Though rather striking, the typeface is wholly readable (no pun intended) and is, apparently, most effective at nine or 10 point. It's also sans serif, because the little flourishes on serif fonts use more ink when being printed.

Spranq claims that the Ecofont will reduce ink use by up to 20% - not bad for something that was developed over "lots of late hours (and coffee)".
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the font is the question it raises: why hasn't anybody thought of this before? Sometimes, it’s the simplest things that take the longest to be seen.

Spranq actively encourages printing as little as possible and "hopes to increase environmental awareness" through the Ecofont.

However, innovative thinking like this is a positive step in conservation on any scale. Download the Ecofont, try it, see if you like it – you can’t go wrong.