On top of Times New Roman showing up on everyone’s Windows computer as the default font, most printed school assignments in the U.S. So why was Times New Roman one of the chosen few? Because in the early computer days, most documents were printed, and this serif font was widely available and designed for print. They both made sets of the typeface available, just under two slightly different names: Apple chose Linotype’s Times Roman and Microsoft chose Monotype’s Times New Roman.) (Fun fact: Times New Roman and New Roman are essentially the same font, but the original typeface hardware for The Times‘s font was created jointly by, you guessed it-Monotype and Linotype. Thus Microsoft’s core fonts were Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New, and Apple’s core fonts were Times Roman, Helvetica, and Courier. Microsoft used Monotype, and Apple used Linotype. Their core fonts would have been more identical…except each computer giant licensed their fonts from different typesetting companies. This would essentially standardize fonts and printer software across the two operating systems, which were respectively named TrueType and TrueImage. Microsoft’s Principle Software Engineering Manager, Greg Hitchcock, wrote extensively about Microsoft and Apple’s cross-license agreement for font technology back in 1989. We have Microsoft and Apple to thank for that. In order to really understand why these three are so popular, we need to get to know two common categories for typefaces: serif and sans serif.

Let’s find out how they became the most widely used fonts ever. Somehow, this trio has led the pack of font styles for decades, and became the fonts of choice for a multitude of companies, operating systems, and entire industries. They are everywhere, whether we like it or not: from the papers we wrote in high school to the books we read to instruction manuals to advertisements to journals and newspapers. There are hundreds of thousands of font styles out there in the world, and yet the mainstays in English and Latin-based languages typically boil down to just three: Times New Roman, Arial, and Helvetica. You can find her on Instagram and TikTok All posts by Melissa Baron In her spare time, she explores Chicago, writes a lot, and hangs out with her fiancé and two cats. She is a former English major, and has never met a semicolon she didn’t accidentally abuse in some fashion.

She lives in Chicago and works as a technical writer to pay the bills. Melissa is the author of TWICE IN A LIFETIME from Alcove Press and represented by Laura Cameron at Transatlantic Agency.

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