US Bans Courier

Yeah, really creative to change from Courier to Times New Roman — a very modern typeface indeed!!! (e.a. irony).

Just a personal reflection...

It took them over 10 years (conservative estimate) to finally realize that text typeset by a computer does not have to mimic text from a typewriter, but hey, it's a step forward at least. General Powell and friends, I welcome you to the world of proportional fonts!

Funny. But true. Courier is a "Mekan" as we swedish typographers call it. It's straight little "konsoller" or serifs make Courier easier to read on screen than on paper.

But replacing it with times? There are a lot more beatiful fonts, and Courier still supports some things that Times doesn't ("strong spacing"). Times was originally developed for news paper adds, hence why it's so narrow. It was meant to be be used for ads and alike, to save space and cram more text into one area.

I was under the impression that US government documents needed to be OCRable. I would imagine Times is less capable of this than Courier.

Stuart :D

Poor Bud...

Yeah, FOURTEEN-POINT Times... :-/
Now they need to enact a minimum-arm-length qualification for working in government.

hhp

Times: appropriate choice for the US State Dept. -- the world's most-used face, designed by an American, W. Starling Burgess. Very dignified in 14 pt.

Strike while the iron's hot! Write your congressman, get them to ban Comic Sans. Hurry before their attention turns to non fontological matters!

a minimum-arm-length

Already done. Long enough to pat oneself on the back repeatedly.

Long enough to pat oneself on the back repeatedly.

But not long enough to pull your own head out of your-- well, you get the idea.

Why couldn't they pick Helvetica instead??? At least it's easier to read...

"more modern" does make a sense as in contrast to Courier, Times New Roman is not mimicking a typewriter. The government is now officially admitting the use of computers ;-)

Is Times more modern? When were both faces designed? It looks like Times was done in the 30s.

> Times: appropriate choice for the US State Dept. -- the world's most-used face, designed by an American, W. Starling Burgess.

Is it really the most used typeface? I thought that was Garamond.

> Very dignified in 14 pt.
Isn't that too huge? "Reeks of high-school essay padding." Ha ha. From coudal.

It does seem like an article from the Onion. Courier was designed by Howard Kettler in 1956. I'm not sure what the gov't was thinking, but it's not more "modern." Since Courier is fixed width and TNR isn't, those government workers are going to have to learn how to set tabs and tables if they want things to line up properly.

Really, all government memos should just be set in something like "Namby Pamby Extra Narrow."

“Reeks of high-school essay padding.”

Actually, Courier is much better for essay padding. I used it to great effect during my college years.

If we want better typefaces in use by government and corporate entities, our best effort is probably spent getting Microsoft and Apple to bundle better typefaces with their operating systems. "Oh, we have Times New Roman on all our computers already, so let's just use that."

Times New Roman designed by Burgess? Designed for ads?? Hardly. Times New Roman was designed for the Times of London (a newspaper) by Stanley Morison. It was used in that paper until more modern technology (photocomposition) made it unsuitable - it was replaced by a more modern face: Times Europa (1972) designed by Walter Tracy.

Times was indeed designed for news printing (and a then-cutting-edge technique of news printing), but there has in fact been a heated debate about who actually designed it. I myself have become convinced it was probably Burgess. And if it was Morison, Victor Lardent, Morgan Pierpont, and maybe even Eric Gill would deserve as much credit as Morrison in its design. Stanley Morrison was really not a type designer.

hhp

BTW, check this out:
http://www.manic.com.sg/blog/archives/000118.php#more

hhp

Please correct me on this, by all means, but wasn't the last time anyone in government issued an edict banning a typeface in preference for another to be used on all state documents - the, ummmm, 1941 decree from the office of Martin Bormann, Reichsminister der Deutsche Reich? The one that [ironically] outlawed Blackletter typeforms under the Nazis? If TNR dates from the late 20s and Courier from '56, then how can the choice of Times be deemed 'more modern'? Aside from the unmistakable simplicity of Courier and the reasons given above in favour of OCR and untabbed alignments, they should have stuck with what they knew. Or did they just have to have something with 'Roman' in the name?

Indeed, this is just another sign that fascism is the new gray.

hhp

Ben - take it easy on the conspiracy juice. The title of this article is merely an attention grabber. The move was simply a change in the department's operation standards. My guess is they wanted to make it easier to read their correspondence.

But everything emanates from the zeitgeist.

hhp

why do they require everything to be in a
particular font? There are so many to
choose from, and while some look icky and
are difficult to read, plenty more are
good and readable, and actually look quite
dignified. (actually i like courier, for
the same reasons you have mentioned, its
easy to format with)

You know, the Federal courts have been mandating that all lawyers' briefs be set in 14 point Times for years. I've been told that they toss anything else in the bin.

>why do they require everything to be in a
particular font?

I imagine that in the case of Federal judges, it just makes things 'easier on the eyes'. And easier to see at a glance which paper on your desk is a brief and which is not. Whether the Federal courts' preferences have any thing to do with U.S. diplomacy's though, I have no idea.

> why do they require everything to be in a
particular font? There are so many to
choose from...

The obvious reason for the popularity of Times New Roman and Arial is that they are present in every computer ... they are "system fonts" (Mac or PC)... in a perfect world we could choose a particular font, but this is not practical - not everybody is a fontfont.com addict.

14 pt. font....imagine all the paper and ink we would save if the merely reduced the point size to 10. now that would be something worthwhile.

Frugality is bad for the rich.

hhp