Pinch This! – Opinions From E. Curtis Johnson

My Mom could pinch a penny so hard Abraham Lincoln would cough! A 14-year-old from Pittsburgh makes my Mom look like a spendthrift. CNN.com reports Suvir Mirchandai discovered a way to save his school district $21,000 a year: change the typeface on printed material to the Garamond font.

Named after 16^th century publisher, Claude Garamond, the font uses the least amount of ink. This is the first time a Frenchman has saved anyone or anything in a long time, but I digress. Mirchandi figured out the federal government spends $467 million a year on ink, but taxpayers could save $136 million by exclusively using Garamond.

According to CNN.com, Gary Somerset, PR manager for the U.S. Government Printing Office, praised Mirchandai’s work, but said the government is focused on moving printed information to the web.

I’m E. Curtis Johnson and can read the writing on the wall. Do we use the government’s plan or the 14-year-old’s? What the Helvetica!  Let’s go with the 14-year-old’s plan.