In 16th century Europe, roman typefaces were the first to surpass blackletter as the preferred choice for expressing emphasis in print. True bold weight roman letters didn’t appear until the 19th century, which critics quickly coined “Fat Faces” due to their beefed-up strokes and small counters. Along with Egyptians and grotesques—also commonly known as Gothics—Fat Faces would become the standard display face of advertising for nearly a century.

在16世纪的欧洲，罗马字体是第一个超越Blackletter(黑体字)的字体，成为表达印刷重点的首选。 真正粗体的罗马字母直到19世纪才出现，评论家们因其笔挺的笔触和小柜台而Swift创造了“胖子面Kong”。 与埃及人和怪诞派(通常也称为哥特派)一起，胖脸将成为近一个世纪以来广告的标准展示面。

Until an old-style typeface proved it could be just as fat.

直到一种老式字体证明它可能同样胖。

Type designer Oswald Bruce Cooper released Cooper Old Style (later just Cooper) in 1919. A former Chicago advertising man, Cooper was soon commissioned by the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type foundry to create something they could sell to advertisers. Thus, Cooper Black was born (and released) in 1922. Drawn as an extra bold weight of Cooper Old Style, it was advertised with the slogan: “For far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers.” To type critics it would become known as The Black Menace.

字体设计师奥斯瓦尔德·布鲁斯·库珀( Oswald Bruce Cooper )于1919年发布了库珀旧样式(后来称为库珀)。库珀是前芝加哥的广告人，不久后受Barnhart Brothers＆Spindler字体代工厂的委托创作了可以出售给广告商的东西。 因此，库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)于1922年出生(并被释放)。作为库珀旧样式的额外大胆字体，它的广告标语是：“面向有远见的客户的有远见的打印机。” 批评家们将其称为“黑威胁”。

It took Cooper a year to flesh out the final weight of the characters and complete the full set, redrawing the lowercase characters multiple times—specifically the m and n—while Barnhart Brothers & Spindler’s General Manager Richard McArthur continually asked for the forms to be drawn heavier, and heavier.

库珀花了一年的时间来充实角色的最终重量并完成整套任务，多次重画小写字符(特别是m和n)，而Barnhart Brothers＆Spindler的总经理Richard McArthur不断要求绘制表格越来越重。

Sales became voluminous as the font itself well into the 1930s—considered to be one of the most successfully selling typefaces of the time—and the type foundry initially had difficulty keeping up with demand. Cooper Black’s early success would spawn many imitators, such as Goudy Heavyface and Ludlow Black. Coincidentally, many consider Cooper Black to be a knock-off of Pabst Extra Bold, a child of Pabst Old Style designed by Frederic Goudy for the Pabst Brewing Company in 1902. In fact, Pabst Extra Bold was cast by Linotype, has no relation to Goudy’s face, and was designed to capitalize on the success of Cooper Black.

随着字体本身进入1930年代(被认为是当时最成功的销售字体之一)，销售变得异常火爆，而字体铸造厂最初很难满足需求。 库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)的早期成功将催生许多模仿者，例如古迪·哈德菲斯(Goudy Heavyface)和拉德洛·布莱克(Ludlow Black)。 巧合的是，许多人都认为库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)是Pabst Extra Bold的仿制品，Pabst Extra Bold是Frederic Goudy在1902年为Pabst Brewing Company设计的Pabst Old Style的孩子。实际上，Pabst Extra Bold由Linotype铸造而成，与古迪的脸，并旨在利用库珀·布莱克的成功。

Cooper, in response to fear of only achieving “a tiresome effect from the too frequent repetition of the same quirk and curve,” followed Cooper Black with the unexpected: More Cooper variants.

库珀对担心只能实现“过于频繁地重复相同的怪癖和曲线而产生的令人讨厌的效果”的回应，紧随其后的是库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)：更多的库珀变体。

Cooper Black Italic with alternate swash characters came next, along with Cooper Fullface and Cooper Black Condensed, described by Cooper as “condensed but not squeezed.” Cooper Black Condensed is about 20% lighter than Cooper Black, but due to the nature of the thick, rounded shapes the argument of condensed vs. squeezed is difficult to confirm.

接下来是带有备用斜体字符的Cooper Black Italic，以及Cooper Fullface和Cooper Black Condensed(被Cooper描述为“压缩但不压缩”)。 Cooper Black Condensed比Cooper Black轻20％左右，但是由于厚而圆的形状的性质，关于压缩与压缩的论点难以确定。

During the height of metal type Cooper Black became one of the best-selling typefaces in America. In fact, Cooper achieved something highly unique in typeface design: A serif face that has the feel of a sans serif. The curved notches in the serifs give the letterforms a solid weight, almost as if they were cut as an afterthought; a way to keep the fat, rounded letters from rolling off the page. Cooper has particularly short descenders, adding to the support of its heft, and lower case letters with a comparatively tall x-height in relation to cap height. Cooper Black’s most memorable feature, however, is the presence of minute counters in its lower case letters, particularly the a and e.

