What costs $8,000 a gallon that we all buy?

The ink for our printers. That's why printers are so cheap--the profit is in the ink. However, you can save a lot just by changing your font, according to Diane Blohowiak, director of computing at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The fonts most ink-stingy, are Century Gothic, Garamond, Courier, Brush Script, and Times New Roman. I use Times New Roman almost exclusively, with some Courier thrown in at my Premiere Issue blog. I was surprised that Arial was so slurpy with ink. It looks so innocent with all those straight, sleek lines. Hmmm. Looks can be deceiving. Also, Times New Roman is the easier font to read because of its dainty little feet.

Of course, once everyone switches fonts, the price of ink will go up again. It's like gasoline costs and more miles per gallon.

Story here.

My first printer, a Laser-Jet 4-L, was very efficient. The toner only had to be replaced about every 3 years, but cost about $70 a cartridge. Still much cheaper than what I pay to replace my micro cartridges in my HP PhotoSmart C3180. I only stopped using the better one because I couldn't find the cartridge locally.