Another in our series of Posts on ‘Geakonomics’

We’re all aware of dozens of interesting trivia items that we could use to benefit our lives. If we only had the time to be as organized as we’d like! Add this one to an urban legend that turns out to be true. (Really 😉 )

If you can change your default font from a sans-serif type (such as Arial) to a serifed font such as Georgia or Times or Courier, you will save about 25% on toner.

We had heard about this for years from various tech rumor mongers so our newest intern Gail acted as guinea pig for a month. We tracked her toner usage for two weeks, first using all the default Arial and then Times New Roman for another two weeks. The results: about 14% less toner.

Hardly conclusive, but it does make one wonder how and why the world shifted to an almost exclusively sans-serif look. After all, there have been many, many studies done over the years which should humans are far more comfortable and achieve higher rates and comprehension reading good ol’ newspaper type.

We all believed it was because sans-serif fonts where less expensive than serifs.

Now, it is true that to get the maximum benefit you’d have to do this for every single document and device in your office. But still, it is interesting that this should be so.

I doubt the world will shift back to serifs any time soon. For most people I am sure the look would be completely jarring (‘old timey’ was how one person in our office referred to a computer outfitted with Georgia as the default font.)

My point is that there are so many things that become ‘standards’ for what appear to be practical reasons. Good to take a peak every once in a while.