Courier - Elisabeth Parizot

Courier.

When one thinks of typefaces, they often conjure up images of Times New Roman, Helvetica, Comic Sans, and others of the like. Very rarely do we think of Courier, yet it is arguably one of the most recognizable fonts of all time. It was designed in 1955 by a typographer working for IBM named Howard J Kettler. Because IBM did not copyright Kettler’s design, it soon became the standard font for typewriters everywhere.

At the time, Courier was thought to be streamline and sophisticated, unlike the fonts of the past. Initially called Messenger, Kettler renamed his design Courier. He said, “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.” It seems that Kettler, also often referred to as “Bud,  was correct because Courier soon became the standard font of the US State Department’s official documents.

Courier is a “monospaced” font, which means that each of its letters share the exact same width. This was done back in the 1950’s to facilitate the correction of errors when typing on a typewriter. This makes it easier to replace the letter “t” with the letter “m”, for example. Once the shift from typewriters to computers began to take place, Courier did not disappear. Because of its visual familiarity, it transitioned from one technology to the other.

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Today, in the twenty first century, Courier has become less and less popular. In fact, in 2004, the US State Department banned Courier size 12 from all documents and has replaced it with Times New Roman size 14, calling it “more modern”. It would seem that after several decades, the glory days of Courier have come to an end. Though it continues to be the standard typeface of screenplays, it is now little more than a nostalgic nod at the past.

Courier, as a font, is not particularly striking. Though it was once considered to be cutting-edge, it now exists as a reminder of a simpler time. One might now use this font to remind viewers of the obsolete technology that it came from – the typewriter. In addition to this, Courier (or Courier New, since 1990) might be employed by graphic designers to reference government documents. It represents bureaucracy and officialdom. 

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Reference List

• "Typeart History." Www.typeart.com. Web. 02 Mar. 2012.
• "Courier Font Family Information." Fontco. Web. 02 Mar. 2012.
• Vanderbilt, Tom. "How the U.S. State Department Put the Kibosh on the Typewriter Font." Slate Magazine. 20 Feb. 2004. Web. 02 Mar. 2012.