About Typewriter Courier (1955)
Courier was designed by Howard Kettler for IBM in 1955 and became the defining typeface of 20th-century American paperwork — legal contracts, screenplays, government memos, detective manuscripts. Every character occupies the same width, every page breathes with one-inch margins and ribbon-ink black on warm cream stock.
This system captures that unhurried authority: monospaced columns, paper-fiber warmth, and the formal cadence of a typewriter carriage returning at 65 characters.
- Origin
- USA — IBM Lexington, Kentucky
- Era
- 1955 designed; IBM Selectric 1961; screenplay standard 1970s–present
- Key figures
- Howard 'Bud' Kettler · Adrian Frutiger · Christopher Riley
- Movements
- mid-century American business correspondence · screenplay typographic standardization · postwar government document design
Typewriter Courier (1955) design spec
Colors
Background
Surface
Primary
Secondary
Accent
Text
Typography
Special EliteHeadings
Courier PrimeBody
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