Century refers to a family of type faces derived from the original Century Roman cut by American Type Founders’

American Type Founders

American Type Founders was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States...

 designer Linn Boyd Benton

Linn Boyd Benton

Linn Boyd Benton was an American typeface designer and inventor who invented the Benton Pantograph, an engraving machine which was capable not only of scaling a single font design pattern to a variety of sizes, but could also condense, extend, and slant the design...

 in 1894. Despite originating in the nineteenth century, use of the typeface remains strong, for periodicals, textbooks, and literature. The faces are noted for their exceptional legibility, so much so that the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 requires that briefs be typeset in Century family type.

“The rugged simplicity of the Century family of types has made it an enduring favorite of American typographers for almost one hundred years.