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Dignified Courier

Carl Shank • July 15, 2024

Dignified Courier. This blog is written in the Courier Prime typeface. Note how "typewriter-like" it writes and reads. Typography is a form of communication. Back in the day when I worked in a suburban D.C. print shop, I would select and pick a type ball that was used on an IBM Composer, and then wed that output with rub-on type headlines. Later I used an Itek typesetting machine for the headlines. Perhaps some of you recall those days of print shop work.


There were, of course, a number of type balls we used on the Composer — Bold Courier, Business Script, Contemporary, Calligraphy, Headline, Advocate, Prestige Pica 72, Courier 12 and Courier 12 Italic among others. Diligent typists would rapidly change the balls and prepare the text for photographing and printing. We were all used to typewriters and cherished the IBM Selectric typewriter. The IBM Executive typewriter came about in 1954, using special fonts and implementing true proportional spacing long before Postscript came about. The flying-ball Selectric used interchangeable balls, preparing the way for the IBM Composer, which allowed for proportional spacing and justified text.

A typewriter with the letter n on it
An ibm typewriter with a piece of paper coming out of it
A black and white photo of a group of objects with letters on them

Then the Macintosh came about with the massively large LaserWriter (remember how large that machine was!) and the ImageWriter for home use. We all thought that we died and went to printing heaven with a 300 dpi LaserWriter and Times and Helvetica fonts included. Postscript came along and the traditional Courier typeface became obsolete.


Howard G. "Bud" Kettler, worked as a type designer for IBM in the 1950s. He designed corporate logos, special-purpose fonts, like the Bell Gothic, and a number of typewriter fonts. He was tasked with the job of designing a typeface that was "weightier" than the fine lines of Pica and Elite that were being used at the time. Dirk Stratton, in the March/April 1992 Aldus Magazine noted that Kettler in the mid-1950s designed the face we call Courier — "He based its geometry on nineteenth century Egyptian typefaces, slab-serifs they are called, and made them work on the typewriter." IBM never assigned a trademark to the face and it has been in the public domain ever since. Kettler was proud of his work — "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger [that was thought to be the desired name] or it can be the courier which radiates dignity, prestige and stability." The Courier typeface was born. Even the renowned Robert Bringhurst in The Elements of Typographic Style acknowledges Courier's long standing usefulness — "And on the principle that a good hamburger is better than a bad souffle, even monospace typewriter fonts - such as IBM Courier and Prestige, which are models of their kind - remain well worth considering for routine work on laser printers." (Elements of Typographic Style, Hartley & Marks, 1992 edition, 90–91)


As a monospaced font, Courier found usefulness in computer programming and became the industry standard for screenplays written in 12-point Courier, called Courier Screenplay. The typeface Courier New was used until January 2004 by the federal government, being replaced by 14-point Times New Roman typeface. The iterations and variants of Courier have been many, including Courier New, Courier Screenplay, Courier Prime, Dark Courier, Courier 10 BT, Courier Final Draft and Courier LT Round Font. Comparison of some of the Courier typefaces are in the chart to the right.


Produced by Monotype, Courier New appeared quite a bit "thinner" than regular Courier. Wikipedia notes that "Its thin appearance when printed on paper owes to its being 'digitized directly from the golf ball of the IBM Selectric' without accounting for the visual weight normally added by the typewriter's ink ribbon. ClearType rendering technology includes a hack to make the font appear more legible on screens, though printouts retain the thin look." It comes in four font renderings — Courier New, Courier New Italic, Courier New Bold and Courier New Bold Italic.

A black and white image of momospace courier font

Courier Screenplay was developed for Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software. It offers the legibility of Courier 10BT with line counts favored by screenwriters. Fade In Pro's website says that this is "A Courier font that is strong, well-balanced for reading, and excellent for printed and PDF scripts. (Plus your readers will be grateful to you for not using Courier New.)" (fadein pro.com)


Courier Ragged Font was designed by Lloyd Springer of the TypeArt Foundry, Inc.in 2007."Over the years, TypeArt(R) fonts have become popular with designers all around the world and can be seen in action on books and magazines, in film and television, on CDs and posters, and on a wide variety of other products. The TypeArt Foundry Inc. is the home of the electronic newsletter POINT SIZE, which provides customers and enthusiasts with typographic ideas, tips, and information about new releases and special offers." (MyFonts.com)


The Courier 10 Pitch BT font, released by Bitstream, and designed by Howard Kettler, is heavier than Courier New and more closely approximates the look of the original Courier type on paper. This is the default Courier on most Linux distributions. The Courier LT Round family was also designed by Kettler and is available from Linotype.


