---
title: "Papyrus (1982) — Chris Costello"
description: "Papyrus was designed by Chris Costello in 1982. What it signals, where you have seen it."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/papyrus/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Papyrus

**Papyrus: Chris Costello, 1982**

Display · A smoothie bar, a yoga studio, or Avatar.

Drawn in six months by a 23-year-old designer trying to imagine what writing on papyrus might look like, and bundled with enough software to become inescapable. Its use for the title of the highest-grossing film ever made produced a Saturday Night Live sketch that is now more famous than the film's typography. Costello has said he is bemused by all of it.

## The facts

- **Designed by:** Chris Costello
- **Released:** 1982
- **Classification:** Display
- **What it signals now:** A smoothie bar, a yoga studio, or Avatar.

## Where you have seen it

- Avatar's logo and subtitles
- An extraordinary number of small businesses

## Other typefaces from the 1980s

| Typeface | Year | Designer | What it signals |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Arial | 1982 | Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders | A default. Something nobody chose. |
| Chicago | 1984 | Susan Kare | The original Macintosh, and the first iPod. |
| Trajan | 1989 | Carol Twombly | A film poster. Specifically a serious one, or a legal drama. |

> 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 Papyrus?

Chris Costello, in 1982.

### What is Papyrus used for?

A smoothie bar, a yoga studio, or Avatar. You will have seen it on Avatar's logo and subtitles, An extraordinary number of small businesses.

## Related pages

- [Typefaces from the 1980s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1980s/)
- [Cooper Black](https://atoneplace.net/font/cooper-black/)
- [Impact](https://atoneplace.net/font/impact/)
- [Comic Sans](https://atoneplace.net/font/comic-sans/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]