TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:39:20 EST 2024

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ABOUT

Steve Matteson

Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Printing graduate who lived in California and in Holland, MI, and now resides in Louisville, Colorado. He was a disciple of Chuck Bigelow and Kris Holmes. MyFonts page on him. In 1990, he started work at Monotype in Palo Alto to create the Windows truetype core fonts Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New. He stayed with Monotype and then Agfa/Monotype until 2003 (when he was probably fired, but that is only an unreliable guess), directing type development from the design office in Palo Alto, CA. Bio at Agfa/Monotype. He has directed branding projects such as Agilent Technology's corporate sans serif and Microsoft's corporate font family 'Segoe'. At the same time, he was involved in producing bitmaps and outline fonts for cell phones and TV set top environments. He has worked extensively designing Greek, Cyrllic, Thai, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets to satisfy the requirements of customers such as IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Sun and Sybase. In 2004, he co-founded Ascender Corporation in Northbrook, IL, where he remained Type Design Director until Ascender was bought by Monotype, where he now heads the type design team (12 people in all, as of 2013).

CBC interview in 2012. Fontspace link. FontShop link. At ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik, he spoke on typefaces for Android OS.

His typefaces:

• Amanda.
• Andale Mono (Monotype), Andale Mono (Ascender). This is a monospace sans-serif typeface designed for terminal emulation and software development environments. It was originally created by Monotype. Andalé Mono was first distributed as an Internet Explorer 4.0 add-on under the name Monotype.com. In version 1.25 of the font, it was renamed to Andale Mono, distributed with Internet Explorer 5. It is often used by programmers, and is bundled with Mac OS X.
• Andy (Monotype), his first face, a design based on a friend's lefty handwriting. Published at Agfa's Creative Alliance.
• Arimo (2010). A free sans family at Google Web Fonts that is metrically compatible with Arial. TeX support and further downloads on CTAN.
• Ascender Sans Mono (2004-2008, Ascender). Metrically compatible with Courier New. Ascender Serif (2005, 4 styles) is metrically compatible with Times New Roman.
• Ascender Uni Duo is a fixed-width comprehensive Unicode-compatible font available with support for the Unicode Standard. Ascender Uni Duo is a 39MB TrueType font with approximately 53,000 glyphs. The Latin and related glyphs (designed by Steve Matteson) are Sans Serif, with Gothic ideographs drawn in Japanese style, and complementary styles for other scripts. There are also versions of Ascender Uni that provide localized support for Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. OpenType layout support is included for Arabic (initial, medial, final, isolate, and required ligature forms, as well as basic mark positioning), and vertical writing for CJK locales (consisting mostly of Latin, symbol, punctuation, and kana glyph variants). Character Set: Latin-1, WGL Pan-European (Eastern Europe, Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Arabic. Ashley Crawford.
• Ascender Sans (Ascender).
• Ascender Serif (Ascender).
• Ayita (2006, Ascender), a decorative sans family co-designed with Jim Ford.
• Bertham Pro (2009, Ascender). Four styles including Open, after Goudy's Bertham.
• Bierstdat (2021). A sans typeface that could replace Calibri later in 2021 as Microdoft's go-to font in Microsoft 365 apps.
• Blueprint (1993).
• Binner Gothic (Monotype).
• Blueprint (Monotype).
• Cambria (Ascender).
• Carnero (2019, Monotype). Steve describes this sans family as a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair.
• Chicory (2006, Ascender). A calligraphic script face.
• (2010). A free family at Google Code that is metrically compatible with Courier New. See also OFL.
• Creepy (Ascender Corporation): a Halloween font designed with Carl Crossgrove.
• Curlz (1995, Monotype). Done with Carl Crossgrove, based on wrought iron on chairs.
• Dempster (2016, with Jim Ford at Ascender). The original iangular industrial design, by Jim Ford, goes back to 2010.
• Droid Sans Mono Pro (Ascender), Droid Sans Pro (Ascender), Droid Serif Pro (Ascender). and Droid Sans Mono: a font family designed in 2006-2007 by Steve Matteson at Ascender for Google's Android project, mobile phone software for handsets. Free download at CTAN.
