In 1932 the Times of London declared that this font would make the paper "the most comfortably readable journal in the world."

British typographer Stanley Morison issued a challenge to one of London's leading newspaper, the Times, in 1929. He wanted it to change its clunky old type to a more readable version. The Newspaper issued him a challenge in response: Design it, and we'll use it. So Morison went to work. His aim was readability but also economy of space, so that more words could fit on each line.

He based his effort in part on guidelines issued by the British Medical Research Council in its 1926 Report on the Legibility of Print. He even submitted his new font for ophthalmologic review. For its part, the Times assembled a team to test the font under both natural and artificial light. It passed. Three years after Morison's challenge, his font was ready to appear in the newspaper—and one of the most successful typefaces in history was born.

Two companies manufactured typesetting machines for the font: Monotype Corporation named its version Times New Roman, and the Linotype Company called its Times Roman. Decades later, Microsoft would license Monotype's fonts, and Apple would do the same for Linotype's. Thus the slight distinction in the naming of the classic font survived into the digital era.