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He has found his passion and is bettering the world because of it. If everyone had the opportunity and ability to find and do what they are truly passionate about, this planet would be one almost of paradise.

I think what he's doing is great. The goal is laudable and I love his passion for it (anyone who tattoos letters on their arm clearly loves typefaces!).

But I don't like the font. The individual letters look great, but as a word or a sentence, it reads very poorly to my eye.

The font is quite beautiful.

I wonder if the neighborhood kids call him the alphabet man.

I'd hate to burst his bubble, but this "eco" mode could be done (maybe it is already?) programmatically for ALL FONTS.

And words already take up very small percentage of coverage on your average sheet of paper. So saving 33% of 5% isn't that much.

Yes, it's an artistic font, but you do much more to save the planet by buying hax0red printers with huge user-refillable ink storage.

http://www.rymaneco.co.uk/

For those interested.

It's still a 33% saving on ink though. I don't see how the percentage of the page covered in ink is relevant. By your logic a 100% saving in ink would still "only" be 5% of the page?

I think the point is that there are opportunities to think about improving efficiency in all professions, and that these saving needn't necessarily come at the expense of quality. In fact, the inspiration to create something more efficient may actually lead to a pleasing aesthetic.

I had trouble reading the url at the end. I would like to see studies to ensure me that this font is just as readable as a fully-filled font. I have my doubts. But it IS a slick font and kinda beautiful in single servings...

Naw, I think his bubble is still intact; check out 1:15 where they briefly compare using less ink on a standard font. I can't imagine someone that knowledgeable would be completely ignorant of all the existing ways to save ink.

Maybe this new approach of trying to create small ink channels rather than dithering could be farmed out to an algorithm, but who knows if it would create something pretty as well as functional.

Of course, I don't know if he succeeded, they kept showing what it looks like on a computer screen, not the intended look once the lines bleed together.

So, let's all download it and see what we think compared to draft quality. It's free.

http://rymaneco.co.uk/


P.S. Good point about continuous ink systems and refillable cartridges. Fuck proprietary disposable ones.

Sad man doesn't understand the problem... There are plenty of ways to save ink and use less packaging, but it doesn't matter because the ink/printer companies would just put less in the cartridge. He'd be far better off telling people about toner sensor hacks and refills than creating a hard to read font that strokes his own ego.

Irony: man creates font to save ink. Posts video about it. Millions of people print an unnecessary document to see what it looks like

My point is that when people print photographs, or pages with large graphics, this font is saving 0% of 90% page coverage. So my logic is that his contribution to saving actual ink is very small. Plus most of the ink I lose (personally) is because the cartridge dries out over time.

Besides that, the font ONLY makes sense on a printed page, where it looks like a normal font after ink bleeding, etc. On screen, it looks like shit. And can't take advantage of sub-pixel-font-rendering employed by every modern OS on LCD displays.

I'd like to file a VS bug; it seems that some comments are accidentally flagged as sarcastic when they are clearly true.

I think I'd have to see it in actual printed form to judge the readability accurately.

BUT, in terms of readability on a display, like the 40" 1920x1080 LCD I'm watching on ... it is quite poor in my opinion. I have a feeling that it would work much better in ink on paper.

33% ink savings sounds pretty good, assuming that the readability on paper is better than a display. That being said, encouraging printer manufacturers to have a more sane approach to refillable ink/toner reservoirs would have a better/bigger impact.

Here in Thailand, where respect for patents / IP is low, (SE Asia is notorious for fake manufactured goods, pirated "soft" media, and hardware hacks / bypasses) I'd guess that around 90% of inkjet printers sold have a tank system glued onto the side with ink lines running into the cartridges from big CYMK reservoirs. I never buy new cartridges unless the print head gets damaged/worn out -- instead, I just buy cheap LARGE bottles of the different ink colors and refill the reservoirs. (Image link of such a setup HERE)

That kind of mod would be a gray or black-market item in the West, but here the laissez-faire attitude about such things has some positive effects. At least, for a consumer (like me), or someone concerned about the environmental impact of all the waste packaging for ink carts (like the dude in this video).

Typeface tattoos and a halftone patterned shirt? dude means business.

Some guy,
"Is that an italic Monotype Corsiva 'W' 34pt on your right arm?

Dan Rhatigan,
"It's OBLIQUE you jackass!"

Meh.. epaper is right around the corner. I hope writing paper can go die. Stop killing trillions of trees.

I just sprayed an entire can of Aquanet and poured a bunch of paint into a storm drain. Get over it, people.

Photos and graphics account for a small percentage of pages printed. The vast majority (I'd wager close to 80 or 90%) are businesses and governments printing documents.

Which still leaves a problem. He seems to have designed this for inkjets, and anyone doing a lot of printing almost certainly uses a laser printer.

Also yeah, the on screen readability isn't great. The answer is ultimately not to print at all.

My solution is to print 33% less crap, it has the additional benefit of also saving in on paper.
So there we go, the world is now saved.

Who is adding the tanks to the printer? The people selling them to retailers, the retailer, or is it a DIY? I'm guessing the lines connect to the cartridges in the printer and just kind of keep them full? Or do they tap directly into where the print cartridge connect to the heads? I think it's cool. Thanks for sharing.

Another question is do people in Thailand have a need for lots of printing? I'm in the U.S. and would say that personally, my printing needs have gone down 90% say over the last 10 years. At home, I print maybe 5 pages a month.

The tank mods are added by retailers and print shops. You're right about how the system works -- the lines run from the big tanks and are inserted through a hole drilled into the carts small reservoir.

One issue with that is that most cartridges have a software page count that is used to tell you that the ink is running low / empty after a certain number of prints. So, along with the tank install, most shops will put in an aftermarket chip or PCB that resets or bypasses that counter.

For the other question, I think that Thailand still relies on printed documents more than in the US, but it is going down. I undoubtedly have a somewhat skewed opinion on things since I am a teacher, though. I teach 18 different classes of roughly 40 kids once a week, with a worksheet or some other printout being used nearly every week -- so I probably burn 700+ pages each week through my school's copy machines. Then I teach smaller private classes at home, with maybe 100 or so pages a week on my own printer(s). I have one inkjet with those tanks installed, 2 mono lasers, and 1 color laser... So yeah, I probably am a much heavier user of printed stuff than your average person.

Too bad he didn't use his Ryman Eco font on his arms and save some ink there.

What I got from this discussion is, this font could save ink-usage but won't save any trees.

Thanks again for the info. I don't print enough myself to go through figuring out how to set that up, but it's a good idea and I can see how it would be useful for your needs.

Doug Stanhope's solution for being eco-friendly :
http://youtu.be/bgyumGSF9-4