Good question!

May I please add a couple of things that I'd like to figure out myself?
- Which version of Courier has the greatest installed base?
- Which version of Courier has the greatest installed base among people who buy expensive fonts?

hhp

Has anyone written an article comparing all the Courier variants

Actually there is such an article: http://www.rolandstroud.com/downloads/essays/courierfonts.pdf

Which version of Courier has the greatest installed base?

My guess would be Courier New, which is a system font on Windows. This article from November 2011 gives a number of 1.25 billion Windows installations worldwide. Hard to beat that with any font ;)

Great stuff, Jens - thanks.

And what version of Courier is the most common on (recent) OSX systems? I ask because a disproportionate percentage of font buyers are on Mac. And I have yet another evil plan... :-)

hhp

One thing that article didn't note is that the TN print train, although it used the Courier style, varied the shapes of some of the digits for greater readability. IBM did make a Selectric element with this modified face as well, but it was an exotic product that one would have to special order.

I have prepared an image, but while the Insert Image link lets me specify one, it apparently doesn't proceed to do the download, and it definitely doesn't provide a link to the image to include in my post.

Ah. It works perfectly from IE, even if it fails as described in Firefox.

Bill Troops piece on Bud Kettler is worth a link... http://www.graphos.org/courier.html

The monospaced font "market" seems to be dominated by free, bundled and open source fonts, so I'm not sure if the best selling variant will be particularly significant.

It is if you're making a latch-on product... :-)

hhp

It's interesting that the ad for Courier (shown in the page on Bud Kettler) mentions that it's "long and low"; indeed, that is one of its main distinguishing characteristics. The cap height of 10 pitch Courier was about the same as that of most 12 pitch regular typewriter faces.

latch-on product

Courier Armenian?

Good guess, but no - something much more exciting. I had a waking dream about it a few days ago, and I'm still smiling.

hhp

@John Hudson:
Courier Armenian?

Oh, that already exists; Courier AM is one of the basic fonts to install to display pages in Armenian.

Please no. :-/

hhp

So on OSX there's Courier and Courier New. Is either one of those [near-]identical to the Courier New on Windows? Also, is there a Courier difference between versions of Windows?

hhp

If you have Courier New on your Mac, there is a good chance it came with MS software, e.g. Office, and is identical to the Windows version.

John, Courier New is a system font on Mac OS X. It’s metrically identical to the Windows system font, but there are some differences in the character set coverage.

Courier New on Windows 7 has 3248 glyphs, expanded to 3458 on Windows 8.
Courier New on Mac OS X 10.6 – 10.8 has 3151 glyphs.

These are most of the encoded glyphs that are in the Windows 8, but not in the Mac version:

The outlines are mostly also identical. MS and Apple seem to have started from the same version and added new glyphs independently.

The outlines are mostly also identical.

So, identical color and apparent size? Cool.

hhp

>If you have Courier New on your Mac, there is a good chance it came with MS software, e.g. Office, and is identical to the Windows version

Courier New was one of the original Microsoft "core fonts for the web" so was included with Mac OS via Internet Explorer for Mac and later via a direct license. The version they currently ship is the same as the version we shipped with Windows Vista.

Not at my Mac right now, but I noted the version of Courier I have there is 6.0d7e1, if that is meaningful in any way. I like the rounded serifs and terminals. That's the way I always envision Courier, and blunt versions seem very odd to me. I'd think that ink from impact printing at small sizes would round them off.

The Stroud article does not go into many typographical details, only practical details that writers would be concerned with.

The Mac version of Courier New doesn't have interrobang‽ That's sad.

Hmm... I note that there is one Courier that flies under almost everyone's radar, namely IBM's loaner to the X Consortium.

>The Mac version of Courier New doesn't have interrobang‽ That's sad.

As noted, the Windows version has it :-) please complain to Apple. I'll give them a good price.

"...and blunt versions seem very odd to me."

They are not correct. Most versions with square serifs are based on versions derived via early postscript stroke fonts intent on conservation of point data vs authenticity. Corners like those in a true typewriter ? would have poked the ribbon and then the paper to shreds.

The Bitstream versions of this and Prestige, available from Myfonts, are authentic, drawn from enlargements of actual IBM types.

