John August introduces Courier Prime

When your job basically involves staring at a monitor screen all day — specifically at the letters in your words — over time, little things can become big things

Like fonts.

I have never much cared for Courier Final Draft, but it is the modern version of the standard Courier font for screenplays, so we’ve all been pretty much forced to live with it.

Then screenwriter John August and ‘associates’ did something about the situation: Yesterday they introduced Courier Prime:

In July 2012, I asked type designer Alan Dague-Greene to come up with a new typeface that matched the metrics of Courier — thus protecting line breaks and page counts — while addressing some of its weak spots.

I wanted a font that could be substituted letter-for-letter with Courier Final Draft, but look better, both on-screen and printed. I wanted a bolder bold and real italics, not just slanted glyphs.

Alan rose to the challenge, creating a typeface that is unmistakably Courier, but subtly improved.

You should read John’s post here as it’s an interesting lesson in history, design, and left and right-brain thinking.

And here’s the kicker: It’s free! Go here to download Courier Prime. While you’re at it, hit up John on Twitter [@JohnAugust] to give him a shout-out for thinking of the aesthetic well-being of screenwriters everywhere.

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