Courier Ragged

Originally designed by Howard Kettler for IBM, in the 1950s, Courier became the most popular typeface used on typewriters for 30 years. During that period, versions of Courier were available for almost every typewriter on the market. Kettler, himself, named the typeface and wrote a promo ad which said:

“A LETTER CAN BE JUST AN ORDINARY MESSENGER,
OR IT CAN BE THE COURIER WHICH RADIATES DIGNITY, PRESTIGE, AND STABILITY.”

Being a fixed pitch font, which means that every character has the same width and therefore requires no kerning, Courier did not require much memory and was desirable to be included on the first personal computers. Its inclusion also ensured that the new generation of typesetters would be able to replicate "Typewriter-looking" documents in order to allow for a smooth transition into the new technology. As it has now become a standard "system font" on most computers and printers, many typesetters of today sadly associate Courier with missing fonts and postscript errors. Perhaps these new versions of Courier with ragged edges will encourage designers to continue using Kettler’s marvelous design to help communicate ideas.

Courier Ragged is an attempt both to serve as a typeface which can recreate that "rough" typewriter feel of the past and also be used as a favourable contemporary face. The raggedness gives the characters a new flavour which is suitable today in a market seeking grunge and version faces.

Aside from the ragged edges, Howard Kettler's original design has been respected. Our versions of Courier ragged, however, are not fixed pitch, and have kerning pairs in order to improve the appearance of certain letter combinations. Kettler could not introduce these aspects into his own design because he was hired to create a typeface which would work on a typewriter, whose mechanisms could not accommodate kerned pairs.

NOT FIXED PITCH
Currently the only available version of the Courier Ragged™ family is not fixed pitch (i.e. it has been spaced and kerned to create the most pleasing visual effect.

ALTERNATE CHARACTERS
When using Courier Ragged™ at larger point sizes, you are likely to type words which use two or more of the same vowel characters. You might find that your design will look more dynamic if you use alternate versions of the duplicate letters. Because most of the accent characters in this family are slightly different from their unaccented root characters, you can use them whenever you require alternate vowels. After typing the accent character, in your page layout or illustration program, you can then draw a white box and place it on top of the unwanted accent.

COMPANION FACES
If you want a grunge version of these fonts with a cool halftone effect applied to them, check out our Streetwise™ font family.

FULL CHARACTER SET
Each font in the Courier Ragged™ family has a full character set of 232+ letterforms, with all characters designed in the style of the font.