• Dujour (2005, Ascender): an art deco revival of the 1930's typeface Independant by Joan Collette and Jos Dufour for Plantin. Compare with the free Independant by Apostrophic Labs.
• Endurance Pro (2009, Ascender): neo-grotesque sans. Endurance Pro Cond (Ascender).
• Facade (Monotype).
• Fineprint (Monotype). A design loosely based on his own penmanship ("on a good day"). Another Creative Alliance face.
• Friar Pro (2009, Ascender): Friar Pro is a revival of Frederic W. Goudy's "Friar" typeface. Goudy described this typeface design as a 'typographic solecism' as it combines a lowercase of half-uncial forms from the 4th through 7th centuries with an uppercase of square capitals from the 4th century. Friar was originally designed in 1937 and used to print a Christmas keepsake produced by Goudy and printer Howard Coggeshall. The fire that burned Goudy's studio in 1939 destroyed the drawings and matrices before many metal fonts were cast. Of all that was lost in the fire, Goudy once said he missed Friar the most.
• Futura Now (2020: a 107-style family by Steve Matteson, Terrance Weinzierl, Monotype Studio and Juan Villanueva, that includes variable fonts as well as subfamilies called Text, Display, Headline, Inline, Outline, Shadow and Script).
• Georgia Pro (Ascender).
• Gill Floriated Caps.
• Goudy Fleurons (2010, Ascender).
• Goudy Modern MT (Monotype).
• Goudy Ornate (2002). Unsure if Matteson made this or Carl Crossgrove.
• Kennerley. Based on Goudy's Kennerley family.
• Kidprint (Monotype).
• Kootenay (2006, Ascender), a sans family.
• LeBeau (Ascender): a signage font.
• Liberation Mono, Sans and Serif (2007-2009, Ascender). A set of free open source fonts done for Red Hat Inc.
• Lindsey Pro (2006, Ascender): a cursive script based on his niece's hand.
• Louisville Script (2008, Ascender): ordinary handwriting.
• Massif (2006-2011, Monotype). Odd name, since Jean Joveneaux made a font called Massif in 1957. How can Monotype get away with a trademark for this is beyond me.
• Mayberry (2008, Ascender): a 14-font sans family with extremely large x-height and strange proportions. Mayberry semibold is free. Mayberry Pro (Ascender).
• McZee, a Microsoft symbols font.
• Miramonte Pro (2006, Ascender). A geometric-meets-humanist sans after the typeface Marsuv Grotesk by Stanislav Marso at Grafotechna, 1960.
• Open Sans (2010, Ascender). A free family by Steve Matteson. See also at Google Fonts. In 2021, he added the rounded companion, Open Sans Soft (20 styles).
• Overpass and Overpass Mono (2011-2019), designed by Delve Withrington, Dave Bailey, and Thomas Jockin. A free open source sans font. The design of Overpass is an interpretation of the well-known Highway Gothic letterforms from the Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices published by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration in 1948. It was created for Red Hat Inc. Dedicated web page. Link at Delve Fonts.
• Newstyle. Based on Goudy's 1921 typeface, Newstyle. See also Newstyle (2018, Steve Matteson).
• Pericles Pro (2005, Ascender): an Ascender typeface based on the work of Robert Foster who created the original for American Type Founders in 1934), a 433-glyph OpenType font for Greek simulation or stone cut looks.
• Pescadero Pro (2005, Ascender),
• Pescadero Pro: a serif face.
• Rockwell Team (Ascender): an athletic lettering face.
• Rebus Script (2009, Ascender): done with Terry Weinzierl.
• Scooter Script (2009, Ascender): comic book style face.
• Segoe Chess (Ascender), Segoe Mono (Ascender), Segoe TV (1997-2004, Ascender: done for MSNTV).
• Tinos (2010). A free serif family at Google Fonts that is metrically compatible with Times New Roman. Download at CTAN, where one also finds TeX support maintained by Bob Tennent. Nerd Fonts patch.
• Tipperary eText (2012-2013), Monotype.
• Titanium Motors (2012, Monotype), Titanium (2006, Ascender): techno typefaces.
• Truesdell (1994, Monotype): a revival and extension of the "lost" Goudy types cut in 1931. Also at Creative Alliance. Also includes Truesdell Sorts.
• Tucker Script (2009, Ascender): ordinary handwriting face.
• Twentieth Century Poster (2002), an art deco display font straight from the late 1920s.
• VAG Rounded Next (2018, Monotype). Developed under the direction of Steve Matteson, this revival of the 1979 classic corporate font of Volkswagen AG has new weights and adds support for Greek and Cyrillic. The MyFonts site co-lists Tom Grace as designer.
• Verdorgia (2010): an ugly duckling.

Klingspor link. Fontspace link. View Steve Matteson's typefaces.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Steve Matteson
 [Designer info]
Monotype link
Fontspace page
Klingspor Museum page
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INTERNAL LINKS
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