Here at Starink, we decided to put these “eco fonts” to the test.

We took seven of the most popular low-consumption print fonts and ran pages until our ink ran out. Printing Font are Calibri, Century Gothic, Ecofont Vera, Times New Roman, Ryman Eco, Garamond, Courier New.

Surprisingly, several modern, environmental fonts used the most ink, while old classics flexed their storied reputations. Score a win for the senior citizens of the typeface world!

Please allow me to show our Print Test Analysis to you in here.

Calibri

This first front we test is Calibri. In fact, we do not get an outstanding result! In contrast, we have get a badly output.

Calibri has long been celebrated as a good font when looking to save ink and toner. But our in-house tests showed otherwise.

Calibri debuted with the release of Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista, and it remains a popular, easy-to-read font, especially on screen.

However, if you are printing out page-after-page, you will find Calibri sucks a lot of ink and toner.

Century Gothic

Like Calibri, Century Gothic also let us down in our ink consumption tests.

Century Gothic has been around since 1991, and is a clean, sans serif font that makes reading a pleasure. It has also earned a reputation as a low-consumption font.

However, our tests showed that if you print long reports in Century Gothic you will waste a lot of ink or toner.

Century Gothic tied with Calibri as the worst performing font in our ink consumption test. Boo!

Times New Roman

Speaking for Times New Roman, sometimes old school is the best school. Times New Roman has been a newsprint staple since 1931.

This elegant, thin-lettered font was designed for economical ink consumption and it performed admirably in our tests, besting more modern, ink-savvy typefaces (we’re looking at you Ecofont Sans Vera!).

An oldie but a goodie, Times New Roman isn’t the most economical font, but it is far from the worst.

Ryman Eco

Now we are talking serious ink savings!

Developed by UK office supply giant, Ryman Stationery, Ryman Eco’s letters are made of thin lines.

This is the same “hollow letter” concept behind Ecofont, only Ryman Eco seems to actually work.

You do not notice the hollow letters at smaller point sizes, and even blown up, Ryman Eco remains easy on the eyes.

If you believe its creators, Ryman Eco could save us 490 million ink cartridges and 15 million barrels of oil if used worldwide.

We know Ryman Eco produced 71 more pages than Calibri and Century Gothic, a 49% performance increase! Believe that!

Old school strikes again!

Garamond is an elegant serif typeface developed by French publisher and type designer Claude Garamond in the 16th century, back when fonts were cut into the faces of metal punches and stamped onto parchment, or cut into wood.

The secret to Garamond’s low ink consumption lies in its small, tight letters. Garamond looks a bit smaller than other fonts of the same size, but its clarity still makes it an easy read.

Garamond is one of the go-to print out fonts if you need a font that uses less ink... and we all want fonts that save ink!

Courier

Ah, Courier, the classic “typewriter font,” how we love you!

Your big, round, airy letters may look dated, but they’re easy to read and sips ink like its Dom Perrigon making you one of the best fonts for printing.

In our tests, Courier produced 111 more pages than Calibri and Century Gothic, a massive 77% increase in output!

Economical, easy to read, and retro-cool — what’s not to love about Courier, a fine font that uses less ink?

Nothing, that is what!

If you are into computer coding or screenwriting, the Courier typeface is an old friend. If you need to print a long document, save yourself some ink or toner - use Courier!

The Right Font For You

Finally, which front is more suitable for you?

The goal here is finding the right font for you. You need a font which uses the least ink that strikes a balance between readability and reasonable ink consumption. Finding what font to use may take some trial and error. Demand sustainable fonts, people! Economic fonts!

Which font uses the least amount of ink?

In our tests, Courier was the font that uses the least ink. Your mileage, and page count, may vary when determining which font to use.

Classic fonts to save ink like Times, Courier, and Garamond are good fonts for print. But we also like the direction Ryman Eco is taking modern, ink saving fonts.

In general, a big, bold, flashy font will consume a lot of ink and are not the cheapest font to print. But, surprisingly, even simple fonts, like Arial, are hogs when it comes to ink and toner consumption.

The best printing fonts are ink saving fonts. Stick with the classics and save yourself some money!