But let's say Mirchandani is right, and that Garamond does use less ink than other fonts. Would it really end up costing the government less money? At first blush, the answer seems obvious. We're all annoyed by how expensive printer ink is. In fact, at a cost of $4,285 per liter, it's almost double the cost of even the most expensive perfumes on Earth. If the government could use less of this valuable resource, it should save massive amounts of money.
Right? Well, no. And there are a few reasons.
For one, while printer ink is undeniably a racket, it's largely a consumer racket. The government doesn't pay for ink the same way we do. Rather, like many offices, it strikes deals with outside companies that charge per page printed, regardless of how much ink or toner is used. This means that a U.S. government printer used to print out a color photo costs exactly the same amount as a blank sheet of paper with a single letter typed on it.