This just in from Consumer Reports Money Adviser. If you print a MSS in 12-point Times New Roman, you will get 27% more pages printed than with 12-point Arial, according to results from tests run by Consumers Union engineers.  Word 2007’s default Calibri font, again 12-point, comes in between;  and if you print in 12-point Verdana, you’ll get less than 3/4 of the pages per cartridge of ink as Times New Roman.  Evidently there are reasons that TNR is such an old, established font widely called for in guidelines.  It has excellent legibility for its point-size and it saves printers’ ink!

I’ve noticed 12-point Arial occupies more page real estate than 12-point TNR.  I like Arial and even Verdana for informal stuff, but I tend to use 10- or even 8-point font with those.  Your mileage may vary for one reason or another – and for any MSS to be physically or electronically submitted, read the publisher’s guidelines!- but this advantage of TNR is good to know if you have lots  of draft pages to print or an inkjet printer’s expen$ive ink habit to feed.