I launched Cuomotype on March 8, 1998, as a distressed variant of Larabiefont. The idea came from Mr. Cuomo, who sent me an email suggesting a rougher version. Larabiefont itself was based on the Olympia Senatorial No. 71 manual typewriter, and Cuomotype carried that typewriter-like quality but with an intentionally worn appearance.

To create the effect, I used Photoshop in a fairly rudimentary way compared to the texturing systems I developed years later. I airbrushed ink-like buildup into the counters and overlaid a burlap scan to imitate the texture of a ribbon. After getting the look I wanted, I converted the artwork to 1-bit and autotraced it in Fontographer. The result was a font suited for simulating old documents, something that felt both familiar and degraded at the same time.

Over the years, I’ve spotted Cuomotype in video games, usually in mission briefings or similar contexts, though I can’t recall which specific titles. I initially released it with a free commercial use desktop license. On September 2, 2014, I did some cleanup and adjusted the vertical metrics, but otherwise the design has remained unchanged. In November 2022, I placed it into the public domain.