A Dutch company called Spranq have come up with an interesting typeface that aims to reduce printer ink usage by omitting numerous tiny circles from the center of each letter. Called EcoFont, it was inspired by holey Dutch cheese and is the result of an effort to cut down on ink use while simultaneously maintaining readability.
The font is based on the Open Source Vera Sans typeface and is available free for PC or Mac (though they do ask for a donation). The idea is creative and could indeed work to reduce ink consumption, but would likely be best coupled with more traditional ink-saving techniques such as printing in grayscale and using a very small point font size.
Personally, I’m a fan of extremely light-weight fonts and find them to be not only very elegant (they’re often used for logos and catalogs of luxury brands – M&S in the UK comes to mind) but also very readable, even at smaller sizes.
Spranq claims the EcoFont uses up to 20 percent less ink, but does not divulge the specifics of the comparison. I’d like to see the EcoFont put up against Helvetica 35 Thin. My bets would be on Helvy.