Times New Roman

A brief history of Times New Roman

Times New Roman gets its name from the Times of Lon don, the British news pa­per. In 1929, the Times hired typog ra pher Stan ley Mori son of Mono type, a British font foundry, to cre ate a new text font. Mori son led the project and super­vised Vic tor Lar dent, an adver tis ing artist for the Times, who drew the let ter­forms.

After Mono type com pleted Times New Roman, it had to license the design to then-rival Lino type, because the Times used Linotype’s type set ting machines. (Think of Mono type and Lino type as the Depression-era Microsoft and Apple.) Since then, Mono type has sold the font as “Times New Roman” and Lino type has mar keted its ver sion as “Times Roman.”

Type set ting tech nol ogy has evolved since then, but due to its endur ing pop u lar ity, Times New Roman has always been one of the first fonts avail able in each new for mat. This, in turn, has only increased its reach.

Objec tively, there’s noth ing wrong with Times New Roman. It was designed for a news pa per, so it’s a bit nar rower than most text fonts — espe cially the bold style. (News pa pers pre fer nar row fonts because they fit more text per line.) The italic is mediocre. But those aren’t fatal flaws. Times New Roman is a work horse font that’s been suc cess ful for a rea son.

Yet it’s an open ques tion whether its longevity is attrib ut able to its qual ity or merely to its ubiq uity. Hel vetica still inspires enough affec tion to have been the sub ject of a 2007 doc u men tary fea ture. Times New Roman, mean while, has not attracted sim i lar acts of homage.

Why not? Fame has a dark side. When Times New Roman appears in a book, doc u ment, or adver tise ment, it con notes apa thy. It says, “I sub mit ted to the font of least resis tance.” Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the black ness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.

Steeped in tradition, the Times New Roman® family has been described as one of the most familiar and successful typefaces in the world – and has been used for just about every typographic application imaginable. Times New Roman is considered an exceptionally legible design that translates well to hard copy and on-screen environments.