Query: Monospaced Fonts

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     Jan Boomsliter wrote: <<Consider this: putting any print on that
     otherwise blank page adds to the print cost.>>

     In general, that's correct, but there's a few limitations to that
     statement:
     1. If you're outputting film from a typesetter, the cost of outputting
     a single 2-page (or 4-page) spread is constant whether or not you put
     ink on that page: you pay per square inch of film for the output, and
     as long as adding a page doesn't significantly increase output time,
     the cost doesn't change. If, on the other hand, you provide
     camera-ready copy, each page with any ink will cost you $10 (crude
     average) to produce a negative. This is a one-time cost, and
     insignificant compared to the overall cost. But see my next point:

     2. The cost of printing a signature is constant: on a four-page
     signature, there's no cost difference between printing 1, 2, 3 or 4 of
     the surfaces with ink other than the additional ink cost, which is
     generally small compared to the overall publishing cost. In most
     cases, printing on the blank final page won't change your cost at all.
     (Specifically, the extra ink required to print "Page 138" on a few
     thousand copies of your book is less than the amount wasted during a
     typical makeready or press calibration run.)

     3. Adding an extra printed page is cheap (see my first point about
     signatures), but only if you don't have to add an additional signature
     to account for the blanks. Each additional signature does cost you a
     fair bit (more for pre-press, press time and makeready than for ink
     and paper costs).

     If these caveats apply, then don't worry about the extra blank page;
     if they don't apply, you may have to look at your costs fairly
     closely, as Jan suggested.

     --Geoff Hart  #8^{)}   <---got these specs from reading too much
     online info!