Courier
Courier
Howard Kettler, 1955
Monospace · A typewriter, a screenplay, or code written before syntax highlighting.
Drawn for IBM, who then failed to secure exclusive rights and watched every competitor adopt it. Screenplay format is specified in 12-point Courier precisely because its fixed width makes one page reliably equal one minute of screen time — a convention that survives entirely because of the typeface's metrics. The US State Department used it as its standard face until 2004.
How to tell it apart
| Mistaken for | Which letters to check |
|---|---|
| Courier New | Courier New is Monotype's redrawing and is noticeably lighter — thinner strokes that look washed out on screen. Screenplay software usually means Courier Prime or Courier Final Draft, both of which restore the weight. |
The facts
- Designed by
- Howard Kettler
- Released
- 1955
- Classification
- Monospace
- What it signals now
- A typewriter, a screenplay, or code written before syntax highlighting.
Where you have seen it
- Every screenplay ever submitted
- IBM typewriters
- Legal drafts
Other typefaces from the 1950s
| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helvetica | 1957 | Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann | Neutral corporate modernism. So common it reads as no choice at all — which was the intent. |
| Univers | 1957 | Adrian Frutiger | Systematic Swiss design. The typeface for people who find Helvetica sloppy. |
| Optima | 1958 | Hermann Zapf | Elegant, slightly classical. Cosmetics, memorials, luxury that does not want to shout. |
This page describes the typeface rather than showing it. Displaying a specimen requires a licensed font file and almost none of these may be redistributed, so the descriptions name the letters to look at instead.
Common questions
- Who designed Courier?
- Howard Kettler, in 1955.
- What is Courier used for?
- A typewriter, a screenplay, or code written before syntax highlighting. You will have seen it on Every screenplay ever submitted, IBM typewriters, Legal drafts.
- What is the difference between Courier and Courier New?
- Courier New is Monotype's redrawing and is noticeably lighter — thinner strokes that look washed out on screen. Screenplay software usually means Courier Prime or Courier Final Draft, both of which restore the weight.
Related pages
- Typefaces from the 1950s 4 here
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place