Dutch marketing and communications company Spranq has come up with a novel and free way of slashing printer ink costs by developing a font with holes in it.

The creators of Ecofont took their inspiration from the holes in Dutch cheese, and aim to cut down on the amount of ink used when printing documents for daily use.

"After Dutch cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well," said a Spranq spokesman.

The font is based on the standard Sans Serif typeface, but has a number of small circles removed from each letter. The company spent a long time experimenting with different shapes and sizes to cut down on the amount of ink used while still maintaining readability.

Spranq reckons that the result is still perfectly readable, but can cut the amount of ink used by up to 20 per cent. The Ecofont can be downloaded free although donations are requested.