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(gè)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(xiàn)在，想象一下它數(shù)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(gè)問題，但對于匹茲堡地區(qū)中學(xué)14歲的蘇維爾·默克安達(dá)尼來說，這可是他在嘗試想出辦法減少浪費(fèi)、節(jié)約成本時(shí)自然而然就想到的一個(gè)問題。

故事緣起

這一切要從一個(gè)科技展覽會(huì)項(xiàng)目說起。當(dāng)時(shí)還是多塞維勒中學(xué)六年級新生的蘇維爾發(fā)現(xiàn)自己拿到的講義要比小學(xué)時(shí)候的多了很多。

蘇維爾對應(yīng)用計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)促進(jìn)環(huán)境可持續(xù)發(fā)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?wù)撏ㄟ^循環(huán)利用和雙面打印來減少紙張的使用，從而節(jié)約成本和保護(hù)資源。但很少有人注意到，在歷史和數(shù)學(xué)講義上，紙張是畫布，油墨才是主角。

“按容量計(jì)算，油墨要比法國香水貴兩倍?！碧K維爾輕聲笑著說。他說的沒錯(cuò)：香奈兒5號香水每盎司38美元，而同樣多的惠普打印機(jī)油墨的價(jià)格高達(dá)75美元。

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

驚人的發(fā)現(xiàn)

蘇維爾隨機(jī)收集了老師們的一些講義當(dāng)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(gè)字母按四種不同字體（加拉蒙體，新羅馬體，世紀(jì)哥特體和漫畫體）的使用頻率繪成圖表。之后，他用一個(gè)名為“APFill?油墨覆蓋率軟件”的商業(yè)工具計(jì)算出每個(gè)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(gè)個(gè)剪了下來，然后給它們稱重來驗(yàn)證自己的發(fā)現(xiàn)。他給每個(gè)字母都做了三次試驗(yàn)，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(jì)算出，若使用筆劃較細(xì)的加拉蒙體，他所在的學(xué)區(qū)可以把油墨消耗降低24%，相應(yīng)地每年節(jié)約21，000美元。

故事尚未到此結(jié)束

在老師的鼓舞下，蘇維爾尋求發(fā)表自己的研究成果，并意外發(fā)現(xiàn)了《新科研》學(xué)術(shù)期刊?！缎驴蒲小肥且槐居晒鹧芯可鷦?chuàng)立的、旨在為初高中學(xué)生的科研作品提供交流平臺(tái)的出版物，和其他學(xué)術(shù)期刊有著同樣的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，每一篇投稿都會(huì)經(jīng)過研究生和學(xué)者們的審核。

《新科研》的創(chuàng)立者之一薩拉·范克豪澤認(rèn)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(xiàng)目十分突出?！疤K維爾的論文讓我們印象非常深刻，我們確實(shí)可以清楚地看到它能應(yīng)用在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界里?！?/p>

范克豪澤說蘇維爾的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)如此清晰、簡潔、嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)，乃至讓該刊的審稿者們發(fā)問：“這項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)到底可以省下多少錢呢？”

為了得到答案，《新科研》雜志鼓勵(lì)蘇維爾把他的研究項(xiàng)目擴(kuò)大到一個(gè)更大的領(lǐng)域：聯(lián)邦政府。研究每年印刷經(jīng)費(fèi)達(dá)18億美元的聯(lián)邦政府可是比蘇維爾的學(xué)?？蒲许?xiàng)目更具挑戰(zhàn)性的一個(gè)任務(wù)。

蘇維爾從政府印務(wù)局網(wǎng)站提供的文件中找了五頁做樣本重復(fù)了他的實(shí)驗(yàn)，得到了相似的結(jié)果——改變字體就能節(jié)約成本?？倓?wù)管理局對油墨的年度成本估算是4.67億美元，按照這個(gè)數(shù)字蘇維爾計(jì)算出，如果聯(lián)邦政府全部使用加拉蒙體可以節(jié)約成本近30%，也就是每年能省下1.36億美元。他報(bào)告稱，如果各州政府也加入這個(gè)行列，每年又能夠額外節(jié)約2.34億美元。

依舊心懷美好希望

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

雖然政府官員們一直猶豫是否要實(shí)施一項(xiàng)變革，但蘇維爾把他的項(xiàng)目看作可以在全國范圍內(nèi)產(chǎn)生更大影響的一個(gè)手段?！跋M(fèi)者現(xiàn)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(xiàn)在14歲的蘇維爾明白要實(shí)施這樣一個(gè)項(xiàng)目有多難：“我承認(rèn)改變別人的行為并不容易，這是最艱難的部分?！钡琅f滿懷希望：“我當(dāng)然想要看到一些實(shí)質(zhì)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?！眅ndprint