Font Facts

I am a closet typography junkie. Okay, maybe not a junkie. Nor a practitioner in any way. But I like reading about fonts and kerning and layout and leading and stuff. It's not often I come across posts about typography in the blogosphere. So this post on the Mental Floss blog brightened my day. Did you know, for example, about the derivation for the Courier font?

Commissioned by IBM, Courier New was designed for typewriters by Bud Kettler in 1955. The font was nearly released with the name “Messenger.” “After giving it some thought,” Kettler said, “A letter can be just an ordinary messenger, or it can be the courier, which radiates dignity, prestige, and stability.”

I had NO idea! And now I do. Very cool.