Nobody fails to notice Cooper Black. It’s a typeface meant for big, bold headlines with a slightly old-fashioned feel. It’s big and friendly; it doesn’t shout, but you can’t ignore it. Cooper Black is a reliable choice for titles or short headlines.
Cooper Black has stubby, rounded serifs and very small counters (the spaces inside the letters); some of the larger counters have a distinctive backward slant. The letters almost look inflated, but they are comfortably familiar in form, despite all the weight they carry. You wouldn’t want to use Cooper Black in body text, but at large sizes it’s easy and inviting to read.
The original metal typeface was designed in 1921 by Oswald Cooper for the type foundry Barnhart Brothers & Spindler. It was a dramatic extra-bold typeface aimed at the advertising market, and it has been enormously popular ever since.
