Specifications

www.ausom.net.au AUSOM News April 2009 v 23
Pam Doughty
Spranq’s Ink-Saving Font
Looking for ways to reduce the amount of paper and ink that you use?
Doing so can save you money with the added
benefit of using less natural resources. Spranq,
a Dutch company, has come up with a font
that does just that. Spranq’s font uses the
idea that a typeface could contain a certain
percentage of holes or small circles in it
without major alteration to the printed image.
The font itself, being based on Vera Sans,
looks similar to Verdana and using it at size
10 is possibly the best but size 12 prints well
and may be easier for screen viewing. The
higher you go up in font size, the more you
can see the holes — of course this may add
exactly the effect you want (the sample below
is 60pt). It works well if your software allows
you to create an italic version however it is
distributed as ‘regular’ only. Using bold would
fill in all the holes so the effect would be lost. It
is said to reduce the amount of ink used by 20%.
Available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Visit
http://www.ecofont.eu/
for more information.
ecofont
ecofont at 12 pt
Sample of
font at 60
and 12 pt.
The second
sample has
been provided
as a screen
image of the
60pt sample.
As I have
not ‘tested’
the font’s
performance
with InDesign
and pdf files
the first
lines may not
reproduce
correctly.
z
Submitted by Ruth Cooper
Once a pun a time…
It is said that the ability to make and understand PUNS
is the highest level of language development. Here are
the top 10 winners in the International Pun Contest.
1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead
raccoons. The Stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m
sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.
2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns
to the other and says, ‘Dam!’
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they
lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly, it sank, proving
once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it.
4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my
electron.’ The other says, ‘Are you sure?’ The first
replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused
Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend
dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel
and were standing in the lobby discussing their
recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the
manager came out of the office and asked them to
disperse. ‘But why?’, they asked, as they moved off.
‘Because,’ he said, ‘I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in
an open foyer.’
7. A woman has identical twins and gives them up for
adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and
is named Ahmal. The other goes to a family in Spain;
they name him Juan. Years later, Juan sends a picture of
himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture,
she tells her husband that she wishes she also had
a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, ‘They’re
twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.’
8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry
payments, so they opened a small florist shop to raise
funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the
men of God, a rival florist across town thought the
competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to
close down, but they would not.
He went back and begged the friars to close. They
ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh
MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in
town to ‘persuade’ them to close. Hugh beat up the
friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if
they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby
proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot
most of the time, which produced an impressive set of
calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made
him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered
from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is SO
BAD, it’s good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed
by halitosis.
10. And, finally, there was the person who sent ten
different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one
of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.
z