Who designed Apple's version of Courier? Is that licensed, or was it developed by someone in-house?

Whose version of Courier has a condensed variant? Too bad more browsers don't support font-stretch yet.

I think it was from Linotype (along with Times and Helvetica). Never seen a successful true condensed fixed pitch font. The "M" and "W" can only get so narrow.

OSX 10.6.8

pbc

Thanks Paul, maybe I was thinking of the PostScript core set version. Who knows? Si

Yesterday one more version of Courier was relased:

Courier Prime, designed by Alan Dague-Greene and available under the SIL Open Font License:

http://quoteunquoteapps.com/courierprime/
http://johnaugust.com/2013/introducing-courier-prime

My only quibble with the text on the website is that it claims an advantage in favour of Courier over any other monospaced typeface with the same cpi count when it comes to screenplays:

Since the beginning, screenplays have been written in Courier. Its uniformity allows filmmakers to make handy comparisons and estimates, such as 1 page = 1 minute of screen time.

And I guess screenplays were typewritten before Courier was released ...

I haven't looked at the fonts themselves yet.

(Edit: both web sites are down at the moment, try again later)

And I guess screenplays were typewritten before Courier was released ...

Bet you're right, Jens. And none of my typewriters had an italic or bolds...

Sadly I can't believe there will be a lot of uptake for Courier Prime. But hopefully I'm wrong.

hhp

It's true that most Windows computers already come with Courier New. However, what about Linux systems? Ah, there's already some form of Courier there as well. So I do see your point; few people will bother.

Basically my logic is that any demographic that's been content to use Courier all these years is so typographically brutish that it won't even see the difference, much less download/install anything.

* With that 1 page = 1 minute formula being purely delusional in at least three ways.

hhp

When you're in Deep Hack Mode, typographic niceties are about as relevant to you as a single grain of sand on the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

@quadibloc – Unix/Linux systems may well have as many as three Courier variants: Bitstream, IBM and URW.

Well, in that case, it could well be that while few people would make the effort to download it directly. it could well end up thrown in for the next generation of Linux distros.

Oh, and here's the URL to the place hosting it:
http://quoteunquoteapps.com/courierprime/

...ah, I see that was the first URL given in the post whose second link I clicked on.

Since it's aimed at screenwriters, I take it there's a connection to the .pdf document about the history of Courier (interesting, though flawed) linked to in an earlier post.

What is the provenance of the courier 10 pitch font? I think it came with X11, but I can't remember exactly.

One thing I will say about Courier is, if you're gonna use it, no one really cares which one you use. You're never going to win anyone over, you'll never win any design awards, and no one will ever even know. (Except for the square vs round terminals thing. I suppose I'll give you points for noticing the difference there.)

Basically my logic is that any demographic that's been content to use Courier all these years is so typographically brutish that it won't even see the difference, much less download/install anything.

That classic scene from American Psycho comes to mind, where Christian Bale and his ‘friends’ discuss the type and stock of their business cards…
My guess is that scriptwriters sit around doing a similar thing: “How come you don’t use Courier Prime? Nobody is going to read your shit, man!” “Think again, I commissioned my own version from this type guy, and it’s dope. Producers love it.” Etc.

Re. Courier Prime:
If someone cloned one of my type designs, advertised it as better than the original, gave it the same (trademarked) name, and distributed it with a free licence, I’d be somewhat pissed!

But wait, it’s OK because they mean well and are only targeting a market that would never buy my product?
Sorry, that argument doesn’t work in the day of internet keyword searches.

@Dan – Courier 10 Pitch is Bitstream's. BT donated it and Charter to the X project at the same time, as far as I can tell.

Nick, good point. But I guess in this case everybody already has the original. I've never heard of anybody buying Courier. :-)

hhp

Right.
It seems to me that the issue here is not who profits financially, but who has the right to use a trademark.
The principles involved are trademark dilution, and protecting the public (one of the purposes of trademark law).

"IBM deliberately chose not to seek any copyright, trademark, or design patent protection on Courier, which is why it’s royalty free."

http://johnaugust.com/2013/introducing-courier-prime

FWIW

I didn’t know that.
Could have sworn I saw a trademark symbol next to it somewhere!

