- Courier
Courier is a monospace slab serif typeface designed by Howard "Bud" Kettler in 1955. The original Courier typeface was commissioned by IBM however the company chose, deliberately not to secure legal exclusivity to the typeface, which still cannot now be trademarked or copy-righted and is completely royalty free. Many believe that this and IBM's dominance in the industry are reasonings behind Courier quickly becoming the the country's reigning typewriter font.
Courier was later redrawn by Adrian Frutiger for the IBM Selectronic composer series of electronic typewriters, a new generation of type setters would be able to using Courier, replicate 'typewriter looking' documents which allowed for a 'smooth transition into the new technology'.
The Courier typeface was desirable to be included on the first personal computers as it did not require much memory.
Courier - In use
- Every character in the Courier typeface has the same width and requires no kerning, it therefore found renewed use in the electronic world in situations where columns of characters must be consistantly aligned.
- The typeface became industry standard for all screenplays which where written in 12 point Courier or a close variant.
- The typeface Courier New was also the US State Department standard typeface until January 2004 when it was replaced by Times New Roman
Courier - Variants
- Courier New - Which features higher line space than the original and the punctuation marks have been reworked to make the dots and commas heavier.
- Courier New Bold
- Courier New Italic
- Courier New Bold italic
"A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier which radiates dignity, prestige and stability" - Quote for Howard Kettler on the name of his typeface.