在金属字体流行期间，库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)成为美国最畅销的字体之一。 实际上，库珀在字体设计上实现了一些非常独特的东西：一种衬线字体，具有无衬线字体的感觉。 衬线体上的弯曲凹口使字形具有坚固的重量，几乎像是事后才切开的那样。 一种避免胖而圆的字母滚离页面的方法。 库珀的后腿特别短，增加了它的重量，小写字母的x高度相对于帽高也较高。 库珀·布莱克最令人难忘的功能是小写字母中的分钟计数器，特别是a和e 。

These tiny counters, along with its rounded forms, give Cooper Black its warm and friendly appearance. Other distinctive features include the backward tilt of the counters on the O and Q, as well as the elliptical dots in the i and j. However, as the font’s title suggests, it’s the blackness of Cooper Black—the lack of contrast in the design of the letterforms—that primarily draws our attention and makes the typeface stand out.

这些小巧的柜台以及圆形的外观使库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)显得温暖而友善。 其他特色还包括O和Q上的计数器向后倾斜，以及i和j上的椭圆点。 但是，正如字体标题所暗示的那样，正是库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)的黑色-字母形设计中缺乏反差-首先吸引了我们的注意力，并使字体醒目。

Cooper Black’s popularity died in the early 1940s, along with its creator, but gained a resurgence two decades later due to the aesthetic of the Pop Art movement. Its contours are warm and friendly—both strong and soft—making it an extremely flexible font. Simon Garfield made the ultimate observation of Cooper Black’s bulbous curves as “the sort of font the oils in a lava lamp would form if smashed to the floor.”

库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)的知名度及其创造者在1940年代初逝世，但由于波普艺术运动的美感，二十年后又重新流行。 它的轮廓既温暖又友好，既强壮又柔软，使其成为一种非常灵活的字体。 西蒙·加菲尔德(Simon Garfield)对库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)的球根形曲线进行了最终观察，发现“熔岩灯中的油被砸碎会形成一种字体。”

In 1966 The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds featuring Cooper Black on the dust jacket, and launched the typeface into the cultural spotlight. Other notable artists followed suit: The Doors’ L.A. Woman, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, and The Mothers of Invention’s Freak Out!

1966年，海滩男孩乐队发行了《 Pet Sounds》，在防尘套上印有库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)的字样，并成为文化焦点。 其他著名的艺术家也效仿了《门》的《 洛杉矶女人》，鲍伊的《 齐格·星尘》和发明之母的《 怪胎》！

Most notably, Cooper Black experienced a lasting tradition in television logos and title sequences—beginning in the 70s with The Odd Couple and M*A*S*H*; followed by Diff’rent Strokes and Cheers in the 80s; and continuing into the 21st century with Everybody Hates Chris, Louie, and Dear White People (just to name a very few)—and has continued to be the go-to font of popular culture (Garfield, National Lampoon magazine) and novelty items.

最著名的是，库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)在电视徽标和标题顺序方面经历了悠久的传统-始于70年代的《古怪夫妇》和M * A * S * H *； 其次是80年代的Diff'rent Strokes和干杯 ； 并持续到21世纪， 每个人都恨克里斯，路易和亲爱的白人 (仅举几例)，并且一直是流行文化(加菲猫， 国家Lampoon杂志)和新颖商品的首选字体。

Today, Cooper Black is still most closely associated with 1960s–1980s nostalgia, serving as a visual shorthand that captures the essence of the “bubblegum” eras. While least often thought of as a branding-eligible face, the UK budget airline easyJet shocked advertisers in 1995 when they chose Cooper Black for their company branding.

如今，库珀·布莱克仍然与1960年代至1980年代的怀旧息息相关，作为视觉速记，捕捉了“泡泡糖”时代的本质。 虽然最不常被认为是符合品牌资格的面Kong，但英国廉价航空公司easyJet于1995年震惊广告商，当时他们选择了Cooper Black进行公司品牌推广。

The typeface never really left the screen printing scene, continuing as a go-to choice for T-shirt lettering to this day (and made ever more popular by Napoleon Dynamite Vote for Pedro memorabilia). Cooper Black eventually reemerged on the music scene, first for the cover of The Black Key’s 2010 album Brothers, followed in 2011 for Tyler the Creator’s Goblin LP, which marked a return to the typeface’s association with hip-hop culture.

字体从来没有真正离开过丝网印刷界，直到今天一直是T恤刻字的首选(并且Napoleon Dynamite Vote在Pedro纪念品方面越来越受欢迎)。 库珀·布莱克(Cooper Black)最终重新出现在音乐界，首先是The Black Key的2010年专辑《 Brothers》的翻唱，其后是2011年为Tyler the Creator的Goblin LP发行的专辑，标志着字体的回归与嘻哈文化的联系。

2012 saw the release of Big, Black & Beautiful from BIS Publishers, a tribute to the Cooper typeface. For additional, unique perspectives on Cooper Black, check out Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black by David Cheshire and Cooper Black Never Went Out of Style — So Why Does It Need a Redesign? by Emily Gosling for AIGA Eye on Design.

BIS Publishers在2012年发行了Big，Black和Beautiful ，这是对Cooper字体的致敬。 有关Cooper Black的其他独特观点，请查看字体背后： David Cheshire 撰写的Cooper Black和Cooper Black永远不会过时—那么，为什么需要重新设计？ Emily Gosling撰写的AIGA着眼设计 。

And Vox just released a fun retrospective on Cooper Black earlier this week:

Vox本周早些时候刚刚发布了关于Cooper Black的有趣回顾展：