The Century font family is a collection of related fonts all based on a typeface that was designed by American Type Founders.
Linn Boyd Benton created he original typeface in 1984 when he was commissioned by Theodore De Vinne to create a typeface for "Century", a popular american magazine. Many fonts around that time were heavily influenced by the work of Giambattsita Bodoni, which were hard to read when scaled down to size for a magazine article. Century was created t resolve this issue.
Century fonts have mainly been used for textbooks and literature, hence the name "New Century Schoolbook Roman", which is in fact a variation of the original Century typeface that's design was based on a scientific study to how children read, which employs an increased x-height and stroke width, as well as increased space between letters in order to achieve improved readability.
There are roughly 26 diferent fonts that are part of the Century font family, although many are similar with slight variations. A few examples of these fonts can be seen below.
ITC Century
The mixture of thick and thin lines, as well as modest spacing within letterforms makes Century ITC very easy to read at any size.
Century Condensed
Condensing the letterforms makes them stand out from a distance but they are still just as easy to read in a body of text.
Century Gothic
Century Gothic is a sans-serif take on the century typeface. It looks very modern and quite informal. The geometric style makes it resembles Futura in many ways.
Century Handtooled
This is a 3d embossed styled Century ITC which could be used for larger text, but would be unnecessary in small text.
