Does anybody still use the courier font??

C

c.g._eads

Veteran
Recently my courier font (in Microsoft Word) was corrupted and now has become very skinny and faulty looking. This has led me on a hunt I haven't had to go on in 8 years - a hunt to find the courier font.

As you screenwriters know, this font is scarce if not impossible to find. Sure, you can use Courier New, but it ends up increasing the page count and it's - I believe - still not used in the professional realm.

This is frustrating because now I have to keep my screenplays under 120 pages "courier new style" which would probably be 110 pages with the regular courier font. This presents all kinds of problems, particularly if I need more pages to tell my story. I can't send a 130 page screenplay and attach a letter say, "Don't worry, this is Courier New. Once you switch it to Courier it will be 120 pages." It's unprofessional.

I know some of you use Final Draft, which has the font built in. I'm not a Final Draft fan however, as I like the extensive flexibility that microsoft word provides. If there's a way to extract the courier font from Final Draft, however, and someone could send it to me, I would be grateful.

Looking for help here. Where is the courier font???
 
Sure, got an e-mail account? Its too large to attach here. I have the regular, bold and italics.
 
EJ, I like to do all this funky stuff from inside the script. I keep bolded notes in there. I like to do some unique formatting. Basically, anytime I tried to do any of these things in Final Draft, it either won't let me or I spend hours upon hours figuring out how. I had to put a picture in a script once. No problem with word. Who knows what would've happened had I tried to do that in Final Draft.

Keith, haven't found it but I'm going to look again.
 
Question: Is this how your guy's courier font looks?

1214337860.gif
 
I know. It's the worst thing ever. It's never to be done. It's unprofessional! However, I believe the rules are changing. Remember, these rules were made when people used to work on typewriters. Much like *color* headshots were seen as unprofessional up until a few years back, the same change will come to screenplays.

As long as your technique, formatting, and story, show that you know what you're doing, people will allow you to break the rules now and then.
 
I think that was a question more of curiosity than of disdain. I'm curious as to what situation lead to you needing a picture.
 
A famous painting, key to the plot, was used. No matter how I described it, it was never as effective as just putting it in there. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

But no one's answering me. Is that how courier is supposed to look? (in my post a few posts earlier)
 
I didn't realise the Courier font had been dropped? It came with my iWork 08 and with Office 2004 as standard. In fact both are in there - Courier and Courier New.

C.G. - the courier font I use looks like that.
 
that is not how my old courier font looked like. I cannot see any producer accepting the quality of this font. I assumed it was corrupted but this confirms that that's courier. Is it that the new word doesn't know how to display it?

Can anyone tell me if they print out their scripts using that font with that look? (the one I posted on the first page of this thread?)
 
c.g._eads said:
that is not how my old courier font looked like. I cannot see any producer accepting the quality of this font. I assumed it was corrupted but this confirms that that's courier. Is it that the new word doesn't know how to display it?

Can anyone tell me if they print out their scripts using that font with that look? (the one I posted on the first page of this thread?)
Click to expand...

It's Courier, yes. Dunno what the oddball skewed characters in the middle of it are, but that looks more or less like the Courier that's built into FD, although that's actually called "Courier FD" or something like that.

Here's an example of "Courier New" from my Mac/OSX 10.4.9

The reason Courier is standard in scripts is becuse it's a fixed width per letter or space regardless of the letter's size. This makes word count per page more consistent, and thus page count as well. Since scripts are thought of in terms of a minute of screen time per page it's quite a rational thing actually.
 
yes, I am aware of this, which is why I am so adamant about not using Courier New. However, I can not use this version of courier. It looks like a 6 year old's version of the font. I would like the original courier font. Does anyone know where I can find it?
 
Courier is Courier. They all look identical (or they wouldn't be called Courier). The difference is that some use different kerning and line-spacing (like Final Draft's version of Courier).

Also, fonts these days use different renderers for printing on the screen and printing on a printer -- print out the font to see what it really looks like.

If you check out some of the screenwriter forums, you'll see that every solstice or so there's a big flame war over "the right" Courier. In the end the people reading the script don't care as long as it looks like everything else they've been reading.

If you really want the authentic Courier font, I have some old Selectric daisy-wheels in a box somewhere!
 
What Pmark said. 12-pt Courier or Courier New work, unless the Courier New you use is really new and has become fubar'd. But I doubt that or else it wouldn't be called courier. BOTH adhere to standard margins, and are fixed-pitch fonts. The difference is in what Pmark said basically.

Long as every letter occupies the same amount of horizontal space on the line, regardless of whether it is lower case or capital case (ie: like e and E or m and Z). That is essentially what a fixed-pitched font is. Test it, make a full line of e's then capitalize them. The space will remain the same. (Courier) Fonts used for typing scripts are 10 pitch, that is 10 characters per horiz. inch, and 12 points, which allows 6 lines of type per vertical inch.

The reason is for what Ted Spencer said "one page = one minute of finished film" (basically). It's a standard and a tool to figure out time/costs.

Check out a nice little book, "The Hollywood Standard" very good basic quick read on "standard" script formatting. Of course the debate will rage on regardless but either Courier is a okay I say =)
 
Guys, I don't want to sound rude here. I really appreciate your help and the time you've put into responding. But I don't need a review lesson on why courier is used. I know exactly why it is used. But courier new and courier are two completely different fonts. Page count differs as much as 10 pages when you switch between the two. I've posted what my courier looks like (terrible - it looks corrupted). That is also what it looks like when printed. The consensus seems to be, "well, that's what you're going to get. that's courier. sorry." But if you happen to know where I can find the "real" courier font (which I did have once), please help. thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top