Matthew Carter Donald Wu
M
atthew Carter is known for designing the typeface Bell Centennial for AT&T’s telephone directories in 1976. The predecessor of Bell Centennial was Bell Gothic, which was originally designed by Chauncey H. Griffith in 1937 for the Bell Company’s telephone directories. The company was using the Linotype machine as their printing method until the Cathode Ray Typesetting(CRT) was introduced to them as the more technological way of printing. Being that the Bell Gothic type was designed specially for the Linotype, the transition from metal to photo setting affected the legibility and quality of the prints. The light weight of the Bell Gothic broke apart because it was too thin and sometimes the letters eroded completely at the intersections of its straight and curved strokes. For a short period, the printers tried to compensate the illegibility of the letters by over inking the printing plates, but instead the strokes of each character ran into each other and distorted the looks of some letters. It was also costing printing time and production money. Carter noticed the flaws of the Bell Gothic typeface with the CRT and took the opportunity to design a more legible typeface to accommodate small print
1937-Present
on low quality paper. Ever since, The Bell Centennial has been used by AT&T in their telephone directories. Matthew Carter was also known for creating the Verdana typeface in 1996, specifically for on-screen use. Resolution of a computer screen became an important factor when transitioning type on paper into digital rendering. As a result, the letterforms looked blocky and the integrity of the type was affected. Carter was aware of the coarseness in the screen compared to print. During the late 70’s and the early 80’s, digital imaging techniques were on the rise. Around that time, Carter joined Bitstream, a company with the purpose of designing typefaces for on-screen use. After about 11 years, he decided to start his own type foundry, in which he partnered with Cherrie Cone to establish Carter & Cone in 1992. The Verdana project started because Carter an his partner had the altruistic idea to enhance the on-screen experience for the people. Unlike Truetype and Postscript typeface that were created using outlines, Carter started the creation of Verdana with bitmap. After much experimentation in figuring out the effectiveness of the typeface’s application, Carter finally outlined around the bitmaps.
Grotesque sans-serif font Bell Gothic.
A poster for the Verdana typeface.
50
The Type of Time: Matthew Carter