Turning over a new leaf

HARPER COLLINS' NEW ECO-FONTS TRIM BOOKS TO SAVE TREES

Over the past 3 years, the designers at HarperCollins have been tweaking their fonts and layouts, resulting in the saving of 245.6 million pages, which they say is equivalent to 5,618 trees!

The idea of using design to save paper, first came from their Christian publishing division, Zondervan Bibles who developed a new compact typeface called the NIV Comfort Print which saved more than 350 pages per bible - and resulted in a total saving of 100 million pages in one year!

Applying these discoveries to other kinds of books, the publishers came up with a list of 15 'eco-friendly' fonts some of which use less ink and which, coupled with a different layout design, have resulted in more words per page - but without the reader noticing.

Tracey Menzies, the VP of creative operations and production at HarperCollins said, "When we experimented with these fonts, we realized they weren't a limitation at all. It was simply a different approach that didn't sacrifice aesthetics. Now, our designers are constantly questioning how we do things and thinking about ways to make things more sustainable."

Leah Carlson-Stanisic, associate director of design said, "We want to make sure our big titles, by prominent authors, are using these eco-fonts. It adds up a little bit at a time, saving more and more trees.".

Hopefully the roots and shoots of this idea will spread to other publishing houses.