I have spent most of my life and all of my career with type and typography. As a result, I'm often asked about my favorite typeface. Almost always, I dodge the question. Truth be known, I don't have a favorite. There are a few typefaces, however, I have a great fondness for. One of those is the ITC American Typewriter™ family.

ITC American Typewriter is a happy melding of its office forerunner, traits that make it a friendly, broad-shouldered typeface at large sizes, and time-proven characteristics that ensure high levels of legibility in text copy. The design does away with the typewriter's rigid spacing (which assigns the same amount of space to a lowercase "i" as it does to a capital "W"). And while the letterforms of ITC American Typewriter are clearly influenced by a typewriter font, they are far more legible and ultimately more readable than any standard typewriter output. What's not to like?

Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs.