No, simply using a different typeface won’t save the government over $400 million

Last week, 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani gained a lot of attention for his school project that claimed the US government could save nearly half a billion dollars in printing costs by switching typefaces from Times New Roman to Garamond. If only it were that easy: FastCoDesign takes a look at some of the things Mirchandani didn’t consider in his report, he’s a teenager and not an expert on fonts or the (sometimes strange) ways the government conducts business. The article details the point system of measuring typefaces — explaining why Garamond doesn’t actually use less ink than Times New Roman. Read the entire article to see how factors like typeface legibility and government printing methods are also reasons why Mirchandani’s solution is nowhere near as comprehensive as it needs to be to really save the government big bucks.