![]() ![]() Also, the use of electronic email, projectors, e-books, scanners, and advanced printer settings (e.g., recycled paper, duplex printing, toner/ink saving modes) has a great potential to promote GIT. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, offices in the private and government sectors are reducing office printing outputs, with great potential for further reductions as electronic devices become more readily available at accessible prices. Further GIT efforts are also underway in other Asian regions, including Thailand. For example, the Chinese government has issued policies to reduce the energy consumption of the pulp and paper industries. The concept of GIT is increasingly influencing people’s behaviour and government’s policies. For instance, the printing industry in China consumed 1.6 billion tons of paper in 2014, and it is growing at a rate of 4.68% per year. Likewise, pulp and paper production is the 3rd largest industrial polluter. The emission of greenhouse gas during printing pollutes our environment. This is fully aligned with the concept of “Green Information Technology” or GIT, which aims to reduce the use of environmentally harmful materials and to promote the use of recyclable products. ![]() Accordingly, many organisations are exploring alternatives to reduce their use of natural resources and operational costs, as well as methods/techniques that reduce the use of materials with considerable environmental impact. In the graphical communication industry, the Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) partnership promotes “sustainable printing”, whereas the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) recommends designing products that use less material and energy with recyclability and reusability for a longer life span. Sustainability can be defined as the balance between the use of natural resources, social engagement and economic capital for the existence of the present and future generations. The removal of black pixels can lead to more sustainable printing, and this simple solution can be extended to other non-Latin languages as part of the global Green Information Technology efforts in South-East Asia. Awareness of the benefits of using Ecofonts changes the users’ attitudes towards the printing quality of Ecofont. Visual tests showed that the visual experience of text printed using this Thai Ecofont is satisfactory. The study also proposes a new Ecofont typeface for the Thai language. Results from instrumental measurements and digital image analyses show that the use of Ecofonts reduces toner use of an inkjet printer by up to 28%. Visibility and legibility tests, as well as mass analyses tests, were then performed on texts printed with some such typefaces. To achieve this, black pixels were removed from 10 English and 13 Thai typefaces widely used in academia and other media. ![]() ![]() This study (a) assesses toner use reductions in documents printed with English and Thai Ecofonts, and (b) studies the observers’ perception of texts printed either with Ecofonts or with original typefaces. Moreover, texts printed with Ecofonts can be perceived as being less legible than those printed with the original typefaces. However, most of the research on the use of Ecofonts focuses on Latin alphabets. The use of Ecofonts in printing can result in economic savings and lower environmental impact. ![]()
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