A previous study, “The Effect of Font Type on a School’s Ink Cost,” (herein called “The School Study”) concluded that a savings of 24%, or $21,000 annually, could be brought about simply by teachers in the school district switching to a more efficient font – namely, Garamond (1, Footnote 1). Besides lower costs, the study pointed out that lower ink consumption would reduce environmental damage. The substantial savings estimated in the previous study opened the question of whether comparable savings can be brought about at the U.S. Federal Government level as a result of a similar switch.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, the printing-related expenditure budgeted in 2014 for the federal agencies is $1.8 billion (2). This figure has been decreasing over the years; however, the figure continues to be high and even a small percentage decrease in printing expenditure due to a font change can result in meaningful monetary savings (assuming that every individual in every government agency currently does not use the most efficient fonts). Regardless of the actual amount, a decrease in printing expenditure would help in lowering the burgeoning federal deficit without having any adverse effects.
A 2013 study by the Government Accountability Office states, “Federal agencies publish thousands of items such as reports, regulatory decisions, consumer information and other types of documents that are of interest to the public.” (3) While federal law requires that the Government Printing Office (GPO) undertake all federal printing, exceptions are made and some agencies have internal printing plants. Furthermore, federal printing is sometimes outsourced (4). The use of multiple printing options at federal agencies and the diversity of needs at the various federal agencies make computing the savings due to a font change a formidable task.
Moreover, unlike in The School Study, limited, if any, access to the agencies was available. Internal documents and memos used within the government agencies were not available for analysis. In addition, valuable printing data could not be obtained despite multiple requests. Thus, a greater reliance had to be made on secondary data collection rather than primary data collection.
Preliminary investigations led to a 2012 study by General Services Administration that estimated savings of $30 million by a switch in fonts to those that are more cost-efficient (5). This report recommended using Times New Roman, Garamond, and Century Gothic. A byproduct of our study is to verify whether this cost savings estimate is justifiable and to validate the recommendation of using the three fonts mentioned above.
Our study estimates savings of $136 million per year if the U.S. Federal Government were to switch to Garamond. Adding the savings if the state governments were to also make similar changes, the estimated total savings top $234 million per year. Times New Roman is less efficient and Century Gothic actually leads to a worse outcome.