Courier Prime "developed by Alan Dague-Greene with funding from John August and Quote-Unquote Apps, includes a true Italic style. Courier Prime matches the metrics of Courier Final Draft,with some design changes and improvements aimed at greater legibility and beauty." (Wikipedia)


Dark Courier is not a bold font, but rather a normal weight typeface developed as a TrueType face by the Hewlett-Packard corporation and chosen by them because the Courier New alternative was "too thin."


Courier Final Draft, a version of the Courier 10 BT, was developed for the Final Draft screenwriting program. Default setting yield 55 lines per page.


These fonts and their lettering are included in the images below. Howard Kettler is proud of the face, noting that "I personally feel that the type style can stand on its own merits under any conditions . . . It is a good typeface, if I say so myself." ("Courier of Dignity," Dirk Stratton, Aldus Magazine, March/April 1992.

A yellow background with the letter a on it
A yellow background with the letter a on it
A yellow background with the letter a on it
A yellow background with the letter a on it
A yellow background with the letter a on it
The letter a is on a yellow background

Successful Layout & Design

Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering

By Carl Shank • January 29, 2025
Sketch & Hand Drawn Lettering. The history of font development includes a wealth of calligraphic fonts and artistically crafted hand drawn typefaces. A number of these lettering fonts have been drawn and submitted by smaller type foundries and entrepreneurs seeking to make their mark in the font world. A casual look at ChatGPT gives some idea as to their source and character. Fonts that mimic pencil drawings often have a hand-sketched, textured, or rough-lined appearance. These fonts are great for artistic projects, children's books, casual branding, or creative typography. The sample fonts below are mostly given for personal use only, use on personal invitations and so forth, but some have been made available for commercial use as well. They demonstrate the wide range of hand drawn fonts available for use and purchase.

Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts

By Carl Shank • January 20, 2025
Four Old Playful Fancy Fonts . CARE Typography is pleased in its historical search for antique inspired fonts to introduce digitized versions of Harper and Mikado, a Gutenberg typeface and Lacrosse. Unlike their modern counterparts, these fonts are display only fanciful fonts of a bygone era in typography. However, they exude a rich history of font development that should not be forgotten in our search for the new, the sleek, the up-to-date in type. They have been developed from the rich typographic heritage of Phillips Old Fashioned Type Book published in 1945 by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc, in New York. This volume has caught my historic typographic eye for its plethora of ancient font styles and formulations. The Harper446 font is especially playful, with its curly capitals, its specialized "Q" capital and, of course, its flavorful and playful small case lettering, with the raised c, e and o letters and the odd looking "g." This is obviously not a text font, but can uses in artful decorative work. The Mikado231 font does not at all look like the variations of the typeface called "Mikado" in typography history. As that history notes, "Mikado was apparently inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera of the same name. The show opened in London in March of 1885 and in New York later that same year. According to Nicolete Gray in her classic book on ornamented typefaces, the English foundry of Sir Charles Reed and Son introduced a metal type called “Japanese” also in 1885. She characterized this typeface and other oriental based typefaces as superficial in their foreign influence. Nonetheless it appears that it was later copied by several of the American Wood-type companies. The 1906 Hamilton wood-type specimen catalog shows four versions of this design; one by Hamilton and three by acquired companies. The versions by Wells, and Morgans & Wilcox are called Mikado. The Hamilton and Page versions use model numbers 204 and 156 respectively. It is difficult to determine the specific dates when this particular wood-type was introduced, but the earliest wood-type catalog I could find showing Mikado is the 1888 Page catalog. Our sample “WINTER” is a 15 line unstamped type most similar to the Hamilton version. Incidentally, another English foundry, Miller and Richard introduced a metal typeface in 1887, also named Mikado. That typeface is totally different than the one presented here." (https://www.printmuseum.org/wood-type-mikado). This Mikado adaptation has straight angular E, F, G, K, T and even raised W, X, Y in the capitals. Note the falling stems of C, L, and lower c, e, h, m and n. Again, this playful font can be used sparingly in advertisement copy and flavorful playbills. The Gutenberg700 font is again from the Phillips book samples. Note the dotted C, U, V, small g and zero. The ampersand is also interesting. Curly serifs are used in A, J, L, S. The numerals are classic old school numerals. This Gutenberg rendering is unlike any classic Gutenberg typeface that has been presented. The LacrossePhillips font has a cute left hanging serif on the capitals. It is a bold faced font, both in the upper and lower case. It is a full font offering upper and lower case lettering, numerals and other marks. These fonts are available from CARE Typography at care typography.com at NO COST. They are free to purchase and use.
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