Although they stopped being used a few years ago, there are still melancholies who want to recover typewriter writing, not only as a decorative element, but as a hobby, in which to restore the machine and use it.
Pressing each of its keys was an effort that many creatives starting now in the world of design will never enjoy. And it is that, the typography of typewriters is a necessary element when designing, it depends on what texts.
Many designers, not having access to such machines, need to find the right typeface that maintains the essence of the typewriter, of the old, that is why today we are going to collect a selection of the best typewriter fonts.
What are typewriter fonts?
Typewriter font, or as it is also known, typewriter font, is one of the most used when working on vintage designs. Although typewriters have long been out of design studios, there are many lovers of this typeface.
There are several typewriter fonts, that is, each of them has variations. The typeface that is generally used to imitate the original typeface is a typography with a classic, worn look, with a bit of texture.
It is a typeface with one aspect in common, despite its variations, it has a similar and persistent width between sticks and serifs. As we have said, these fonts are inspired by old typewriters.
Before computers, it was very common to type to communicate, be it for both personal and business letters, invitations, notices, etc. Today, its use is limited to the time of layout of a book for titles, or when you want to give the graphic piece a formal or vintage style.
typewriter fonts
Next, we are going to show you a selection of different typewriter fonts so that you have different references in your typographic catalogue.
American Typewriter
It appears in 1974, at the hands of Joel Kanden and Tony Stan, who created this alphabet imitating the fonts used by typewriters. It combines the rigidity of old typefaces with a contemporary and current style.
Courier
Created by Howard G. Kettler in 1995 for IBM, the Courier typeface It is one of the best known in the world. It was a typeface that was going to be destined for typewriters, that is why its characters occupy the same width, and it is for this reason that the lines of text written with this typeface are not homogeneous, that is, the letter m, has the same space as the letter i, for example. These imperfections are what make the Courier typeface so well known in the world of design and is still used today.
Adrian Frutiger redesigned it later for IBM Selectic Microsoft to be able to be used on the web. It is a font that is already installed on both MacOs and Windows.
Lucida Typewriter
Lucida Typewriter, belongs to the Lucida family. It was created by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes in 1985. This typeface was one of the first digital typewriter typefaces.
This typeface has small and subtle changes of thickness in its antlers and great legibility. It is a heavy but clear typeface when reading it.
Compost
One of Nils Thomsen's typographic works. Comspot tries to recover the classic forms of machine fonts of writing old ones, but adapting them with a human touch.
It was designed in 2015 as a corporate typeface for Comspot, a hardware and software distributor. In principle, only three pesos were necessary, but they were expanded to nine, for editorial use. These weights are inspired by the history of the company, originally, the programming codes.
Office Sans
Designed in 1990 by Erik Spiekermann. Officina Sans is a typeface whose The purpose was to communicate efficiently in the forms of companies and offices. With a style based on the fonts of old typewriters but with a more modern and technological air.
The Officina font has two subfamilies; the Officina Sans, without finials and the Offica with finials. Initially, for use in offices, it only had two pesos, but as it has evolved in its uses for advertising campaigns, it has needed to add its weights. It is a typography with great readability due to its spacing, the height of its X and its shapes.
Thesis Typewriter
It is a paid typeface, and a very good choice when looking for typewriter fonts. Thesis Typewriter has three different weights, bold, regular and a third one called weary, is the most interesting of the three since it gives the letters texture, giving them a vintage style.
aminta
Gareth Hague typeface designer, is the creator of Aminta, a typeface that unites in an original way, the classic style of old typewriters, with the modern air Helvetica typeface.
The proximity between its characters makes us teleport and it seems that we are pressing each one of the keys of the typewriter.
Erased Typewriter
Designed by typographer Paulo W. Erased Typewriter 2 is a typewriter font in a distressed style, which creates a feeling of original machine type. This font has four weights to customize our designs, regular, bold, italic and underscore.
The typewriter is one of the early typographic reproduction tools. Who does not remember the sound each time a key was pressed, and the effort involved in pressing each button so that the letter remained printed on the paper. It is very difficult to hear and feel this again, but thanks to typographers who have designed fonts inspired by typewriters we can recreate that vintage style, we can go back to those moments.
Having a catalog of typewriter fonts is something necessary when designing, to maintain that old essence, a compact and worn visual style.