苏维尔·默克安达尼：玩转字体省大钱

Madeleine+Stix

An e. You can write it with one fluid swoop1） of a pen or one tap of the keyboard. The most commonly used letter in the English dictionary. Simple， right？ Now imagine it printed out millions of times on thousands of forms and documents. Then think of how much ink would be needed.

OK， so that may have been a first for you， but it came naturally to 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani when he was trying to think of ways to cut waste and save money at his Pittsburgh-area middle school.

In the beginning …

It all started as a science fair project. As a neophyte2） sixth-grader at Dorseyville Middle School， Suvir noticed he was getting a lot more handouts than he did in elementary school.

Interested in applying computer science to promote environmental sustainability， Suvir decided he was going to figure out if there was a better way to minimize the constant flurry3） of paper and ink.

Reducing paper use through recycling and dual-sided printing had been talked about before as a way to save money and conserve resources， but there was less attention paid to the ink for which the paper served as a canvas for history and algebra handouts.

"Ink is two times more expensive than French perfume by volume，" Suvir says with a chuckle. He's right： Chanel No. 5 perfume costs $38 per ounce， while the equivalent amount of Hewlett-Packard printer ink can cost up to $75.

So Suvir decided to focus his project on finding ways to cut down on the costly liquid.

A surprising finding

Collecting random samples of teachers' handouts， Suvir concentrated on the most commonly used characters （e， t， a， o and r）.

First， he charted4） how often each character was used in four different typefaces： Garamond， Times New Roman， Century Gothic and Comic Sans. Then he measured how much ink was used for each letter， using a commercial tool called APFill? Ink Coverage Software.

Next he enlarged the letters， printed them and cut them out on cardstock paper to weigh them to verify his findings. He did three trials for each letter， graphing the ink usage for each font5）.

From this analysis， Suvir figured out that by using Garamond with its thinner strokes6）， his school district could reduce its ink consumption by 24%， and in turn save as much as $21，000 annually.

The story doesnt end here

Encouraged by his teacher， Suvir looked to publish his findings and stumbled on7） the Journal for Emerging Investigators （JEI）， a publication founded by a group of Harvard grad students in 2011 that provides a forum for the work of middle school and high school students. It has the same standards as academic journals， and each submission is reviewed by grad students and academics.endprint

Sarah Fankhauser， one of JEI's founders， says that of the nearly 200 submissions they have received since 2011， Suvir's project was a real standout： "We were so impressed. We really could see the real-world application in Suvir's paper."

Fankhauser said Suvir's findings were so clear， simple and well thought-out， it had the reviewers at JEI asking， "How much potential savings is really out there？"

For the answer， JEI challenged Suvir to apply his project to a larger scale： the federal government. With an annual printing expenditure of $1.8 billion， the government was a much more challenging task than his school science project.

Suvir repeated his tests on five sample pages from documents on the Government Printing Office （GPO） website and got similar results—change the font， save money. Using the General Services Administration's estimated annual cost of ink—$467 million—Suvir concluded that if the federal government used Garamond exclusively it could save nearly 30%—or $136 million per year. An additional $234 million could be saved annually if state governments also jumped on board8）， he reported.

Still hope for the best

Gary Somerset， media and public relations manager at the Government Printing Office， describes Suvir's work as "remarkable". But he was non-committal9） on whether the GPO would introduce changes to typeface.

Although government officials have been hesitant to implement a change， yet Suvir sees his project as a means of making an even bigger impact nationwide. "Consumers are still printing at home. They can make this change too，" he says.

At 14， Suvir understands how difficult such a project might be to implement—"I recognize it's difficult to change someone's behavior. That's the most difficult part." But he holds out hope： "I definitely would love to see some actual changes and I'd be happy to go as far as possible to make that change possible."

