Born in 1937 in London, Matthew Carter is the son of the typography historian Harry Carter. He learned punchcutting at the Enschedé foundry in the Netherlands, then worked for Linotype, before co-founding Bitstream in 1981, one of the first digital type foundries, and then Carter & Cone in 1991.
Vision
Carter has always seen typography as a response to a precise technical constraint: the telephone directory, the low-resolution screen, large display sizes. He has worked through every technology, from lead type to digital, adapting his design to each one.
Works
His work includes Snell Roundhand, Bell Centennial for AT&T phone directories, Galliard, Charter, Big Caslon and Miller, as well as Verdana, Georgia and Tahoma for Microsoft.
Legacy
He is one of the most influential type designers of the 20th century, and his screen typefaces shaped reading on the web for decades. In 2010 he received a MacArthur Fellowship, one of the most prestigious American distinctions.