Courier Prime vs Courier New vs Courier Final Draft: Which Screenplay Font?
Every screenplay is set in 12-point Courier — but "Courier" is really a family of different fonts that happen to share a name. They look noticeably different on screen and on paper, and writers regularly worry that switching between them will wreck their page count. It won't, provided you know the one setting that actually matters. Here's how the four Couriers you'll meet compare, and which to pick.
The short answer
- Which Courier should I use for a screenplay?
- Courier Prime. It's free, it was redesigned specifically for screenwriters, and it reads far better than Courier New on screen and in print. Courier Final Draft and original Courier are also perfectly acceptable.
- Will switching fonts change my page count?
- No — every Courier is exactly ten characters per inch at 12 points. The only thing that can move page breaks is line spacing in a general word processor; set it to exactly 12 pt and it can't.
- What font does Final Draft use?
- By default, its own Courier Final Draft, which it installs for you. You can switch a script to Courier Prime or any other installed Courier at any time.
See the difference
The same lines of screenplay, set at the same size in two of the contenders. Courier Prime loads from Google Fonts; Courier New is read from your own device, since it ships with Windows and macOS. (On Android or Linux you may see a generic monospace stand-in instead of Courier New.)
Courier Prime
INT. WRITERS' ROOM — NIGHT
Empty coffee cups. A whiteboard of crossed-out titles.
MAYA
Same page count. Better font.
Courier New
INT. WRITERS' ROOM — NIGHT
Empty coffee cups. A whiteboard of crossed-out titles.
MAYA
Same page count. Better font.
Notice the stroke weight, and compare the italic "crossed-out": Courier Prime's is a genuinely drawn italic; Courier New's is little more than the upright letters slanted.
Why they all measure the same
Courier is a monospaced design: every character, from i to W, occupies exactly 0.6 of the font size in width. At 12 points that's 7.2 points per character — precisely ten characters per inch, the old typewriter measure called pica pitch. Every legitimate Courier keeps that width, because it is the whole point of the design.
That fixed width is what makes the screenplay's page-per-minute rule work (the full reasoning is in Screenwriting Fonts: Why Every Screenplay Uses Courier 12pt). It also means that swapping one Courier for another puts the same number of characters on every line, so your line breaks — and therefore your page breaks — don't move.
The one setting that can change your page count
Characters per line are fixed; lines per page are not, unless you fix them. Screenplay convention is six lines per inch — a 12-point line pitch. Dedicated screenwriting software enforces that no matter which font you choose. A general word processor does not: "single" spacing in Word or Google Docs is calculated from each font's own internal metrics, so two Couriers can produce slightly different line heights and slightly different page counts.
The fix is one setting: in Word, set line spacing to Exactly 12 pt (Paragraph → Line spacing → Exactly). With that in place, any Courier gives you an identical page count. If you write in Final Draft, Fade In, WriterDuet or Highland, you don't need to do anything.
The four Couriers, compared
| Font | Where it comes from | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courier Prime | Free under the SIL Open Font Licence; Google Fonts | Even, readable weight; true italic and bold; made for screenwriters | Has to be installed (it isn't on most computers by default) |
| Courier Final Draft | Installed with Final Draft | Sturdier than Courier New; the default in the industry's most-used app | Only available if you have Final Draft |
| Courier (original) | Ships with macOS; the IBM design from the 1950s | The classic look; heavier than Courier New | Italic and bold are basic |
| Courier New | Ships with Windows and Office | Available everywhere, no install needed | Thin and pale on screen and in print; italic is essentially a slanted upright |
Courier New: available everywhere, and the weakest of the four
Courier New is the version most writers meet first, because it comes with Windows and Microsoft Office. It's a faithful digital Courier with one well-known problem: it's thin. A common explanation is that its letterforms were drawn to match typewriter type before ink spread — on a typewriter, ribbon ink fattened every stroke, but a laser printer and a screen render the thin outline exactly. The result reads pale and spindly, especially on high-resolution displays and in PDFs.
It's still completely acceptable for a submission. No reader will reject a script for being in Courier New; it just isn't pleasant to read for 110 pages.
Courier Final Draft: the practical default
If you write in Final Draft, you're already using Courier Final Draft unless you changed it. It's noticeably darker and more even than Courier New, and because Final Draft is so dominant in the industry, it is probably the Courier most professional readers see most often. There's no reason to switch away from it if you're happy.
Courier Prime: the one built for writers
Courier Prime was commissioned by screenwriter John August through his company Quote-Unquote Apps and released free in 2013, drawn by type designer Alan Dague-Greene. The brief was to keep Courier's exact metrics — so it drops into any script without moving a line — while fixing what makes Courier tiring: a more even stroke weight, a bold that is actually bold (useful for scene headings), and a true italic, which matters because screenplays use italics for emphasis, foreign-language dialogue and song lyrics.
It's released under the SIL Open Font Licence, so it's free for any use, including commercial projects and anything you produce around the script, like pitch documents.
How to switch to Courier Prime
- Install it. Download it from Courier Prime on Google Fonts and install all four styles (regular, italic, bold, bold italic).
- Final Draft: fonts are set per element (Scene Heading, Action, Character, Dialogue and so on) in the element settings — under the Format menu in recent versions. Set every element to Courier Prime, 12 pt, and save the result as your default template if you want new scripts to start that way.
- Fade In, WriterDuet, Highland: each has a font or print-style setting where Courier Prime can be selected once it is installed.
- Google Docs: Courier Prime is available without installing anything — use the font menu's "More fonts" option and search for it.
- Word: set the font, then set line spacing to Exactly 12 pt, as described above.
- Check the page count before and after. In screenwriting software it should be identical; if it isn't, a line-spacing setting has changed.
Does the reader ever see your font?
Almost always, yes — through a PDF. Scripts circulate as PDFs, and a properly exported PDF embeds the fonts it uses, so the recipient sees your Courier Prime even if they've never installed it. Every screenwriting app embeds fonts automatically on PDF export; if you export from a word processor, make sure font embedding is switched on. The one time a font choice can backfire is when you send an editable file (a .fdx or .docx) to someone who doesn't have the font: their software will substitute another Courier, which — because the metrics match — is harmless.
Frequently asked questions
Is Courier Prime acceptable for screenplay submissions?
Yes. It's metrically identical to standard Courier, so it satisfies the 12-point Courier requirement, and it's widely used by working screenwriters. Nobody reading a PDF will object to it.
Is Courier New acceptable for a screenplay?
Yes. It's a legitimate 12-point Courier and will produce a correctly formatted script. It's simply thinner and harder on the eyes than Courier Prime or Courier Final Draft.
What is the difference between Courier and Courier New?
Both are digital versions of the same 1950s IBM typewriter design with identical character widths. Courier New, which ships with Windows, is drawn noticeably lighter; the original Courier, which ships with macOS, is heavier and closer to how typed pages actually looked.
What font does Final Draft use?
Courier Final Draft, a Courier variant that Final Draft installs and uses by default. You can change it to Courier Prime or another Courier in the program's element settings.
Will changing from Courier New to Courier Prime change my page count?
Not in screenwriting software, which fixes line spacing at six lines per inch. In a word processor it can shift slightly unless you set line spacing to exactly 12 points.
Is Courier Prime free for commercial use?
Yes. It's released under the SIL Open Font Licence, which allows free commercial use; the only restriction is that you can't sell the font files themselves.
The short version: install Courier Prime, lock your line spacing, and stop thinking about fonts. Courier's whole job is to be the one decision a screenwriter never has to revisit — and it's also the right default for the adjacent case of stage plays, where the rest of the formatting rules are far looser.