一个字母e，你可以用笔流畅地一划写出，或是轻敲一下键盘打出。它是英语词典中使用最频繁的字母，写起来也简单，是吧？现在，想象一下它数百万次被打印在成千上万的表格和文件中，再想一下那将需要多少油墨。

好了，你可能是第一次思考这个问题，但对于匹兹堡地区中学14岁的苏维尔·默克安达尼来说，这可是他在尝试想出办法减少浪费、节约成本时自然而然就想到的一个问题。

故事缘起

这一切要从一个科技展览会项目说起。当时还是多塞维勒中学六年级新生的苏维尔发现自己拿到的讲义要比小学时候的多了很多。

苏维尔对应用计算机科学促进环境可持续发展十分感兴趣，因此他打算弄明白是否有更好的方法来尽可能减少纸张和油墨的大量使用。

之前人们一直谈论通过循环利用和双面打印来减少纸张的使用，从而节约成本和保护资源。但很少有人注意到，在历史和数学讲义上，纸张是画布，油墨才是主角。

“按容量计算，油墨要比法国香水贵两倍。”苏维尔轻声笑着说。他说的没错：香奈儿5号香水每盎司38美元，而同样多的惠普打印机油墨的价格高达75美元。

因此，苏维尔决定把自己研究项目的重点放在寻找方法降低这种昂贵液体的使用量上。endprint

惊人的发现

苏维尔随机收集了老师们的一些讲义当样本，集中精力研究那些最常用的字母（e、t、a、o和r）。

首先，他把每个字母按四种不同字体（加拉蒙体，新罗马体，世纪哥特体和漫画体）的使用频率绘成图表。之后，他用一个名为“APFill?油墨覆盖率软件”的商业工具计算出每个字母使用的油墨量。

接着，他把这些字母放大，用卡片纸打印出来并一个个剪了下来，然后给它们称重来验证自己的发现。他给每个字母都做了三次试验，并把每种字体消耗的油墨量绘成图表。

通过这样的分析，苏维尔计算出，若使用笔划较细的加拉蒙体，他所在的学区可以把油墨消耗降低24%，相应地每年节约21，000美元。

故事尚未到此结束

在老师的鼓舞下，苏维尔寻求发表自己的研究成果，并意外发现了《新科研》学术期刊。《新科研》是一本由哈佛研究生创立的、旨在为初高中学生的科研作品提供交流平台的出版物，和其他学术期刊有着同样的标准，每一篇投稿都会经过研究生和学者们的审核。

《新科研》的创立者之一萨拉·范克豪泽认为在该刊自2011年以来收到的近200份投稿中，苏维尔的研究项目十分突出。“苏维尔的论文让我们印象非常深刻，我们确实可以清楚地看到它能应用在现实世界里。”

范克豪泽说苏维尔的研究发现如此清晰、简洁、严谨，乃至让该刊的审稿者们发问：“这项发现到底可以省下多少钱呢？”

为了得到答案，《新科研》杂志鼓励苏维尔把他的研究项目扩大到一个更大的领域：联邦政府。研究每年印刷经费达18亿美元的联邦政府可是比苏维尔的学校科研项目更具挑战性的一个任务。

苏维尔从政府印务局网站提供的文件中找了五页做样本重复了他的实验，得到了相似的结果——改变字体就能节约成本。总务管理局对油墨的年度成本估算是4.67亿美元，按照这个数字苏维尔计算出，如果联邦政府全部使用加拉蒙体可以节约成本近30%，也就是每年能省下1.36亿美元。他报告称，如果各州政府也加入这个行列，每年又能够额外节约2.34亿美元。

依旧心怀美好希望

政府印务局的媒体公关主管加里·萨默塞特对苏维尔研究工作的评价是“卓越非凡的”，但对于政府印务局是否会在字体上做出改变，他并未明确表态。

虽然政府官员们一直犹豫是否要实施一项变革，但苏维尔把他的项目看作可以在全国范围内产生更大影响的一个手段。“消费者现在仍然在家里打印，而他们也可以做出这种字体的改变。”他说。

现在14岁的苏维尔明白要实施这样一个项目有多难：“我承认改变别人的行为并不容易，这是最艰难的部分。”但他依旧满怀希望：“我当然想要看到一些实质性的变化，并且我也愿意尽最大的努力让这种变化成为可能。”endprint