How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Courier
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I originally posted this as a reply in a screenwriting forum, but it’s pretty relevant here.
When I bought my first LaserWriter printer (probably 1993), I freaked out because Courier was suddenly ghastly thin. On my old StyleWriter inkjet, it had looked properly typewriter-like, but coming out of the laser printer, it was a shadow of its former self.
It bothered me enough that I used Fontographer to pull the Type 1 Courier outlines from the printer, then chunk-ify them a bit and save them as a Type 3 font, which I called Dorphic. (I have no idea why I picked that name, but it seemed to fit.)
So for many years, I happily used Dorphic on all my scripts. GO, for example, was in Dorphic. I would probably still be using that face, but the shift to OS X made Type 3 fonts impossible. I scoured the net for new options, and settled on Courier Ragged, which I used for a year or two.
But a new problem came up. Up until about 2003, when I needed to turn in a script to a producer or studio executive, I would print it out and call for a messenger. I could be certain the script would look right, because I was printing it myself. But once executives (and their assistants) became more internet-savvy, it made a lot more sense to turn in scripts in .pdf form. So, while I could use Courier Ragged, there was no guarantee it would look right when they printed it out.
All of which leads me back full-circle to plain old Courier. Of the natural alternatives (Courier New, or Courier Final Draft), it’s the best-looking to me, both on-screen and printed.
A side-note: Before I became a screenwriter, I made a meager living in graphic design. So the cruelest irony is that I’ve now spent a decade using nothing but 12-pt Courier, or its imitators.
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February 10th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
That is ironic! I’m a bit of a font geek and quite appreciative of good graphic design myself (my dad’s in the repro business and is an artist and photographer to boot, so I guess all the old U&LCs lying around his office had an effect on me) so I can understand where you’re coming from. When I first heard about the “Courier-only” manuscript rule I was like “What! You’re joking, right?” But I suppose it makes some kind of weird sense. If the writing is good you won’t notice the font, while a pretty font and good design won’t save bad writing. And it’s kind of like the separation between form and content beloved of CSS advocates: in manuscript form only the content matters. If it passes muster it will get its appropriate form, whether printed or filmed.
February 10th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
Isn’t it possible to ‘bundle’ a font with a .pdf file? I’d be surprised only the guys behind MS Word thought of that option (incorporate font into the doc/used characters only).
February 10th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
It’s certainly possible to bundle the font with the .pdf, but in my experience, you can’t always count on it working. Your mileage may vary.
February 10th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
I had no idea there were other font geeks out there! I feel elated, if not vindicated
haha. A trick I used to do back in the early to mid 90s (when bolding the text was commonplace) I would photo copy my print out and then copy the photo copy on dark, and the courier lettering would come out nice and thick and, well, more meaningful 
February 10th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
There are some interesting variations of the old typewriter font at VintageType, my favourite though is still Corona
February 10th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
I used ScreenplayTT for the longest time, but found that so many prodcos and studio execs had Final Draft that I just gave in and started using Courier Final Draft.
Vintage Types Pro fonts, BTW, are perfectly pitched and leaded for screenwriting. They take up exactly the same space as Courier.
February 10th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
While working at the film Library at my university, I spent an entire summer obsessed with fonts. I’d take out original, hand typed scripts from the 50s and analyze the fonts, print test pages in Courier, Courier Old, Courier New, Courier10 BT, various Vintage Type fonts etc. I still have a manilla folder with all the test pages; I always considered it a reminder that I’m a ultra-dork, so it feels good to know that others have obsessed about this as much…
February 11th, 2005 at 9:05 am
Not all VintageType Fonts are created equal, though. I have that collection and have found I end up with different page counts with each font versus Courier, Courier New, Courier Final Draft. (I use Final Draft as my software and kept all other settings - margins, tabs, spacing options - the same for each test). They’re great fonts. It’s neat to pretend I’m the “schmuck with an Underwood”, but it raises questions as to what is a true page count. When a script is broken down by a 1st AD or Production Manager, scenes are measured in eigths of a page, so I suppose in terms of scheduling and budgeting, as long as they can be measured thusly, the script page count is subjective. But if your submitting a spec for consideration then you need to think about it. I love reading copies of older screenplays that were banged out in mimeo rooms full of secretaries and their carbons on typewriters and would love for my scripts to have that same look. But maybe just for my own personal copies.
February 11th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
In terms of page count, yes it matters in that everyone’s more comfortable with a 118 page script than 127 page script. But when an AD calculates 1/8ths of a page, everyone understands that it’s a pretty inaccurate yardstick. A scene that’s 7/8ths of a page could take half a day, two days, or 15 days depending on the nature of the production.
Courier New versus Courier Final Draft isn’t going to change anything in terms of the schedule or budget, even if for some God unknown reason you mixed them in the script.
February 11th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
Regarding VintageType fonts, I use the Screenwriter Pro set — Oliver, in particular. It’s a great font — clean, crisp, and dark. The Screenwriter Pro set is designed to replace 12pt Courier, exactly. I’ve done it and I’ve never lost anything in formatting, not a single character. They do mention that if you’re using Courier New, your formatting will change, as it has looser line-spacing than traditional Courier.
The four vintage typewriter fonts in the Screenwriter Pro series all behave the same way, too. As long as you’re replacing 12pt Courier (or Courier Final Draft, I believe) they work perfectly. The scripts look freshly typewritten (though, I must admit, they looks better on my laser printer than my inkjet).
What I do, is, if I have to send someone my script in file format, I just keep a copy in Courier font (again, the formatting is unchanged) to email.
February 13th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
My set of VT fonts is several years old. I think I ran across them in ‘97 or ‘98. It’s possible there have been improvements to the set over the years to better accommodate the 12pt standard. I don’t really know how fonts are formatted and measured, except by the options provided by the set and my computer.
VT Bulletin, on my set, best fits into the Courier spacing. VT Olympia, which approximates the look of my copy of Psycho (original version), is a larger type and has a wider spacing even though I have it set at 12 for size. VT Underwood and VT Underwood Portable, which I would never use except as a novelty because of their intentional degredation, are smaller with a narrower spacing.
I guess there’s a difference between true point size and the size option on the computer.