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Courier (typeface)
Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface commissioned by IBM and designed by Howard "Bud" Kettler (1919–1999) in the mid-1950s. The Courier name and typeface concept are in the public domain. Courier has been adapted for use as a computer font, and versions of it are installed on most desktop computers.
IBM did not trademark the name Courier, so the typeface design concept[verification needed][why?] and its name are now public domain. According to some sources, a later version for IBM's Selectric typewriters was developed with input from Adrian Frutiger, although Paul Shaw writes that this is a confusion with Frutiger's adaptation of his Univers typeface for the Selectric system. Sources differ on whether the design was published in 1955 or 1956.
As a monospaced font, in the 1990s Courier found renewed use in the electronic world in situations where columns of characters must be consistently aligned, for instance, in computer programming. It has also become an industry standard for all screenplays to be written in 12-point Courier or a close variant. Twelve-point Courier New was also the U.S. State Department's standard typeface until January 2004, when it was replaced with 14-point Times New Roman. Reasons for the change included the desire for a more "modern" and "legible" font.
Kettler was once quoted about how the name was chosen. The font was nearly released with the name "Messenger". After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability."
With the rise of digital computing, variants of the Courier typeface were developed with features helpful in coding: larger punctuation marks, stronger distinctions between similar characters (such as the numeral 0 vs. the upper-case O and the numeral 1 vs. the lower-case L), sans-serif variants, and other features to provide increased legibility when viewed on screens. Today, many Courier typefaces include a code version within the type family. Courier New Baltic, Courier New CE, Courier New Cyr, Courier New Greek, Courier New Tur are aliases created in the FontSubstitutes section of WIN.INI. These entries all point to the master font. When an alias font is specified, the font's character map contains a different character set from the master font and the other alias fonts.
IBM made Courier freely available in PostScript Type 1 format. Known as IBM Courier or simply Courier, it is available under the IBM/MIT X Consortium Courier Typefont agreement. Among other IBM-specific characters it contains optionally a dotted zero (which seems to have originated as an option on IBM 3270 display controllers) and a slashed zero.
The Courier 10 Pitch BT typeface was released as a font by Bitstream. Courier 10 BT is heavier than Courier New and more closely approximates the look of the original Courier type on paper. The freely available version, often seen as a system font on electronic devices, includes the 255 characters of the ANSI character set in Type 1 format. Courier 10 BT has been donated to the X Consortium by Bitstream (along with Bitstream Charter) and is the default Courier font on most Linux distributions. Expanded Pan-European (W1G) character sets are made available for license by Bitstream.
Courier Code is a variant of Courier 10 Pitch BT for use in programming. The zero is dotted to better distinguish it from the capital O and the lowercase L has been altered to better distinguish it from the number one. The leading has been increased slightly as well.
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Courier (typeface) AI simulator
(@Courier (typeface)_simulator)
Courier (typeface)
Courier is a monospaced slab serif typeface commissioned by IBM and designed by Howard "Bud" Kettler (1919–1999) in the mid-1950s. The Courier name and typeface concept are in the public domain. Courier has been adapted for use as a computer font, and versions of it are installed on most desktop computers.
IBM did not trademark the name Courier, so the typeface design concept[verification needed][why?] and its name are now public domain. According to some sources, a later version for IBM's Selectric typewriters was developed with input from Adrian Frutiger, although Paul Shaw writes that this is a confusion with Frutiger's adaptation of his Univers typeface for the Selectric system. Sources differ on whether the design was published in 1955 or 1956.
As a monospaced font, in the 1990s Courier found renewed use in the electronic world in situations where columns of characters must be consistently aligned, for instance, in computer programming. It has also become an industry standard for all screenplays to be written in 12-point Courier or a close variant. Twelve-point Courier New was also the U.S. State Department's standard typeface until January 2004, when it was replaced with 14-point Times New Roman. Reasons for the change included the desire for a more "modern" and "legible" font.
Kettler was once quoted about how the name was chosen. The font was nearly released with the name "Messenger". After giving it some thought, Kettler said, "A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability."
With the rise of digital computing, variants of the Courier typeface were developed with features helpful in coding: larger punctuation marks, stronger distinctions between similar characters (such as the numeral 0 vs. the upper-case O and the numeral 1 vs. the lower-case L), sans-serif variants, and other features to provide increased legibility when viewed on screens. Today, many Courier typefaces include a code version within the type family. Courier New Baltic, Courier New CE, Courier New Cyr, Courier New Greek, Courier New Tur are aliases created in the FontSubstitutes section of WIN.INI. These entries all point to the master font. When an alias font is specified, the font's character map contains a different character set from the master font and the other alias fonts.
IBM made Courier freely available in PostScript Type 1 format. Known as IBM Courier or simply Courier, it is available under the IBM/MIT X Consortium Courier Typefont agreement. Among other IBM-specific characters it contains optionally a dotted zero (which seems to have originated as an option on IBM 3270 display controllers) and a slashed zero.
The Courier 10 Pitch BT typeface was released as a font by Bitstream. Courier 10 BT is heavier than Courier New and more closely approximates the look of the original Courier type on paper. The freely available version, often seen as a system font on electronic devices, includes the 255 characters of the ANSI character set in Type 1 format. Courier 10 BT has been donated to the X Consortium by Bitstream (along with Bitstream Charter) and is the default Courier font on most Linux distributions. Expanded Pan-European (W1G) character sets are made available for license by Bitstream.
Courier Code is a variant of Courier 10 Pitch BT for use in programming. The zero is dotted to better distinguish it from the capital O and the lowercase L has been altered to better distinguish it from the number one. The leading has been increased slightly as well.