Experiments in Cutting Campus Printing Costs Ink, Paper, Scissors Malinda Husk Information Manager,...
-
Upload
dwight-todd -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
3
Transcript of Experiments in Cutting Campus Printing Costs Ink, Paper, Scissors Malinda Husk Information Manager,...
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
mb
er
of
pa
ge
s i
n e
ac
h f
on
t/s
ize
co
mb
ina
tio
n
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
University. This content is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). This license includes the following terms: You are
free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work and to remix – to adapt the work under
the following conditions: attribution – you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the
author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the
work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
• 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.