Times Roman

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Typeface	Times New Roman
Category	Serif
Classifications	Transitional PANOSE: 2263545234
Designer(s)	Stanley Morison Victor Lardent
Commissioned by	The Times
Foundry	Monotype
Date released	1931

Size and spacing comparisons of the Georgia and Times New Roman typefaces.

Times New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper, The Times, in 1931, designed by Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype. It was commissioned after Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically behind the times. The font was supervised by Stanley Morison and drawn by Victor Lardent, an artist from the advertising department of The Times. Morison used an older font named Plantin as the basis for his design, but made revisions for legibility and economy of space. As the old type used by the newspaper had been called Times Old Roman, Morison's revision became Times New Roman. The new typeface made its debut in the 3 October 1932 issue of The Times newspaper,^[1] and after one year, the design was released for commercial sale.

Although no longer used by The Times, it is still widely used for book typography. It is one of the most successful and ubiquitous typefaces in history.

1 Description
2 Times
3 Availability
4 Variants
- 4.1 Other Times typefaces
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Description

Because of its ubiquitous nature, the typeface has been influential in the subsequent development of a number of serif typefaces both before and after the start of the digital-font era. One notable example is Georgia, shown at right, which has very similar stroke shapes to Times New Roman but wider serifs.

Microsoft distributed Times New Roman with every copy of Microsoft Windows since version 3.1. As with Times on the Apple Macintosh, it is used as the default font in many applications, especially web browsers and word processors. However, Microsoft replaced Times New Roman with Calibri, a sans-serif font, as the default font in Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, although Times New Roman is still included as an optional font. ^[2]

Times New Roman used in Microsoft Windows is a TrueType version of Times New Roman PS, a narrower variant of Monotype's classic Times New Roman typeface. The PS version was introduced to match the metrics of Times Roman (a PostScript core font by Linotype). It has the lighter capitals that were originally developed for printing German (where all nouns begin with a capital letter).

In 2004, the United States Department of State announced that as of February 1, 2004, all US diplomatic documents would use 14-point Times New Roman instead of the previous 12-point Courier New.^[3]^[4]

[edit] Times

Times is the font family used by Linotype for the Times New Roman family licensed from Monotype. Linotype classifies Times Roman as the upright (Roman) font of the Times family.

Linotype received registration status for Times Roman in 1945. In the 1980s, there was an attempt for entrepreneurs to seek Rupert Murdoch, who owned The Times, the right to use the Times Roman name; separately, a legal action was also initiated to clarify the right of Monotype to use the name in the US despite Linotype's registration. As a result of legal action, Linotype and its licensees continue to use the name Times Roman, while Monotype and its licensees use the name Times New Roman.^[5]

Although Times and Times New Roman shares the same font design, various differences developed between the versions marketed by Linotype and Monotype when the master fonts were transferred from metal to photo and digital media. For example, Linotype has slanted serifs on the capital S, while Monotype's are vertical. Most of these differences are invisible in body text at normal reading distances. (Vivid differences between the two versions do occur in the lowercase z in the italic weight and in the percent sign in all weights.) Although there was a time when Times New Roman had different widths than Times Roman, when Microsoft licensed Times New Roman for Windows, they asked Monotype to match the Adobe/Linotype widths from the PostScript font; consequently, the most common versions seen today have identical widths in common characters.

[edit] Availability

Times New Roman has been included in Microsoft Windows since version 3.1. The Times font family is also bundled with Mac OS 7.0 and later.^[6]

[edit] Variants

URW produced a version of Times New Roman called Nimbus Roman. Nimbus Roman No9 L, URW's PostScript variant, was released under the GNU General Public License, and available in major free and open source operating systems.

CG Times is a variant of Times family made by Compugraphic Corporation foundry.

Times Ten is a version of Times by Linotype, specially designed for smaller text (12 point and below). It features wider characters and stronger hairlines.

Times Eighteen is the headline version of Times by Linotype, ideal for point sizes of 18 and larger. The characters are subtly condensed and the hairlines are finer.

Times 2 is a package of Times Semibold, Times Semibold Italic, Times Extra Bold fonts, designed by Neville Brody. The package was sold by Adobe and Monotype.

Times Europa Office is an update to Times Europa, designed by Akira Kobayashi. Released in 2006, it provides tabulated numbers, mathematical signs, and currency symbols. The same character among fonts share the same cell space. In addition, cap heights and x-heights are the same.^[7]

[edit] Other Times typefaces

The Times newspaper has commissioned various alternatives to Times New Roman.

Times Europa was designed by Walter Tracy in 1972 for The Times, as a sturdier alternative to the Times font family, designed for the demands of faster printing presses and cheaper paper. The typeface features more open counter spaces.

The Times newspaper replaced Times Roman with Times Europa on 1982-08-30.^[8]

Times Millennium was made in 1991^[9], drawn by Gunnlaugur Briem on the instructions of Aurobind Patel, composing manager of News International.

Times Classic first appeared in 2001.^[10] Designed as an economical face by the British type team of Dave Farey and Richard Dawson, it took advantage of the new PC-based publishing system at the newspaper, while meeting the production shortcomings of its predecessor Times Millennium. The new typeface included 120 letters per font. Initially the family comprised ten fonts, but a condensed version was added in 2004.

On 2006-11-20, Times newspaper unveiled Times Modern, as the successor of Times Classic.^[11] Designed for improving legibility in smaller font sizes, it uses 45-degree angled bracket serifs. The font was published by Elsner + Flake as EF Times Modern. The font was designed by Research Studios, led by Ben Preston, Deputy Editor of The Times, in partnership with Neville Brody, former art director of The Face, and lead designer on Actuel, City Limits and Arena magazines. The design team included Ben Preston, David Driver, Mike Prowse, Chris Davalle, Kathleen Wyatt Research Studios: Neville Brody, Jon Hill, Luke Prowse.^[12]