IAPHC

Eeek, it's an Ecofont !

An item in the 29 March 2010, eGAM e-newsletter caught our eye.  Bill Esler's reporting team http://www.graphicartsonline.com mentioned some news passed along by Arthur Lefebvre's Waterless Printing Association www.waterless.org   The reference was to Ecofont.

(Editorial aside:  We partnered with the folks at the Waterless Printing Association to offer their membership an opportunity to participate in the International Gallery some years back, and we were the beneficiary of gorgeous entries from firms like AQ Printworks in Australia, and Napier Jones Ltd. of London, England.  Just the other day, Peter Clements of Napier Jones www.napierjones.co.uk asked to connect with us via LinkedIn, reminding us once again, that we must think global even as we implement local.) 

Turns out that the printed edition of National Geographic magazine, as well as a NatGeo blog had written about this quirky, yet intriguing re-imagining of your standard type-face in late summer 2009.

From the Ecofont website:

"During printing Ecofont ‘shoots’ holes into the letters that you have typed! That is fascinating in itself, and all the more so when you realise that this has no effect on legibility.

But it only really becomes interesting when we tell you that it generally enables you to save up to 25% of ink or toner. Both your wallet and the environment will be grateful to you, because ink and toner are a particularly heavy burden on both.

You work with your customary font and print using its ink-saving Eco variant with a single press of the button. The Ecofont software is very easy to install and use."

The NatGeo Blog post was dated 20 August 2009 and has the inspired title of Holey Grail:  http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/08/holey-grail.html

Here is the excellent graphic created by the wizards at National Geographic:

As toner becomes ever more prevalent in the output of traditional commercial print plants, and as we are frequently reminded by Xerox and HP and Kodak mainstream advertising, toner costs dough; well the idea of a font software that can trim a few Euros from one's cost of goods sold expense is perhaps worth a look.

It appears from the Ecofont website www.ecofont.nl that commercial availability of the software is coming soon. 

http://www.ecofont.com/en/general/contact/order-ecofont.html

Of course, as the NatGeo blog post notes, not everyone finds this innovation way-cool.  The blog quotes Frank Romano, who thinks the idea is more gimmick than good, and in his own inimitable way, he nails his objection to the church doors:  "If I wanted Swiss type, I would use Helvetica."  Touche!

By the by, one argument in favour of Ecofont is the environmental impact.  Thus, we share this interesting discussion, led by our good friend and IAPHC-Toronto member Jay Mandarino, president of C.J. Graphics Inc., about Waterless Printing as a friend of the environment as posted on www.WhatTheyThink.com last autumn:

http://blogs.whattheythink.com/going-green/2009/09/waterless-printing-a-green-choice