蘇維爾·默克安達尼：玩轉字體省大錢

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."

一個字母e，你可以用筆流暢地一劃寫出，或是輕敲一下鍵盤打出。它是英語詞典中使用最頻繁的字母，寫起來也簡單，是吧？現在，想象一下它數百萬次被打印在成千上萬的表格和文件中，再想一下那將需要多少油墨。

好了，你可能是第一次思考這個問題，但對于匹茲堡地區中學14歲的蘇維爾·默克安達尼來說，這可是他在嘗試想出辦法減少浪費、節約成本時自然而然就想到的一個問題。

故事緣起

這一切要從一個科技展覽會項目說起。當時還是多塞維勒中學六年級新生的蘇維爾發現自己拿到的講義要比小學時候的多了很多。

蘇維爾對應用計算機科學促進環境可持續發展十分感興趣，因此他打算弄明白是否有更好的方法來盡可能減少紙張和油墨的大量使用。

之前人們一直談論通過循環利用和雙面打印來減少紙張的使用，從而節約成本和保護資源。但很少有人注意到，在歷史和數學講義上，紙張是畫布，油墨才是主角。

“按容量計算，油墨要比法國香水貴兩倍。”蘇維爾輕聲笑著說。他說的沒錯：香奈兒5號香水每盎司38美元，而同樣多的惠普打印機油墨的價格高達75美元。

因此，蘇維爾決定把自己研究項目的重點放在尋找方法降低這種昂貴液體的使用量上。endprint

驚人的發現

蘇維爾隨機收集了老師們的一些講義當樣本，集中精力研究那些最常用的字母（e、t、a、o和r）。

首先，他把每個字母按四種不同字體（加拉蒙體，新羅馬體，世紀哥特體和漫畫體）的使用頻率繪成圖表。之后，他用一個名為“APFill?油墨覆蓋率軟件”的商業工具計算出每個字母使用的油墨量。

接著，他把這些字母放大，用卡片紙打印出來并一個個剪了下來，然后給它們稱重來驗證自己的發現。他給每個字母都做了三次試驗，并把每種字體消耗的油墨量繪成圖表。

通過這樣的分析，蘇維爾計算出，若使用筆劃較細的加拉蒙體，他所在的學區可以把油墨消耗降低24%，相應地每年節約21，000美元。

故事尚未到此結束

在老師的鼓舞下，蘇維爾尋求發表自己的研究成果，并意外發現了《新科研》學術期刊。《新科研》是一本由哈佛研究生創立的、旨在為初高中學生的科研作品提供交流平臺的出版物，和其他學術期刊有著同樣的標準，每一篇投稿都會經過研究生和學者們的審核。

《新科研》的創立者之一薩拉·范克豪澤認為在該刊自2011年以來收到的近200份投稿中，蘇維爾的研究項目十分突出。“蘇維爾的論文讓我們印象非常深刻，我們確實可以清楚地看到它能應用在現實世界里。”

范克豪澤說蘇維爾的研究發現如此清晰、簡潔、嚴謹，乃至讓該刊的審稿者們發問：“這項發現到底可以省下多少錢呢？”

為了得到答案，《新科研》雜志鼓勵蘇維爾把他的研究項目擴大到一個更大的領域：聯邦政府。研究每年印刷經費達18億美元的聯邦政府可是比蘇維爾的學校科研項目更具挑戰性的一個任務。

蘇維爾從政府印務局網站提供的文件中找了五頁做樣本重復了他的實驗，得到了相似的結果——改變字體就能節約成本。總務管理局對油墨的年度成本估算是4.67億美元，按照這個數字蘇維爾計算出，如果聯邦政府全部使用加拉蒙體可以節約成本近30%，也就是每年能省下1.36億美元。他報告稱，如果各州政府也加入這個行列，每年又能夠額外節約2.34億美元。

依舊心懷美好希望

政府印務局的媒體公關主管加里·薩默塞特對蘇維爾研究工作的評價是“卓越非凡的”，但對于政府印務局是否會在字體上做出改變，他并未明確表態。

雖然政府官員們一直猶豫是否要實施一項變革，但蘇維爾把他的項目看作可以在全國范圍內產生更大影響的一個手段。“消費者現在仍然在家里打印，而他們也可以做出這種字體的改變。”他說。

現在14歲的蘇維爾明白要實施這樣一個項目有多難：“我承認改變別人的行為并不容易，這是最艱難的部分。”但他依舊滿懷希望：“我當然想要看到一些實質性的變化，并且我也愿意盡最大的努力讓這種變化成為可能。”endprint