It rapidly became a standard typeface and was licensed by American Type Founders and also copied by many other manufacturers of printing systems.

[7] While very bold, Cooper Black is based on traditional "old-style" serif lettering, rather than the hard-edged "fat face" fonts popular in the nineteenth century, giving it a soft, 'muddy' appearance, with relatively low contrast between thick and thin strokes.

[12] Although its use in advertising declined in the 1960s, it became much more popular in pop culture after appearing on the cover art for the 1966 album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

[15][16] Cooper Black remains popular: the editors of the typography discussion website Fonts in Use report more submissions of its use than any other face that is not a sans-serif, although outnumbered by Times New Roman once its many variants are added up.

These included "Ziptop Cooper Black" from Photo Lettering Inc., a version with the top bolder than the bottom, and other distorted variants.