Maybe Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_(typeface) ...

"Courier New" fonts are produced by Monotype. It has been claimed that Monotype owns the Courier trademark but there is no evidence to support this

Like everything on Wikipedia I'm sure this is completely true. ;-)

So what are you not allowed to do with Courier?

hhp

I would have thought that IBM owned the Courier trademark, unless it passed to Lexmark along with the electronic typewriter business.

Of course, there is also Courier as a trademark for a line of 3270-compatible terminals, made by a direct competitor to IBM that eventually got bought by ITT...

Marrying Courier is illegal in most states, though I think Monotype claimed to have done so legally in Las Vegas at Comdex in 1992. That could be the source of a tm hoax. But I'm skeptical as I saw Courier earlier that year in Davos, necking with Pac-Man and flashing a huge engagement ring.

If the marriage had been legal then the divorce settlement would have likely been pretty impressive.

Courier is a girl?!?!

hhp

Hrant: With that 1 page = 1 minute formula being purely delusional in at least three ways.

It's a reliable average in the US film industry.* So allows for a quick initial judgement of how long a film is likely to be based on the number of pages in a script. Of course there will be variance for individual films, particular directors, etc., but it is a useful average. When I was writing for theatre and occasionally acting, we similarly reckoned about 1.5 minutes per page of script. People didn't pull these numbers out of a delusional nowhere: they noticed over time that these correlations were common, and hence provide a useful approximation.

* I'm guessing that Bollywood, for instance, has its own average, based on the formatting of its scripts and the languages and scripts used.

Courier is a girl?!?!

At this age, surely a woman rather than a girl, but yes: she has rounded bits.

But it's way too loose of an average to be useful on its own; big studios can't be that informal. In theater it's probably much more reliable.

hhp

As I said, it is useful in that it allows a quick initial judgement of how long a film is likely to be. In a business in which most films are expected to be between 90 minutes and two hours, that's an important first indicator of how viable a script might be.

The thing is (and I see these people in coffee shops around here all the time :-) anybody amateur enough to submit a script to a big studio that's way off in length won't even be in a position to get one foot in the door anyway. But I guess for smaller studios it might help a bit.

hhp

I only did girl versions of her and Prestige Elite. It was clear to me at the time of my revivals, that the letter gothic types were intended to be boys, making the girls even clearer. I mean it wasn't like they couldn't make sharp corners, they didn't always want them, and the types showed this clearly.

"...then the divorce settlement would have likely been pretty impressive..."

I think each character got exactly the same amount in the final settlement. Her sister, a really nasty 12 pitch, wanted more, but that was another case.

"...anybody amateur enough to submit a script to a big studio that's way off in length..."

Hollywood movies have lengths related to their scripts' lenghts? So why should acceptance criteria be based on a script's page length? It just becomes a series, a sequel, a directors cut, or someone gets burned.

Or think Walter Burns! One minute could take five pages with all the people talking over each other, alternating with short staccato whitespace-wasting lines. And 2001:... a four hour movie on a 20 page script was as Kubrick said, "...basically a visual, nonverbal experience" and that it "hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does, or painting", or a good Courier 10 pitch, I might add.

I didn't expect this thread to get many comments at all. Fortuitous that a new Courier was released only a few days later!

In case anyone is interested, Alan D-G is willing to collaborate on improvements to Courier Prime.

Nice coup!

hhp

[EDITED to include variants first listed by ChristTrekker--duh! :p ]

bbg, I'm curious about your comment where you say "most:"
"Most versions with square serifs are based on versions derived via early postscript stroke fonts . . ."

If most of them were derived of early postscript stroke fonts, I'm curious about any that were not (especially if they were based on actual typewriter type). I'm curious to find any Courier variant which is derived of (or inspired by) actual typewriter type heads, but which is modified to have sharp corners on serifs, stroke ends etc.

hrant, if I may ask . . . how is progress coming on the (Courier-related?) design which I presume you must be working on, based on a comment you made? :)

All,

I think a list of Courier variants would make a great TypeWiki page; OR it could be a section of a page on Courier. (And there isn't any page about Courier, as I write this!)

