Typeface Lift Underway for Georgia, Verdana

Georgia and Verdana are getting a face lift. Commissioned by Microsoft in the mid-1990s as ideal for on-screen display, the typeface families were designed by Matthew Carter and hinted for screen legibility by Tom Rickner of Ascender Corporation. Now Carter, Ascender, and Font Bureau are working with Microsoft on a project to expand and enhance Georgia (once described by Microsoft’s Simon Earnshaw as “effectively the more generous cousin of Tahoma”) and Verdana (conceived as “a serif alternative to Times”) for new applications, both on the screen and on the page. Look for new weights and widths as well as extended character sets. “The new additions to the font families are a natural and timely progression,” noted Carter in a statement released by Ascender. “They offer a wider range of typographic versatility…while remaining consistent with the originals.” The first of the new fonts will be released early next year.

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