Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 5-1-1999 Matthew Carter: Reflects on type design Phyllis Hoffman Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Hoffman, Phyllis, "Matthew Carter: Reflects on type design" (1999). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Matthew Carter: Reflects On Type Design By: Phyllis R. Hoffinan A thesis project submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree ofMaster ofScience in the School ofPrinting Management and Science in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences of the Rochester Institute ofTechnology May 1999 Thesis Advisor: Professor Archie Provan School ofPrinting Management and Sciences Rochester Institute ofTechnology Rochester, New York Certificate ofApproval Master's Thesis This is to certify that the Master's Thesis of Phyllis R. Hoffman With a major in Graphic Arts Publishing Option has been approved by The Thesis Committee as satisfactory for the thesis Requirement for the Master ofScience Degree At the Convocation of May 1999 Thesis Committee: C. Harold Gaffin Thesis Advisor Marie Freckleton Graduate Program Coordinator C. Harold Gaffin Director or Designate Phyllis R. Hoffman May 1999 Matthew Carter: Reflects On Type Design I, Phyllis R. Hoffman, hereby request that the Wallace Memorial Library ofthe Rochester Institute ofTechnology, (RTT) contact me each time someone wishes to reproduce my thesis in whole or in part without my written permission. I may be reached at 2052 Main Street, East; Rochester, NY 14609; Telephone 654-5502; E-Mail: prho623@ RIT.edu May 1999 111 Dedication A very special thank you to my five wonderful children: Warren, Russell, Franklin, William and Judson iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their assistance in providing support for this Thesis Project. Director: Hal Gaffin, Professor Marie Freckleton, Professor Archie Provan. Thank you Bernie and Jim Lachman, and Valerie Cole who supplied me with a transcription machine. A special thank you to Professor David Pankow who helped me track down some ofthe typefaces ofMatthew Carter. Table ofContents Abstract x List ofFigures xi Chapter i Introduction i Chapter 2 Public School Years and Charterhouse 2 Chapter 3 Enschede, in Haarlem in the Netherlands Jan van Krimpen 7 Chapter 4 Back Home to Britain 9 Chapters London and Free Lancing 11 Chapter 6 Design Studios in America 14 Mergenthaler Linotype 17 Chapter 7 Back to Free Lancing in London 19 Crosfield Electronics, Lumatype 540 Photon 10 Paris: Deberny et Peignot 19 Adrian Fruitger 20 Roger Excoffon 22 Advice to Students 24 vi Table ofContents (continued) Chapter 8 Linotype 27 Mike Parker and a Partnership Born 27 Linofilm, Linotype 28 Brooklyn Heights 30 Chapter 9 Mom and Aunt Peg 33 The Influence ofWorld War II 37 Chapter 10 Cherie Cone, Partner in Carter & Cone 40 Matthew returns to London from 1971 to 1981 41 A Union Shop 41 Typographic Explosion During the Seventies 44 Chapter n The Founding ofBitstream 48 Scitex and Camex 54 First Digital Type Foundry 56 Fifty Faces for Scitex and the DRUPA Trade Show 62 Chapter 12 The Bitstream Debacle 65 The Adobe Challenge 67 Bitstream Challenges Hewlett-Packard 69 The Font Bureau 73 Chapter 13 A new Company is Formed: Carter & Cone 75 vn Table ofContents (continued) Chapter 14 Digital Punchcutters 88 The Art of Design 92 QuarkXPress and Fontographer 92 Digital Data 99 Chapter 15 The Galliard Saga in Chapter 16 The Mantegne Story 20 Chapter 17 Typography 122 Chapter 18 Scripts other than Latin 128 Greek 128 Cyrillic 137 The Exotic Typefaces ofIndia 141 Native American Languages 147 Morisawa International Typeface Design Competition 149 Japan 153 vin Table ofContents (continued) Chapter 19 Design by Commitee - The Walker Art Center 156 Chapter 20 What's ahead for Matthew Carter? 174 Summary 179 Bibliography 180 Appendices 181 Appendix A 182 Appendix B 184 IX Abstract This project is an oral history about the type designer Matthew Carter. Through questions Matthew Carter's thoughts and ideas on type design have been explored. The resultant dialogue was recorded as an oral history ofMatthew Carter. There are video and audio tapes along with the written project. The purpose ofthis research is to determine how Matthew Carter approaches designing letterforms as technology changes. A discussion follows in which Carter's core philosophy ofletterform design is defined; his ideals and perception oftype design, and any significant trends anticipated in the future ofletterform design. The theoretical basis for this study is the changing technology and how or ifit affects typeface design. A List of References is included as Appendix A. Based upon this review, no one has explored the idea ofhow type