This is a tale about Napoleon, the Rosetta Stone, typewriters, and font errors. Yes, they are all related.

In 1985, if you were asked to name the most used typeface in the world, the answer would not be evident. The answer was “Courier,” the typeface used on IBM and other typewriters, almost all impact printers, and new laser printers then hitting the market. Because it was a monospaced typewriter font, it was not considered a typeface. I recall giving a speech for the Print Quality conference in 1981 to an audience of printer manufacturers. I said that most of them would not exist if IBM had been able to protect Courier.

Since tens of millions of IBM typewriters and and printers used Courier, it had become the de facto standard font for correspondence, reports, and almost all business and office communication. Although there were a few typewriter fonts, Courier caught on and took over within a few years. A lot had to do with IBM’s dominance at the time. Thus, any printout device had to have a version of Courier. Since type designs as designs are not protectable under law (their names can be trademarked), Courier became pervasive.