Times Roman is a body text, serifed typeface. It is Linotype's licensed version of Monotype's Times New Roman typeface. Times (New) Roman is sometimes said to be based on an older design called Plantin. The design was originally produced by Monotype for the Times of London, around 1929-32. Its readability and economical use of space caused it to be used extensively in American newspapers during World War II to save paper. A digital version of Times Roman was implemented by Adobe Systems in the first Postscript interpreters (also in laser printers), thus making the typeface common. When versions were later used as a system font on both Windows and Mac OS, it became ubiquitous.

The differences between Times Roman and Times New Roman PS are mostly a trademark issue. Although there are subtle stylistic differences, they are invisible in body text at normal reading distances. Although there was a time when Times New Roman had different widths than Times Roman, when Microsoft licensed Times New Roman for Windows, they asked Monotype to match the Adobe/Linotype widths from the PostScript font. So the most common versions seen today have identical widths in common characters.

Microsoft Windows computers feature Monotype's Times New Roman PS while Mac computers have Linotype's Times Roman (simply named ‘Times’). Computers running Open Source operating sytems generally have URW's Nimbus Roman No9 L, which is URW's PostScript version of Times Roman, placed into the public domain.

In digital font systems, Times [New] Roman is usually the first font coded, and the font most often examined to determine the quality of the font system. Therefore, software designers and commercial organizations take particular care with it.

Sample

The following paragraph is in Times Roman if it (or Times New Roman, Times or Nimbus Roman No9 L) is installed on your machine. If not, a monospace font is used:

External link

• Times Roman vs. Times New Roman