design has changed over time, from hot metal typesetting, through phototypesetting, to the age ofdigital typesetting. There are many surprises as Matthew Carter explained how his approach to type design has changed little over the period. The method in which one could set type has changed opening the way to new possibilities. Methodology included study of all ofMatthew Carter's typefaces, formulation of relevant questions, travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts to interview Matthew Carter and record the interviews on both audio and video media. Questions ofImportance include Matthew Carter's early years in printing, his professional life, the present and the future oftypeface design. The appendices contain a list of all ofthe type faces designed by Matthew Carter. Chapter i Introduction Interview with Matthew Carter Interview Date: March 16 and March 17, 1997 We are seated in the elegently understated living room ofMatthew Carter. There is a cityscape enlarged from a sepia 17th century book on perspective on the wall behind us, a Centaur type face specimen by Bruce Rogers resting comfortably on the table beside him. We are about to interview the renouned type designer Matthew Carter. Cherie Cone, a colleague ofMatthew Carter's, will be joining us later. The interviewer is a student from the Rochester Institute ofTechnology (RIT) and is doing this interview as a part of completion ofher Master of Science Thesis. Question: The Interviewer Phyllis Hoffman will appear as PH Response: The Interviewee Matthew Carter will appear MC Response: The Interviewee Cherie Cone will appear CC The reason we chose Matthew Carter is that his career as a designer oftype has spanned over forty years. From the last days ofhot metal to the present day, he has been reconciling type design with changing technology. Through a series of questions that were posed to him, his thoughts on the business of type design, how type design has changed artistically, structurally and materially over the period and how the technology itself has affected letterform construction is presented. In 1956 at the age of 19, when hot metal typesetting was at its zenith, Matthew Carter studied type design with P.H. Raedisch, an assistant to the Dutch type designer Jan van Krimpen in the type foundry of Enschede, Haarlem, The Netherlands. While there he meticulously studied punchcutting underRaedisch. edge again of new font as he is Today he is on the cutting technology designing screen fonts for Microsoft. Let's listen to what he has to say: List ofFigures Figure 1 Dante Semi-Bold Typeface 88 Figure 2 Sophia 188 Figure 3 Mantinia 189 Figure 4 Wiredbaum 190 Figure 5 Caslon 190 Figure 6 Helvetica 191 Figure 7 Walker 191 Figure 8 Bell Centennial 192 Figure 9 Century Schoolbook Greek 194 Figure 10 Optimia Greek with H. Zapf. 194 Figure 11 Souvenir 194 Figure 12 Georgia 195 Figure 13 Hebrew Script 195 Figure 14 Devanagari 196 XI List ofFigures (continued) Figure 15 Hebrew Script 195 Figure 16 Sunkin-tai 197 Figure 17 Bitstream Charter 198 Figure 18 Video 198 Figure 19 Auriga 199 Figure 20 Snell Roundhand 199 Figure 21 Baskerville 200 Figure 22 Alisal 200 Figure 23 Bitstream Elephant 200 Figure 24 Cascade 201 Figure 25 Icelandic 201 Figure 26 Verdana 201 xn Chapter 2 Public School Years and Charterhouse PH: Could you talk a littie bit about your childhood? In London, where you grew up? MC: My father was a typographer, both a practical typographer and also, particularly toward the end ofhis life, an historian oftype and typography. So, I grew up in that world. I grew up with books about printing, and history of printing, about typography. I suppose I just kind of absorbed an interest in that from my father and other friends ofhis who were in the same business. I went to an ordinary school and while I was at school, I had some interest in printing and graphic design I was lucky in that there was a very fine art master at my school who rather encouraged me and others to take an interest in art in the broader sense. It was a well equipped studio and so, I did get interested in letters, lettering and hand writing. This was at a time in the early fifties when I was in school. There was a revival in italic handwriting and I got rather drawn into that. I did one or two bits, I'm sure, ofvery amateurish lettering for the school magazine. PH: What was the name of the school? MC: The name ofthe school was Charterhouse. It's what is known in England as a public school, which means exactly the opposite. PH: It's a private school. MC: Ifs a private school, it's one ofthe older schools in England. I don't think that it school when was there but it was blessed with a was a particularly good I having good art department.