Why Courier font?

I think it has something to do with all the letters being the same size and equally spaced apart.

The line below is typed in New Courier.

I think it has something to do with all the letters being the same size.

This makes it easier to count words. Nowadays this isn't necessary, because of word count, I believe. Some publishers have grown attached to Courier, though, so it still gets requested from time to time. Courier does have a very neat and ordered appearance, though there are more legible fonts.

Not entirely sure about this, so take it with a grain of salt and wait till someone more knowledgable on the subject comes along.

The one and only reason to use it is to get a fairly accurate page count. Some publishers might want it for submissions but that is less common now. It is NOT a suitable font for writing in. It is NOT desirable for posting. You can switch fonts any time you feel a need to count pages, so there is no need to torture yourself and mess things up because of eye fatigue. You will probably write at your best in a font that is comfortable to read on screen.

Because an experienced editor can tell what the number of pages the actual book will be, how long it's likely to take to typeset, and edit.

Also, another important factor, with an estimated page count an editor can guess how much it will cost to actually make the book.

This will affect many things such as whether they even accept the manuscript and will also affect the amount of your advance if they do.

I have some semi-impertinent questions:

Does anyone ever submit something typed on an actual typewriter anymore? I'm guessing not, except perhaps in some third-world countries.

Are accepted article and manuscript submissions generally retyped in from marked-up and edited manuscripts, or does the editor usually ask for an electronic copy?

I'm thinking with an electronic copy, a program could scan the text, and with the desired font, size, leading, etc specified for the final book, the exact number of pages can be calculated down to the line number of the last period.

But I suppose an editor doesn't need to know it to that precision, and that using double-spaced Courier 12 with appropriate margins comes out close enough to "250 words per page" that it doesn't much matter. But it seems a pain to have to read Courier just so the manuscript reflects an accurate word count. There's something that seems "behind the times" about the use of Courier or another monospaced font for anything other than computer program code.

Aside from the word-count issue, Courier is evenly spaced and easy on the eyes. Try reading a stack of manuscripts ... people use all kind of weird fonts and sizes, and some of them can really be a bear to read.

benbradley said:

But it seems a pain to have to read Courier just so the manuscript reflects an accurate word count. There's something that seems "behind the times" about the use of Courier or another monospaced font for anything other than computer program code.

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...Especially when the entire softcopy document can be changed to Courier 12 with just a couple of mouse clicks.

But industry standard is industry standard -- things are unlikely to change unless we petition publishing house editors and demand font freedom. A million signatures ought to do it...

scottVee said:

Aside from the word-count issue, Courier is evenly spaced and easy on the eyes. Try reading a stack of manuscripts ... people use all kind of weird fonts and sizes, and some of them can really be a bear to read.

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True dat. Courier is a serif font with all those nice little tags that help the brain identify the letters.

-Derek

this is why:

A non-proportional, or "monospaced", or "typewriter" font, is one where all of the letters take up exactly the same amount of space on screen: a capital "W", a lower-case "i" and a space are all equally wide. The Courier family of fonts is commonly used for this.
A proportional font is one where each letter takes up just the amount of space it needs, so that a capital "W" is much wider than a small "i".
Unfortunately, the different sizes of the letters in different proportional fonts means that it's not possible to line up letters consistently: a "W" may be equivalent to three "i"s in one proportional font, and to four "i"s in another. This means, for example, that it is not possible to use a proportional font to format plain text tables or poetry correctly — lining up the spaces and words using one proportional font will cause it to look skewed using another.




It is also much easier on the eye. But use courier, not courier new, which is skinny and pale and hard to read.

Fixed fonts, double-spacing, 1" margin, etc. makes editing much easier, especially if you have to go through hundreds of manuscripts a year.