Papyrus is a widely available
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
designed by Chris Costello, a
graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...
,
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
, and
web designer. Created in 1982 and released by
Linotype, it has a number of distinctive characteristics, including rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the capitals.
History and overview
Costello created the font in 1982, when he was 23 years old and just out of college. He had been studying the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and came onto the idea of what a written font would have looked like in biblical times in the Middle East.
He hand-drew the font over a period of six months by means of
calligraphy
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
pen and textured paper. Costello described his goal as a font that would represent what
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
texts would have looked like if written on
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
2000 years ago. Costello released the font the following year alongside
Letraset. Papyrus has a number of distinctive characteristics, including rough edges, irregular curves, and high horizontal strokes in the capitals.
ITC, the current owner of the typeface, describes it as an "unusual roman typeface
hateffectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letterform with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy". Costello sold the rights for the font for $750 (), and as of 2017, states he still receives "very low" royalty payments despite its inclusion since 2000 on all personal computers using a Mac or Microsoft operating system.
In any case, Costello claims "it was not my intent (for it) to be used for everything. It's way overused."
Variants
![Papyrus EF Regular Sample](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Papyrus_EF_Regular_Sample.png)
An alternative font published by
Elsner+Flake is Papyrus EF Alternatives (or Papyrus EF Regular), providing a slight variation to Costello's font. Its differences include a shorter, sharper capital P, a capital E with a top bar longer than the middle bar, and a
swash A.
Availability
Papyrus has been included in many Microsoft programs for Windows.
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
includes Papyrus font as part of its basic installation (starting with version
10.3 Panther, released in 2003).
Reception and use in popular culture
Over the years, Papyrus has gained infamy for its omnipresence in graphic design, usually in situations for which it was not intended. The criticism towards the typeface is very similar to that of
Comic Sans
Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other cas ...
. In 2008, a website named "Papyrus Watch" was created for documenting the typeface's ubiquity and misusage.
Papyrus has been used in numerous TV show opening credits such as
''Medium'' (2005–2011) and
''Eureka'' (2006–2012). It was also used in the episode credits and end credits of the first four seasons of ''
Samurai Jack''.
In
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...
's movie ''
Avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
'', the typeface is used in the title and subtitles.
Its use in the film was highlighted in a ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' sketch featuring
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received ...
,
which also mentioned that it is widely used for
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...
merchandise,
hookah bars, and off-brand tea companies.
Jon Landau
Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen in all three capacities. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recei ...
, the producer of both ''Avatar'' films, claims that the sketch helped to keep ''Avatar'' relevant during production of the second film.
In preparation for the expansion of the ''Avatar'' franchise, ''
Avatar: The Way of Water'' saw the film series change to a proprietary font called Toruk;
however, Papyrus is still used for subtitles.
Papyrus is the name of a character in
Toby Fox
Robert F. Fox (born October 11, 1991), known professionally as Toby Fox (previously Toby "Radiation" Fox), is an American video game developer and video game composer. He is known for developing the role-playing video games ''Undertale'' and '' ...
's game ''
Undertale''. The brother of
Sans, his dialogue is presented in uppercase Papyrus.
References
External links
Chris Costello's official site
{{Authority control
Display typefaces
Typefaces and fonts introduced in 1983