Here's my start, which does not include all pertinent information available to me . . . If I would be welcome to copy this as a page stub to TypeWiki, I'd be happy to--or I welcome anyone else to.

A question that arises: what "Typewriter" typefaces may not be derived of Courier (or certainly are not), yet resemble it? Where would METAFONT/Computer Modern fit in the list?

Reference; NOTE that most of these have lists (even quite long ones) which were not incorporated into the below list!
http://typophile.com/node/13885
http://typophile.com/node/18207
Re selectric http://selectric.org/selectric/ and http://ibmcomposer.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&... http://ibmcomposer.org/joomla/images/stories/fonts/ComposerFonts.pdf http://typebarhead.blogspot.com/2012/04/ibm-selectric-typeball-fonts.html
http://lineto.com/The+Fonts/Font+Categories/Typewriter+Fonts/
http://www.identifont.com/similar?IG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_%28typeface%29#Variants
http://delubrum.org/ [has lists of fonts]

Courier [Adobe, ParaType, E+F, and more . . .]

Hellschreiber Serif

Courier Ragged

Courier Std [Have run accross this name, don't remember where?]

Courier Old [Have run accross this name, don't remember where?]

Selectric [wide open territory?]

Monospace

Courier Final Draft

Courier MMS ("Movie Magic Screenwriter")

Courier New/as on various platforms

Courier Screenplay / Source: FadeIn software (may be derived of a bitstream version)

American Typewriter

Everson Mono?

METAFONT/Computer Modern?

FF Magda?

Lucida Typewriter?

Liberation Fonts/Miriam Mono CLM Current source: https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

Nimbus Mono URW

Courier 10 Pitch/aka Courier 10 BT

Dark Courier

GNU freefonts/FreeMono

URW++

TeXGyre Cursor, Derivation Nimbus Mono URW, Current source http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre/cursor, License: GUST Font License, an instance of the LaTeX Project Public License.

TeX psfonts/Courier, Adobe Type 1/IBM/MIT X Con­sor­tium. [Released 1991?] [Derivation?] Existing source: http://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/psfonts/courier License: IBM/MIT X Consortium Courier Typefont agreement [Full copy of in context?]

TeX psfonts/Courier, Bitstream. Released: 1994. [Derivation?] Existing source: http://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/psfonts/bitstrea/courier License: GNU General Public License

txtt, Current source: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/txfonts/pfb

Liberation Mono? [Wide open territory?--because of fonts like it, which to my eyes are not typewriter-like at all, but neo/coding fonts (because they have few or no typewriter-esqe serifs etc.)

Luxi Mono, re http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxi_fonts

Courier Prime

I'm testing the idea to see if it actually works. It's something that's assumed to be impossible.

hhp

Is it worth mentioning that not all the Couriers have round stroke ending? For example, both the version from Paratype and the version in my HP Laserjet printer have straight stroke ending.

And I think I've seen quite some variants with straight stroke ending in MyFonts too.

I think Courier Std comes/came with Acrobat Reader.

And . . . here's a relevant list from a few years ago.
http://typophile.com/node/79307

Not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but different fonts in the Linotype Courier package(s) have inconsistent serifs: some are rounded, some squared off, even within the same family. Very weird!

r_alex_hall, did you run out and do Average Mono based on this discussion, or were you already working on that?

[A year and two months later...]

Wow, sorry I missed your question.

Funny, I had completely forgotten I made that font (and I seem to have lost my development sources). It must have been a two-hour affair. I therefore can't answer your question.

So I went and looked up my forgotten work. It could probably only be selectively usable for designs with a deliberate "malformed" look. Here it is, for the curious:

http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/average-mono

I do recall it was inspired by Averia, which fascinates me despite that I have no use for the result :) and I also remember trying to select the most disparate-appearing fonts among all those I blended.

Maybe it could form a reference background to inspire sketches of a new monospace font that is in some sense a stylistic blend or average of so many fonts. I don't plan on that.

I don't suppose it's easily possible hunt down and list all typewriter-ish monospace fonts. (Maybe some expensive reference sold to type designers has done so already, besides.) Obviously, I forsook the effort, although I still think it would make a fascinating wiki article.

hrant, have I missed any posts about your experiment?

Nope, I'm still keeping it a secret. :-)

hhp