Century Schoolbook Family

The Century Schoolbook font is possibly the most popular of the existing century family, and is admired for its excellent readability. The best known Century Schoolbook appeared in 1924. Century Schoolbook face does the job it was meant to do very well. Generations of children learned to read with this font.

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The first Century Schoolbook Font Family was cut by Linn Boyd Benton working with T. L. De Vinne for Century magazine to replace the unsuitable face they had used previously. A few years later, this was followed, at the turn of the century, by Century Expanded. It was Morris Fuller Benton, who made several other versions of Century™, who also made several versions Century Schoolbook fonts for ATF, starting in about 1919.

The most popular digital version of Century Schoolbook first appeared in 1924 and other versions are Century Expanded, cut in 1093; and Century Old Style, cut in of 1909. The Century Schoolbook font face does the job it was meant to do very well.

The Century Schoolbook font is round, open, and solid, and although heavier in appearance than many other serif fonts, the Century Schoolbook Font Family comes near the top of the list of no-nonsense text fonts that will withstand a lot of punishment. Generations of children learned to read with the Century Schoolbook font.

The Century Schoolbook font is recognized to many in the United States and Canada as being the typeface many first learned to read with. From research and studies, Morris Fuller Benton showed that young readers more quickly identified letterforms with contrasting weight, but with the lighter strokes maintaining presence. Tests also revealed the importance of maintaining counter-form (the white space around the black letterform) in recognizing the face at smaller sizes.

In designing Century Schoolbook, Morris Fuller Benton increased the x-height, the stroke width, and overall letterspacing. The original ATF Century Schoolbook was designed without italics. Later redesigns by Linotype and the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) added italics. The use of the Century Schoolbook font remains strong, for periodicals, textbooks, and literature. An infant variety also exists, which features single-story versions of the letters A and G.