I released Trapper John on December 12, 1997. It was a wide, square techno-style typeface influenced by the lettering used on electronic products, consumer goods, and computers in the 1970s. The name came from a character on the television show M*A*S*H, although the connection between the name and the design was not especially strong.
Trapper John was initially distributed with a free commercial desktop license. In November 2022, I placed it into the public domain.