Times New Roman

imes ew oman

Amanda Meuth

Two People

Back i n the 1900s, Stanley M orrison critiqued London’s well known newspaper, The Times, f or b eing out o f t ouch with t he modern t ypographical t rends. In return to his critique, the paper asked h im t o create something better. As he w as a t ype d esigner, he t ook o n the challenge w ith Victor Lardent, a draftsmen. Their i dea was to m ake a typeface t hat would not only maximize t he a mount o f type t hat fits o n to a l ine (in o rder t o increase the amount of type that can fit onto a page), but t hey also w anted to i ncrease the readability. They wanted t o create something that w as not only professional and economical, but also s omething t hat was easy on the eye. (Mann, 2014)

For i nspiration, M orison looked to o ther t ypefaces . He l iked t he l ook o f t he m odern t ypeface P lantin, and that w as b ased o n the older typeface G ros Cicero, designed by R obert Granjon. After that was decided, Morison then led the project as he supervised Victor Lardent, an a dvertising artist f or t he T imes, w ho d rew the letter forms. (A Brief History)

Why Did He Change It?

Why Did He Change It?

Morison raised w hat is called t he “x-height” of t he letters. The “ x-height” is the distance between the top and bottom of a lower-case letter w ithout ascending o r descending p arts. ( Mann, 2014) By doing

this, i t helped g et m ore words onto a page which would be beneficial for a newspaper!

In m odern t imes, i t is n o longer the standard f ont u sed f or n ewspapers, but i t was for a long time as M orrison was very s uccessful in his design.

Fun Fact

Morison chose that f ont a s his inspiration because h e loved the modern l ook i t had, but h e changed it achieve e fficiency a nd readability. People with dyslexia can read Times New Roman better than other fonts! Visit page 7 for more information!

Purpose Original Purpose

The original purpose o f this font w as to be used in newspapers, and since i t was used daily in newspapers, i t soon became popular across the printers of the day. Even now with all of the new updates in software, T imes N ew R oman i s still one o f the first o ffered fonts o n any computer which continues to increase the popularity o f it.

(A Brief History)

Original Audience

The original audience w as for readers o f the newspaper. T o get to this stage, however, t here was a lot of testing. It had to pass the British Medical Research Council’s “Legibility of Print” book, and i t had to pass a lot of r eading tests in both natural and artificial lights b y various people. Finally, the new t ypeface w as born. (Mann, 2014)

Known Uses

Most PopularUse

Texting

Times N ew R oman i s widely a vailable a nd i s often used as the de-facto font in everyday documents. It's legibility a nd n arrow spacing make it an ideal font for periodicals, text books, novels or other applications w here l arge bodies o f printed type are required. (Coale, 2013)

Not only is t his one o f the most a vailable f onts, but b y design, you n eed m ore words to fill up a page. This could be w hy i t became the standard for school a s it f orces students to w rite m ore to meet requirements!

School Research Papers

The Standard: 12 pt/Times New Roman Font

CharacteristicsCharacteristics hi i CharacteristicsCharacteristics ht it i Characteristics hi i

InfluenceInfluence uence uenc InfluenceInflueInfluence

Times New Roman is a serif t ypeface. I t has old style c haracteristics, but w as a dapted t o be good t o use in books, magazines, o ffice documents, reports, display, or advertising. It has very even spacing and proportions which means it i s good f or on-screen reading and also when it is printed at small sizes. It also h as strong a nd resolute c haracter letters. Times New Roman also looks sharper which can be seen from its bracket, finial and link. This makes its contrast m ore obvious, and this i s what m akes T imes N ew R oman different from other fonts.

This is how Times New Roman got its reputation as t he d efault f ont o f the legal profession—it’s t he d efault f ont o f everything because o f the sharp c haracteristics t hat make it easier to read.

These characteristics led to a study where it was seen i f Times New Roman was easier to read f or p eople with dyslexia. O verall, although Times New Roman was a little bit of a h igher score t han Helvetica, t he c ompetitor font, the scores w ere p retty similar.

(Wery, 2017)

It w as i nfluenced b y Plantin, and that w as based off of the older typeface, Gros Cicero. But, even a fter he w as i nfluenced b y these popular fonts, Times New Roman had some critics. I n Morrison’s typographic memoir, A Tally of T ypes, he said t hat William Morris, the man responsible for the opening illustration i n page l ayout, said “As a new face i t should, b y the grace o f God and t he art o f man, h ave been b road and open, g enerous a nd a mple; i nstead, by t he v ice of Mammon and the misery of t he m achine, i t is b igoted and n arrow, m ean and puritan.”

(A Brief History)

V E R A L L

- Stanley Morrison challenged the newspapers font choice.

- The newspaper had him make a new one.

-He got the help of Victor Lardent.

-He looked to other typefaces for inspiration.

- It was published in 1932.

- Ever since, it has became the standard for a lot of professional settings due to its easy accessibility.

C T O T S I A I N

“A Brief History of Times New Roman: Typography for Lawyers.” A Brief History of Times New Roman | Typography for Lawyers, https://typographyforlawyers.com/a-brief-history-of-times-new-roman.html.

Michael O. Ukonu, et al. “Interactive Effects of Institutional Requirements and Screen vs. Print Platforms on Preference of Times New Roman and Calibri among University Students.” Cogent Education, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 2021. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1968779.vneinbo[rsenf[

Radner, Wolfgang, et al. “Font Effects on Reading Parameters: Comparing Radner Reading Charts Printed in Helvetica and Times Roman.” Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv Fur Klinische Und Experimentelle Ophthalmologie, vol. 260, no. 10, Oct. 2022, pp. 3387–94. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-022-05665-y.cbeiubfi

Wery, Jessica, et al. “The Effect of a Specialized Dyslexia Font, OpenDyslexic, on Reading Rate and Accuracy.” Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 67, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 114–27. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0127-1.

“Where Did Times New Roman Come from?” The New York Public Library, https://www.nypl.org/blog/2014/12/09/times-new-roman.

This type s pecimen book i s one o f a series o f 16 books d esigned under the direction of Sophia Okotah by the ARTD 232: Typography students at t he U niversity of Southern I ndiana during the Fall semester of 2022.

This volume explores t he u se a nd o rigins of t he Times N ew R oman t ypeface created b y Stanley M orrison in 1932. This book h as b een researched, d esigned, a nd edited by Amanda Meuth.